A federal inmate, Daniel V. Smith, has been convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of a fellow prisoner at FCI Otisville. The announcement was made by United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. Smith was found guilty after a jury trial before U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 4, 2025. He faces a mandatory life sentence.
“Daniel V. Smith murdered a fellow inmate in cold blood at FCI Otisville by brutally beating him in the head with a lock tied to a belt,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Thanks to the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners, the defendant has been held accountable for his heinous crime.”
According to court documents and statements made during the proceedings, on October 26, 2021, while serving time at FCI Otisville for an earlier assault conviction from 2013, Smith attacked another inmate without provocation in an effort to be transferred to another housing unit. He used a lock tied to a belt as a weapon, repeatedly striking the neighboring inmate in the head and causing fatal injuries that led to traumatic brain injury and death.
Smith, age 65 and residing in Otisville, New York at the time of the incident, was convicted on one count of first-degree murder.
U.S. Attorney Clayton expressed gratitude for the support provided by staff at FCI Otisville and commended the investigative work conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin L. Brooke, Shaun E. Werbelow, Benjamin D. Klein, Jeffrey C. Coffman from the White Plains Division with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Jackie Fleury.
