Verdict: Jury finds 2024 strip club shooter guilty of murder, attempted murder

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Breshawn Smith, 29, was found guilty as charged Friday of the Nov. 16, 2024 Showgirl 1 shooting, a rampage that took the life of 26-year-old Marialuz Margarita Munoz and wounded two men, Taurean Hayden and Benjamin Crance.

His charges were murder, two counts of attempted murder and criminal recklessness. Allen County prosecutors said Smith returned to the club at 3:11 a.m. with a friend, William Tolbert, driving the black Chevy Equinox that belonged to Smith's “baby mama.”

Breshawn Smith. His family still has questions, they said.

Smith jumped out of the vehicle with a rifle seen on video surveillance, albeit in blurry images, ran to the entry and fired at least 20 times, leaving that many .22 caliber shell casings on the ground, the prosecution said.

They identified Smith inside the club with two friends, Tolbert and Dillon Vachon, by his clothing - light blue jeans, a gray sweatshirt and red shoes, the same outfit he wore when he tore around the strip club. Both Tolbert and Vachon testified for the state.

Prior articles on the murder trial here:

https://www.theprobablecause.com/post/alleged-strip-club-gunman-sees-friends-testify-in-court-sort-of

https://www.theprobablecause.com/post/accused-strip-club-shooter-on-trial-this-week-for-2024-homicide

In closing arguments, the state and defense put forth plausible narratives or interpretations of the evidence.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tom Chaille, a master at chronicling evidence, paced the jury, opening with “we know what he did and why he did it.”

This was just after the jury viewed a taped, hour-long police interview with homicide detectives Liza Anglin and Luke MacDonald that Anglin called “ridiculous.”

Why ridiculous? Smith blamed the shooting on someone named Sebastian from Warsaw who no one was ever able to find. 

Smith said he returned to Showgirl 1 with said Sebastian and another person, but first Sebastian pulled him over at Superior and Wells streets and forced him at gunpoint to change his clothing from light blue trousers, a gray sweatshirt and red shoes to all black. If the jury believed that story, then they wouldn’t convict him.

MacDonald said it would have been impossible for Smith to leave the strip club, where he was seen inside on camera, take his friend Dillon Vachon to his father’s house on Avondale Drive, then schlep to his baby mama’s mobile home at County Court Estates on U.S. 27 and then switch clothing, all in 22 minutes.

The black Chevy Equinox that belonged to his girlfriend or baby mama, was tracked by surveillance cameras at Showgirl 1, the Rodeway Inn next door, on West Coliseum and on Goshen Road, the cameras picking up the Equinox and the license plate.

But Robert Scremin, Smith’s defense attorney, said those cameras were so blurry you couldn’t even tell the vehicle was a Chevy Equinox, nor, for the most part, could you see the license plate.

Scremin also had problems with the cameras at the club. No facial features were identifiable.

The only person who said he saw Smith with a gun - in this instance a .22 caliber rifle - was Tolbert, the driver of the Chevy Equinox when he and Smith returned to the club after the 22 minute interval, Scremin noted.

And Tolbert, who was initially charged with murder (acting in concert) and two counts of attempted murder, had more than enough reasons to cooperate and testify, Scremin said. Because of his testimony, Tolbert's charge dropped to aggravated battery (acting in concert.) He is to be sentenced Nov. 21.

Still, Chaille told the jury Smith wore light blue jeans, gray sweatshirt and red shoes when he was in the club starting at 1:15 a.m. until he abruptly left with Tolbert and Vachon at 2:50 a.m. after a brief conversation with Issac Green, another person whose recall was notably vague.  The man who jumped out of the Equinox with a rifle had on the same light blue jeans, gray sweatshirt and red shoes.

Green, who Scremin called the star of the investigation, said he didn’t even know Smith and couldn’t begin to remember what they had words about in the club.

Crance, from Michigan, initially told investigators that someone named “Jeff” who was Mexican shot him and then stopped cooperating with police.

“There’s no evidence that he possessed a gun,” Scremin insisted. “No DNA, no texts or calls to or from Breshawn Smith calling or coordinating (the shooting.)”

The rifle was never recovered, but deputy prosecutor Rachel Gschwend, who gave the final closing argument, said there’s nothing unusual in that. Why would you keep something like that around, anyway?

Smith’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 11. Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull presided over the trial.