Laquintta Turk Case: The Shooting, Verdict, and Victim

The Laquintta Turk case involved a Birmingham, Alabama woman who fatally shot 23-year-old Rosetia Smith during a parking lot confrontation on July 23, 2009. Turk, a concealed carry permit holder, argued she fired in self-defense. A Jefferson County jury rejected that claim in August 2010, convicting her of reckless murder, and she was sentenced that October to 18 years in prison.¹²

How Two Strangers Ended Up in the Same Parking Lot

Turk and Smith did not know each other. The fight belonged to other people. Lashan Catlin, an acquaintance of Turk’s, was angry with Tiffany Allen because Allen’s sister had a child with Catlin’s high school ex-boyfriend. On the evening of July 23, 2009, Catlin arranged to meet Allen to discuss the situation. Allen suggested a house; Catlin refused, suspecting a setup. The two groups agreed on a parking lot in the 100 block of 37th Avenue West in north Birmingham.¹

Turk was a passenger in Catlin’s car. Rosetia Smith, a friend of Allen’s with no personal stake in the underlying dispute, arrived with her boyfriend Cameron Marshall and her three children, all under six years old.¹

The Shooting

Witnesses said Smith drove past the lot several times before pulling in and profanely ordering the other group out of their car. Catlin got out, and a physical altercation followed. Marshall testified that Catlin slapped Smith through the car window. Other accounts described Smith’s car moving forward and dragging Catlin alongside it.¹

Turk then fired a single shot from a pistol she carried with a permit. The bullet struck Smith in the head. The shooting happened around 11 p.m., and Smith was pronounced dead at UAB Hospital. Her three children, ranging from seven months to six years old, were in the vehicle but were not physically harmed. Police said they may have been sleeping.¹³

Investigators searched Smith’s car afterward. They found no gun.¹

The Self-Defense Claim at Trial

Prosecutors originally charged Turk with capital murder. She remained free on bond until her August 2010 trial in Jefferson County Circuit Court.²

Turk testified she carried the pistol because she lived alone in a West End apartment and held a valid permit. She said she saw Marshall reach under the car seat and come up with something in his hand, feared it was a gun, and fired “to keep myself from being killed.” Under questioning, she conceded she was not certain the object was a gun. Catlin testified that Marshall had reached under the seat and threatened to shoot her, and witness Ta’sha Taylor said she also saw Marshall reach for something.¹

Marshall testified he was unarmed and had been trying to steer the car away from the passenger side when Turk fired. No weapon was recovered from Smith’s vehicle. Prosecutor Mike Philpott told the jury, “This is a case about a woman who brought a gun to a fist fight, and the tragedy that resulted.”¹

Verdict and Sentence

On August 11, 2010, the jury rejected both the capital charge and the self-defense claim, returning a verdict on the lesser included offense of reckless murder. Under Alabama Code Section 13A-6-2, reckless murder applies when a person, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, recklessly engages in conduct creating a grave risk of death and causes another person’s death.⁴⁵

On October 8, 2010, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail sentenced Turk to 18 years. She was taken into custody at the hearing. Murder is a Class A felony in Alabama, punishable by 10 to 99 years or life, so the sentence sat near the lower end of that range. A capital murder conviction would have carried life without parole or a death sentence.²⁵

Who Rosetia Smith Was

Rosetia “Tia” Smith was 23 when she was killed. She was the mother of three young children, Kristopher, David, and Braylin Smith, and the companion of Cameron Marshall. Her funeral was held on August 1, 2009, at Olivet Monumental Baptist Church in Birmingham, with burial at Zion Memorial Gardens. Friends and family remembered her smile and what one mourner described as her “jolly laugh.”⁶

1
AL.com. Laquintta Turk Guilty of Reckless Murder
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AL.com. Laquintta Turk Sentenced to 18 Years
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eNewsCourier. Alabama Mother of 3 Killed While in Car With Kids
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AL.com. Birmingham Woman Convicted of Reckless Murder
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FindLaw. Alabama Code Section 13A-6-2, Murder
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AL.com. Rosetia Smith Obituary