CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Testimony stretches into a third day in the trial of Michael Smith, the Kanawha County man accused of murdering Jackson County resident Cheyenne Johnson and then dumping her body in a well near Sissonville.
Smith is charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a dead body, and the use of a firearm during a felony in connection with the death of Johnson, who was reported missing in 2021, and the investigation led to the home of Virginia Smith, with whom Michael Smith was in a relationship, where Michael Smith admitted to shooting and killing Johnson.
Further investigation led to the same charges being filed against Virginia Smith, and she pleaded guilty in 2023.
Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jonathan Coleman testified before Judge Kenneth Ballard to begin the day on Wednesday, describing the night that he was called to Virginia Smith’s home. Coleman explained he arrived on the scene and interviewed one of the potential witnesses to the crime while Jackson County Detective Seth Fisher spoke to Michael Smith, who ultimately confessed during that conversation.
Coleman and Fisher also interviewed Smith at the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department, in which Smith again admitted to shooting Johnson and hiding her body, as well as disposing of evidence, including a knife that he claimed Johnson used to attack Virginia Smith, Johnson’s shoe, and the rifle he used to kill Johnson.
The detective noted that investigators found inconsistencies between stories given by Michael Smith and Virginia Smith, while neither of their accounts gave any reason for the suspected knife wounds that were found on Johnson’s body during the autopsy.
A video recording of the interview at the sheriff’s department was played for the jury in which Michael Smith detailed his version of the events in which Johnson had taken one of Virginia Smith’s cars, and when she returned, a confrontation between the two women resulted in Johnson threatening Virginia Smith with the knife. He said that he physically tried to stop Johnson and, when he could not, shot her in the head.
Virginia Smith testified on Tuesday that she shot Johnson at Michael Smith’s direction and that she had changed her story multiple times because she was under the influence of drugs when the incident occurred. Michael Smith’s attorney, Robby Long, has argued that Virginia Smith shot Johnson and that Michael Smith confessed to the crime so that Virginia Smith would not lose custody of her children.