BREAKING: Smith Found Guilty in 2015 Cheyenne Coin Shop Murders
Almost 10 years ago to the day that two men were gunned down at The Coin Shop in downtown Cheyenne, the man charged with their murders has been found guilty.
After four days of testimony and a day of deliberating, a Laramie County jury on Friday afternoon, July 18, found 69-year-old Douglas Mark Smith guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.
Case Background
The horrific murders happened around 9:30 a.m. on July 20, 2015, just blocks from the Depot Plaza where a Cheyenne Frontier Days pancake breakfast was winding down.
Large crowds were circulating through the area when police say they received a 911 call from Smith stating an armed robbery was taking place.
Officers arrived to find the shop owner, 67-year-old Dwight M. Brockman, and his friend, 76-year-old George "Doc" Manley, dead from single gunshot wounds to the head.
Smith told Detective John Pederson, who has since retired from the force, that he was coming into work late that day and needed to go to The Coin Shop because he had reading material to drop off to a regular customer.
Smith said when he entered The Coin Shop, he saw who he believed to be Manley lying on the ground, then looked up and saw a Hispanic male pilfering the safe.
He said the Hispanic male turned towards him, pointed a gun at him, and said, "Get out or I'll shoot."
Smith said he dropped the reading material and ducked behind a bookshelf in front of the doorway, then bent over and picked up the reading material, ran out the door, got into his car, and called 911.
Police at the time never thought to check Smith or his car for a gun and once it was determined that no one was seen fleeing the scene that matched Mr. Smith's description of the Hispanic male, Smith was never looked at as a suspect.
The investigation remained open, but it wasn't until late 2022, when Detective James Pendleton was handed the case, that he was able to establish a timeline showing that Smith was the only one at The Coin Shop when the murders occurred.
On June 25, 2024, detectives, with help from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Smith at his home in McCloud, California on a warrant alleging two counts of first-degree murder.
The Trial
Smith's attorney, Rob Oldham, argued that the evidence presented at trial "wasn't much beyond speculation and conjecture," as nobody saw his client go in or out of The Coin Shop.
But Deputy Laramie County District Attorney Bill Edelman said, "There's only evidence to establish there were three people in that shop, Mr. Brockman. Mr. Manley, and the defendant and ... there's only one that's still alive."
Following the verdict, Smith was remanded to the custody of the Laramie County Sheriff's Office pending sentencing at a later date.
Smith has 30 days to file an appeal.
Closure
Police in a Facebook post at 4:54 p.m. thanked the jury and the D.A.'s Office for their work.
"After nearly ten years, we are proud to help bring closure to the families and community members affected by this tragedy. Cases like this can be very challenging with many layers of evidence. Our detectives have been diligently working for almost a decade and have been able to thoughtfully re-examine the evidence in ways that brought the person responsible to justice," the post reads.