Law&Crime Sidebar - Handcuffed Mom Drowns in Cop Car After Rookie Deputy Crashed into River While Texting

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Tabby Smith, a 35-year-old mother of two, had just been detained by Deputy RJ Leonard on February 14 when the deputy accidentally drove his patrol car into the Tennessee River. Deputy Leonard, who graduated from the police academy in December, had just texted his wife about making his first arrest. Smith was found covered in mud and still handcuffed in the submerged vehicle. Deputy Leonard’s body was recovered later outside the car. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the terrifying story with Brookford, North Carolina Police Chief Will Armstrong.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A terrifying and sad story out of Tennessee, a deputy making his first arrest, goes off the road, straight into a river, killing himself and the suspect handcuffed in the back. We're taking a closer look at the circumstances and who the victims were with Brookford, North Carolina Police Chief Will Arbor. strong. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Such a sad development out in Tennessee. We have this 35-year-old rookie cop. He just achieved his dream of becoming a police officer, and now he was found dead near his patrol car in the Tennessee River in the Birchwood area just after making his first arrest. And this is not even

the only sad part about this case. The suspect that he had arrested was handcuffed and essentially trapped in the back of the car, submerged in the water. She's dead as well. This is absolutely terrible. Let's talk about it and explain what happened. So Robert R.J. Leonard, a father of five, had graduated from the Academy in December. He took a position with the Megs County Sheriff's Office as a deputy. But now you fast forward to February 14th, Valentine's Day. And Leonard's wife posted photos to Facebook to celebrate the holiday, but hours later, her husband would be missing. This, after he had just sent her a text saying he made his first first. arrest. Here's Attorney General Russell Johnson, explaining how before he disappeared, Leonard

responded to a scene to make that first arrest and how he ultimately didn't check in. What we know is that he arrived on the scene at 948 p.m. on Wednesday evening, and he indicated that he was on scene. Three minutes later at 9.51, and he indicated 1015 that he was en route with a subject back to the Megs County Jail. It's my understanding from this area. There's various ways you can get back to the Meigs County Jail. We'll note that, as you might have discovered, cell phone service in this neck of the woods, so to speak, is not good, and as radio communications are not, as we found out here tonight in our effort to try to locate him. So within three minutes, he was turned around and coming back. The next communication happened approximately 12 minutes later at 10.03, and there was a radio communication that came out,

And dispatch couldn't tell what he was saying or what he had said. And it took a while and some analytics to go into play for us to see what was being or try to understand what was being said. And we think he was saying water. At the very same time, he was also texting his wife. It's my understanding he sent a one word text that said arrest. Evidently, I'm learning this is his first arrest. His wife texted back and said, that's good or that's great. we know that he did not receive his phone did not evidently receive that text so those two things

happened at the same time so dispatch at that point started doing a status check and every deputy or officer that was out checked in said 10-4 they're okay but not deputy Leonard so very chilling stuff right there particularly how these electronic communications can kind of tell us the story but before we go any further let me bring in once again to hear on sidebar will armstrong Brookford Police Chief in North Carolina. Will, so great to have you back on here. Thanks for taking the time. So first, that's typical, right?

The check-in or the status checks with dispatch, maybe at ends of shifts at the end of the night. Yeah, absolutely. Anytime an officer usually is on any kind of scene, especially in my area, they're going to get a status check from communications. When you check out on a scene, they're going to check on you. Some places have automatic timers built into their systems and stuff. They may check on you every two minutes.

Traffic stops. They may check on you every 30 seconds. In this case, it sounds like he was en route to the jail and they lost transmission with him. And so obviously they're going to start checking on him just to see what's going on. It's very good, like you said, that they had this electronic log to kind of keep a timeline on what took place. And I appreciate you saying that it's not normal for someone to not check in, which is a good thing because you know something might be in trouble, someone might be in trouble, particularly in your profession. You mentioned the data. So through his cell phone, authorities were able to track Leonard down by the river.

And then these search teams, they end up finding his patrol car submerged in the water at the end of this old ferry ramp. It's our understanding it had been used in the last few decades by locals as a place to put boats into the Tennessee River. And the person that Deputy Leonard arrested, identified as mother of two Tabitha Smith, was still handcuffed inside, essentially trapped in the back. Reports indicate that she was covered in mud when she was found in the water. Her family says that she had been battling drug addiction but was trying to turn her life around. It's unclear exactly why she was taken into custody. Will, I mean, we talk about the death of Leonard, which we'll get into in a little bit more. But what happened to her?

That is so sad, thinking about her death, how terrifying that must have been for her handcuffed and essentially drowning. Right. I mean, that is the worst possible outcome that you could ever want for when you're transporting someone. I mean, when you put it that way, because she had not a fighting chance if she's handcuffed in the back seat of the patrol vehicle, she can't get free. And so you're right. She ultimately drowned the death and didn't even have a chance to even attempt to break free. And to be clear, I mean, I should have correct. We don't know 100% what the cause of death is, but I think we're assuming based on the circumstances here about what might have happened. Real quick about that, it was proper protocol here for her to be handcuffed in the vaccine. That's typical, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Most agencies have a policy in place that if you're going to be transported in any police vehicle, they want you to be handcuffed. A lot of agencies can't even transport civilians around in that case without being handcuffed, just because it's for an officer safety standpoint. But if you're a prisoner and you're going to the jail, absolutely, it's standard protocol to be handcuffed. And that's just for our safety. It's also for their safety so that we don't know they're messing around with anything and we don't get the worries. And as for Deputy Leonard, this, he wasn't in the car.

