Patrick M. Smith
Spc U.S. Army
Convicted Sex Offender
Kidnap Rape And Murder Of A 2 Year Old Child
Name: Patrick M. Smith
Case: United States v. Smith No. 03-407 C
Date Of Appeal: December 15, 2003
Plea: Guilty
Charges: Kidnap, Rape And Murder Of A Child
Military Branch: U.S. Army
Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? NO
Case history:
Two-year-old Elora McKemy, daughter of a U.S. Army sergeant stationed in Babenhausen, Germany vanished from her family's apartment during the night of September 14, 1993. Her brutally abused body was found shortly after dawn near a gravel quarry. After an eight-month investigation, Spec. Patrick M. Smith, 22, pleaded guilty December 19, 1994 and was sentenced to life in prison. Tje case was solved with DNA from the victim matched to a mass collection of DNA from local soldiers.
In 1994, while serving with the United States Army in Germany, Mr. Smith was court-martialed
and convicted after having pled guilty to charges of kidnaping, rape, and murder of Elora McKemy, age 2.. See Smith v. Commandant, 48 Fed. Appx. 712 (10th Cir. 2002).
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and reduction in rank; given a dishonorable discharge; and ordered to pay a substantial monetary fine to the United States.
Plaintiff appealed his conviction to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (Army Court or
A.C.C.A.). In 1996, the A.C.C.A. upheld the conviction, sentence, and fine (although it found that the
fine enforcement provision unduly restricted the ultimate parole authority of the Secretary of the Army).
Plaintiff then filed two petitions for review before the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed
Forces (C.A.A.F.), alleging, among other things, ineffective assistance of counsel and unconstitutionality
of the fine. In 1998, the C.A.A.F. affirmed the decision of the Army Court.
Mr. Smith next filed a petition in 1999 for a writ of habeas corpus before the A.C.C.A.,
claiming, inter alia, that, because the military judge at his court-martial was not an active member of the
bar of a federal court or of the highest court of a state, pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 826(b),1 he was
therefore statutorily unqualified (and the proceeding thus without jurisdiction). The government was
ordered to show cause to demonstrate that the military judge had statutorily been qualified to preside,
upon which showing that court summarily denied Plaintiff’s petition.
Mr. Smith then proceeded to file a habeas petition in the United States District Court for the
District of Kansas, asserting the same claims in his military habeas petition. The district court dismissed
the petition in 2001 and denied relief.
The Court finds no merit in Plaintiff’s claim for back pay and allowances on the grounds that the
United States breached an enlistment contract. Plaintiff has as much as conceded this point. “Plaintiff
agrees with the Defendant that . . . ‘rights and benefits of a member of the military services, including
pay and allowances, are defined by statute . . ..’” Pl.’s Br. at 10-11; see also Dock v. United States,
46 F.3d 1083, 1086 (Fed. Cir. 1995). On this allegation also, Plaintiff thus fails to state a claim upon
which relief can be granted. In addition, because the Court finds Plaintiff’s claim barred on the basis of
collateral estoppel and find that there was no breach of contract, the question of interest on any
entitlement to back pay is moot.
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United States Military
Sexual Offender
Conviction Records
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