Chattanooga: Brainerd man pleads guilty to smothering neighbor

A Brainerd man accused of smothering his neighbor after a fight over crack cocaine, leaving the 43-year-old woman dead in her apartment, pleaded guilty this morning to second-degree murder.

Roland Lorenza Smith Jr. will spend 15 years in prison in connection with the Sept. 9, 2007 death of Tonya Gladden at her Rustic Village apartment.

Mr. Smith was identified as a suspect early in the investigation, according to Sgt. Kirk Eidson, head of the Chattanooga Police Department’s homicide division.

“Witnesses saw him around there,” Sgt. Eidson said in 2007. “And he told us some things that just weren’t right, some things he probably shouldn’t have known.”

Major crimes investigators believe Mr. Smith killed Ms. Gladden between midnight and 2:30 a.m. in her apartment, number 510 B in the same Rustic Village Apartment complex, Sgt. Eidson said.

She was discovered there by her boyfriend, Ernest Hubbard, about 2:45 p.m., according to reports. Her television and some other items were reported missing, Sgt. Eidson said.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Noorbergen said the woman’s remains initially had not pointed to an obvious cause of death, but the Hamilton County medical examiner’s office determined that the victim died from neck compression and smothering.

Smothering cases are uncommon locally, according to Sgt. Eidson.

“Most killings are out of anger, where they grab a weapon,” he said. “This is more up close, on the personal side.”

The homicide was believed to have been motivated by an argument over “one particular crack rock,” Sgt. Eidson said.

See tomorrow’s Times Free Press for complete details.