Santa vs. The Drunk

From the Sun-Sentinel:

Witnesses say cab driver fired shots at drunken passenger

By Peter Franceschina
Staff Writer

December 16, 2004

To one of the witnesses looking out her apartment window, taxi cab driver Robert Smiley -- with his long white hair, white beard and big belly -- looked a little like Santa Claus. [Maybe because he IS.]

Except that Smiley was screaming at his passenger to get out of his cab and zapping him with a stun gun before he pulled a pistol and fired several times.

The details come from police reports and witness statements prosecutors released Wednesday in their first-degree murder case against Smiley.

The Nov. 6 shooting, shortly after 4 a.m., came after employees of the Palm Beach Ale House on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard called a taxi for a drunken patron, Jimmie Morningstar, records show.

Smiley, 56, showed up, but Morningstar, 43, wouldn't get in the cab. Meanwhile, Morningstar had called police because another patron had opened the pub's front door and hit him in the head.

Two West Palm Beach police officers talked to Morningstar, and someone called another cab. Smiley returned and accepted $10 to take Morningstar to his Executive Center Drive apartment.

Minutes later, shouts roused four people in an apartment overlooking the parking lot.

"The cab driver kept yelling, `Get out. Get out. I have to make my money,'" witness Lakeisha Anderson told police.

The witnesses saw the cab driver use a stun gun on the passenger, who screamed the first few times he was shocked. Then the cab driver was able to get the passenger out of the car and close the rear passenger door. The driver started to get into the cab, but the passenger opened the front door on the other side to step in.

"And I heard [the driver] say, `You think I'm playing with you? You think I'm playing with you?'" witness Sylvia Alexander Clarke said. "And I heard him say, `Do you want me to kill you? Do you want me to? Do you want to die?'"

The witnesses said the cab driver fired a gun at the ground near the passenger's feet. By then, they had called 911.

More shots rang out. The witnesses saw the driver throw some items out of the cab and speed off, burning rubber. Police found Morningstar in the parking lot with two gunshot wounds to the torso.

Police quickly identified the Yellow Cab and its driver. Palm Beach Gardens police pulled over Smiley about 5 a.m.

Smiley told police he dropped Morningstar off, then admitted he used a stun gun on him.

When police told him witnesses said they saw him shoot Morningstar, Smiley wouldn't talk anymore. Clarke identified the cab driver, whom she said looked like Santa Claus, as Smiley in a photo lineup. He's charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. His public defender could not be reached for comment.

Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2894.

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