A jury yesterday found 39-year-old Jeffery Brian Smith not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Remzi Nesfield, who was reported missing in 2007.
After the verdict was read, Smith was ordered to be released from custody immediately and his criminal records be sealed.
Nesfield’s skeletal remains were found by a hiker in a remote wooded area in Cotopaxi in September of 2016.
Interviews with Nesfield’s family and friends in 2018 led Fremont County detectives to Smith, who was living in Arizona.
Smith told authorities that he had been helping Nesfield with his drug operation and he went to Denver to return a bag to Nesfield and to tell him that he no longer wanted to be involved. He said Nesfield began “freaking out” on him.
Smith told investigators that he shot Nesfield, “one time in the back of the head” inside a Denver garage in early 2007 after Nesfield allegedly threatened to kill Smith’s mother and father.
A former roommate of Smith’s, Christopher Ross, testified Monday that Smith told him of his fear of being killed by Nesfield. “Absolutely, on multiple occasions, he expressed that he felt like he didn’t have a choice of what he was doing or being made to do around the drugs and the illegal activities that he was being forced by Nesfield to participate in. He certainly felt his life was at risk and in jeopardy if he didn’t comply with his demands and he felt like he potentially would be killed for it.”
The family of Nesfield said in a statement to the Daily Record that they were disappointed with not only the verdict but with how the trial was handled, specifically prosecutor Liz Drake. “We are very unhappy with the verdict. We don’t understand how the jury could find it self-defense when Remzi was leaning over and got shot in the back of the head.”
