The Deschutes County Courthouse in Bend. 

Joshua Lawrence Smith, 41, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday after being convicted in Deschutes County Circuit Court of manslaughter for killing is mother during a domestic dispute in 2024.

Although Smith pled guilty on July 2 to the lesser charge of manslaughter, he was originally indicted by a grand jury on second-degree murder charges.

Smith was arrested after a concerned neighbor reported a domestic dispute on March 20, 2024. When police arrived, they found 59-year-old Janice Marie Smith critically injured. Officers performed lifesaving aid, but she was declared dead when medics arrived. At the time, Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels said it appeared her wounds were the result of blunt-force trauma.

Court documents indicate prosecutors and Smith agreed to the maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter. The sentence stipulates that Smith is not eligible for good time credits during the first decade of his sentence and at no point is he eligible for any alternative incarceration programs, work release programs or reduction in sentence programs. Smith must also pay $2,010 in restitution back to the Department of Justice.

The 20-year sentence is to be served consecutively with two other convictions, according to court documents, including criminal mistreatment for Smith’s failure to provide care and injury to his mother as an elderly person. For the criminal mistreatment conviction, Smith was sentenced to an additional two years and nine months. The third sentence to be served consecutively is for a conviction of harassment after Smith spit in a police officer’s face, for which Smith was sentenced to five years.

Between all three convictions, Smith was sentenced to a total of 27 years and nine months.

In 2018, Smith was convicted of second degree assault for hitting his mother in the head with a rock, for which he served three months in jail. He was then incarcerated again in 2019 for two and a half years for violating his parole.