A Leflore County grand jury has indicted a Cleveland man for allegedly soliciting a payoff under false pretense from Greenwood attorney Lee Abraham.
Dartagnan Centerio Bronner, 28, was indicted in July. Circuit Court Clerk Elmus Stockstill said motions for discovery have been filed but no hearings have been held.
Bronner has been accused of false pretense “with the intent to cheat and defraud” in a scheme that claimed an alleged “Mexican Mafia” had a “hit contract” on Abraham. According to the indictment, Bronner offered to take care of the alleged hit in exchange for “money in an amount greater than five hundred dollars.”
Abraham declined to comment on the case.
The indictment was brought by Special Assistant Attorney General Robert G. Anderson of Jackson, who specializes in fraud cases. Anderson has also recently been involved in the case against Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, who is accused of illegally aiding a criminal defendant.
It is unclear whether there is any connection between this alleged hit and an alleged murder-for-hire scheme against Abraham that resulted in a shootout at his Market Street office in 2012.
Keaira Byrd, a Greenwood man authorities claimed was hired by Dr. Arnold Smith in that scheme, was killed in the shootout.
Robert Shuler Smith and Dr. Arnold Smith are not related.
Two investigators for the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office were at the law office on the night of the shootout, and one of them fired the shot that killed Byrd. A second alleged hitman, Derrick Lacy of Greenwood, was critically injured.
A third man, Cordarious Robinson, was accused as a co-conspirator in the planned assassination. Robinson and Lacy remain incarcerated, awaiting trial.
Criminal charges against Smith were delayed by his involuntary commitment to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield after he was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges of capital murder, conspiracy to commit murder and burglary.
Smith has long protested the involvement of the Attorney General’s Office in the criminal case and has filed motions to have Attorney General Jim Hood removed from office.
Abraham filed civil charges against Smith in 2012, citing diminished quality of life as a result of the scheme he accuses Smith of masterminding. The civil case was interrupted when Smith filed for bankruptcy and temporarily had the case moved to federal court. The case was remanded back to the state in March.
Last month, lawyers for both sides in the civil case appeared in Leflore County Circuit Court to clear the way for a trial in March 2017. A judge ordered that that trial be moved to Lowndes County out of concern that extensive media coverage in Greenwood might taint a jury.
Last week, attorneys for Smith filed a petition for a hearing in Hinds County Chancery Court that could clear the way for his release from the state hospital for supervised outpatient treatment.
The motion included a risk evaluation from Tulane University Medical School behavioral specialists who recommended Smith be treated from his home in Jackson under the supervision of family members and with strict conditions in place.
Those conditions include no contact with Abraham and the Attorney General’s Office and restriction of travel to Greenwood.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
Indictment
