A Seal Beach murder case that alleges constitutional rights violations is now under scrutiny due to the Orange County jail informant scandal. The case has been reassigned to a judge in San Diego County.
On September 7, a 409-page motion was filed against Paul Gentile Smith, who claims that Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, the prosecutor of the murder case, used jailhouse informants that could potentially taint almost 100 cases. The reassignment to San Diego County Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein was ordered by Orange County Superior Court presiding Judge Maria Hernandez.
Smith’s retrial will now be heard by Judge Goldstein in San Diego County.
Two years ago, Smith’s previous conviction was overturned just before an evidentiary hearing on alleged misconduct by a sheriff’s investigator. In August 2022, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against Smith, which he had previously pleaded guilty to for allegedly soliciting an attack on Orange County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Raymond Wert in connection to the murder case.
Baytieh, the prosecutor in Smith’s case, was fired by District Attorney Todd Spitzer in February 2022. The firing came after accusations of misconduct in Smith’s case forced Spitzer’s office to agree to a retrial. Baytieh was also criticized in a Department of Justice report last year due to the informant scandal in the case of Scott Dekraai, the county’s worst mass killer.
Baytieh failed to disclose information about an informant used in Smith’s case to the defense attorneys during his first trial. Subsequently, sheriff’s investigators stated that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination if called to testify in an evidentiary hearing. This further contributed to the decision to pursue a retrial for Smith.
Smith’s attorney, Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, is seeking an evidentiary hearing to dismiss the charges against his client based on outrageous governmental conduct. Sanders accuses prosecutors and sheriff’s investigators of illegally using jailhouse informants to extract incriminating information from Smith that was later used against him in court.
While informants can be legally used to gather incriminating information in certain cases, it is not permissible once defendants are represented by an attorney, as was the situation with Smith. Sanders also alleges that investigators withheld evidence of informant use from Smith’s defense team during his 2010 trial.
Smith is accused of murdering Robert Haugen in Sunset Beach on October 24, 1988.
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