Xavier Johnte’ Smith is a teen killer from Texas who was sixteen years old when he shot and killed a sixteen year old boy. According to court documents Xavier Johnte’ Smith would fatally shoot sixteen year old Kaden Barrick at Marshall City Park. Documents would show Kaden Barrick was shot in the neck while giving his friend a ride. Xavier Johnte’ Smith would be arrested, charged with capital murder and later convicted. A judge would sentence the teen killer to 35 years in prison.
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Xavier Johnte’ Smith, 17, of Marshall has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the Feb. 12, 2022 murder of 16-year-old Kaden Barrick at Marshall City Park.
The defendant, Xavier Johnte’ Smith, was sentenced last Thursday in the 71st Judicial District Court after pleading guilty.
According to Smith’s indictment, on Feb. 12, the defendant caused the death of Barrick by shooting the teen with a firearm. The indictment goes on to say that with intent to cause serious bodily injury to the victim, Smith committed an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death of Barrick by shooting him.
In addition to murder, Smith was also indicted, at the time, for the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity. The indictment indicates that, on Feb. 12, Smith committed the offense of murder as a member of the criminal street gang “SRT.”
Concerning the offense of “riot participation,” the indictment indicates that, on Feb. 12, Smith participated in a riot, which is an assemblage of seven or more persons, resulting in conduct that created an immediate danger of injury to a person, namely fighting. The indictment goes on to say that while engaged in the riot, Smith committed the offense of murder, which offense should have been anticipated as a result of the assembly, or the offense was committed in the furtherance of the purpose of the riot.
The defendant, Smith, who just celebrated his 17th birthday this past March, was a 16-year-old when the shooting occurred.
At the time of his Feb. 16 arrest, his name was withheld due to his age. The Marshall Police Department had reported at the time that the shooting left one juvenile dead and another injured.
The deceased victim, Barrick, was a former student at Texas Early College High School, before leaving the school earlier this year when he lost his grandmother, his mother Tori Cerda, told the News Messenger previously.
The day of the shooting, police were called around 11:34 p.m. for reports that a person had been shot. When officers and paramedics arrived, they found a 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to his neck. The victim was later declared dead from his injuries.
Barrick just happened to be giving his friend a ride to City Park, when he was fatally shot, his mother noted before
The police department thanked the United States Marshal’s Service, Longview Police Department and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in the arrest of the suspect, who has now been identified as Smith.
“Those agencies worked in cooperation with the Harrison County Violent Crimes and Narcotics Task Force and Marshall Police Department detectives to locate the suspect and bring him into custody,” MPD Lt. Len Ames said, at the time of the defendant’s arrest.