So they find her, but they find Smith, but they don't find Deputy Leonard. And while the search for Leonard was ongoing, there was this hope that he might be found alive outside the water. They didn't immediately find him. And at the news conference, before Leonard's body was ultimately located, the sheriff was quite emotional. Deputy Leonard had been on the force for about two months. He graduated to start out of academy and got his training. And we put him on a night shift, and he was doing a pretty good job. He's doing a real good job.

And it's just, I don't know. It's just hard when the department is just like a family, and we just, I hope things are different. I pray it is. But ultimately, and sadly, Leonard's body was recovered by the Meigs County EMS and rescue squad with the help of dive teams. His remains were transported to a regional medical examiner's office, escorted by members of multiple agencies, and the impact on his colleagues was apparent. Our time for us here. Forget me.

Something we don't ever deal with here in Mex County. We're a small rural county. We're not used to it. Deputy Leonard had only been here for a couple months. That he became part of our family. And that's an important point, though, Will, right? Like the idea of A, how new he was to the job, right? It had just started here.

It was his dream. How young he was. But B, it is a family. And this is a tremendous loss to those around him. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so difficult. I think some people don't quite realize when, you're in law enforcement capacity, you've got to operate a radio and you're operating sirens

and your computers and all this stuff now with technology being advanced as it is. So you're constantly having to mess with electronics, but in this case, you know, he has cell phones through that into the mix and unfortunate circumstances happen. So we have to go through annual kind of refreshers drivers training every year. And what we talk about through some of that is just making sure that our electronics are kind of secondary that what we're focused on on as a road because even when we're responding and we're just going to know another topic but you respond in emergency traffic you got so many things GPS is all this stuff now it's hard it's not as easy as it seems to be so you never and he was new to the area is my understanding

that's another let's talk about that because the area that deputy leonard was driving is considered dangerous if you're not familiar with it especially it's rural it's dark it has these sharp curves the boat ramp is near where one would turn to take the bridge across the river so it is possible that maybe Leonard turned too soon. It's also possible that he could have been distracted by the message that he sent his wife. We can't confirm that. We just don't know.

D.A. Johnson did say, quote, we're operating under the theory that it was an accident, that he missed his turn. He wasn't familiar and he was doing other things that may have caused him to go underwater. There's skid marks and some scratch marks, too. So there's some indication that he was on the brakes, at least trying to stop.

So it sounds like, you know, just an unfortunate accident. And Johnson also said that this isn't the first time that cars have ended up in the water at this boat ramp, a local judge who grew up in the area and was present in what of the news conferences said, it's something they need to look at. It's probably been open

because it's such a good place to put the boats in. But I think we need some sort of device maybe before you get down to the boat landing to the water that will make people stop and then maybe more around it to put their boat in. More rumble strips, perhaps. It has one small set and then just the one sign. That's about all there is.

So, Will, it sounds like this was a terrible accident. I know online there has been a rush to say that he was distracted, driving, texting his wife. There is evidence, as again, he sent this message. She wrote him back. He didn't respond to it. We know earlier that there was possibly him trying to get out a message through his dispatch that he was saying water. you're hearing about the skid marks, but it sounds by all accounts that this was just a

terrible, terrible unfortunate set of circumstances. Yeah, and I'm familiar. I've done a lot of traffic enforcement and a lot of, work, a lot of wrecks. The fact that there's skid marks, I mean, that's going to go ahead and tell you that he saw what he did see that there was danger there, but he put the brakes on, which is, which is good, but it might have been too late. One of the great things about these accidents, and when they have reconstructionists come in, And those are guys that are law enforcement experts that come in and they can look at this scene and usually piece back together exactly what happened.

And the way they do that is they're going to measure the skid marks. They're going to look for any other marks that may be in the ground such as gouge marks. They're going to look and see how far it was from the scene. And they can estimate speed based off of the skid marks and where the vehicles at. They also can look at things like airbag control modules and stuff inside of the vehicles, especially with the newer vehicles. And those things can tell you things that you may not even realize as far as if your phone is connected to these things now. It can tell you if there was a text message open. It can tell you if there was something that had happened.

So they're going to likely be able to piece together exactly what happened with time. These reconstructions that will come back and ultimately place this accent, they'll be able to give you a better time frame in what it was looking like at the time, as far as his cell phone and the electronics based off of the airbag control module, based off of the airbags going off, based off of the skid marks and just the speed. And they'll be able to have a better understanding. I think time will just allow that as they continue their investigation. I agree. I will tell you what we know now, and that is that two people died, and it was a senseless death.

So these two people should not have. They really, this was just a tragic situation. And it's, you have two families, you have two families who lost loved ones. And they're never going to be the same. It's really a sad case. It's really a sad case. It's really a really sad case. And I wish it didn't happen. But Will Armstrong, thank you so much for. coming on really appreciate your insight we'd love to have you back here on sidebar if you have a time absolutely thank you so much for having me i enjoyed it okay everybody that is all we have for you right now here on this episode of sidebar thank you so much for joining us we always really appreciate it and please subscribe on apple podcast spotify youtube wherever you get your podcast i'm jesse weber i'll speak to you next time You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.