Man pleads guilty but mentally ill to 2020 Brighton Heights fatal shooting

A North Side man pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Monday to third-degree murder for killing his neighbor two years ago.

Laron Smith, 26, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani on Jan. 5 for the shooting death of Ernest Mills Jr., 28.

Mills, who lived on Simen Street, was walking with his girlfriend to get pizza around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, 2020, near the intersection of Brighton Road and Davis Avenue in Brighton Heights.

Smith lived on the second floor of the same multi-family house as Mills, said Assistant District Attorney Emma Schoedel.

The afternoon of the shooting, the prosecutor said, a witness saw Smith leaning against the home and then saw him exhibiting “strange behavior,” including screaming profanities to himself. The witness saw Smith pull a tan ski mask over his face and begin to follow Mills and his girlfriend.

The witness then heard a single gunshot followed by several more. Mills was struck three times in the back and thigh.

After the shooting, witnesses said, Smith fled from the scene. He was arrested two days later.

Although investigators attempted to find a motive in the case, Schoedel said, they were unable to find any animosity between the two men.

Schoedel told the court that Smith has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in the days leading up to the shooting, was experiencing psychotic symptomology. Relatives had noted that Smith was not showering for days at a time, had been seen talking to himself, setting things on fire outside and acting erratically.

He also had removed smoke detectors in his home because he believed they had cameras in them and that a woman he saw on television had a crush on him, Schoedel said.

She said that both the prosecution and defense agreed that Smith had lacked insight into his own mental health condition. After his arrest, Smith spent seven months at Torrance State Hospital for treatment.

Defense attorney Carmen Robinson said that three of Smith’s relatives have the same diagnosis.

“I have no doubt his mental illness is the reason he’s here today, your honor,” she said. “He understands that it’s a crime, and he’s here to take responsibility for it.”

Robinson said that Smith lived with his mother. He was scheduled to have a mental health evaluation three days after the shooting.

“She made an appointment for him, but it was too late,” Robinson said.