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Father charged in death of son, 2

Man turns self in, released on bail in Carter Lake incident

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 18, 2006 at midnight

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The Larimer County District Attorney's Office filed felony child abuse charges Thursday against Gil Smith in the death of his 2-year-old son last month at Carter Lake.

An arrest warrant was issued, and Smith, 44, turned himself in about 5:45 p.m. Thursday, said Eloise Campanella, spokeswoman for the sheriff's department.

Smith posted $25,000 bail and was released, she said.

The toddler, Shay Smith, disappeared into the lake on July 15. His body has not been found, despite more than 1,800 hours of searching involving several dive teams from Colorado and elsewhere and the use of sonar cameras.

Boaters who saw the toddler fall off a tow tube pulled by Smith in his power boat contacted the marina, the sheriff's department said.

Smith told searchers that the child fell from the boat, not a tube, while trying to put a pop in a cup holder.

Smith, who was boating at up to 30 mph, was unable to show investigators where his son vanished into the lake, which is up to 150 feet deep, investigators said.

Linda Jensen, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said that Smith was charged with a Class 2 felony, knowingly or recklessly causing the death of a child.

If convicted, he faces a mandatory prison term of 16 to 48 years, she said.

Smith has faced other charges in several states, including a 1993 federal grand jury indictment in New Jersey for allegedly threatening to kill federal Postal Service employees.

Dave Hartnett, spokesman for the District of New Jersey federal courts, said that Smith pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison and three years of supervised parole.

Smith also was required to refrain from using alcohol or illegal drugs and to participate in a mental-health program.

Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said that Smith had been drinking while boating and that his 3-year-old son, Nicholas, was the only one watching Shay Smith on the tube before he disappeared, even though there was an adult passenger, Robert Venegas, aboard at the time.

The toddler weighed 25 pounds, but was wearing a life vest sized for a child of 30 to 50 pounds, Alderden said.