In 1994, Tampa police launched a homicide investigation after 22-year-old Anthony Prevsto Smith was found fatally shot behind the wheel of a Ford Bronco parked on a dead end street.
A witness to the shooting reported it at the time but didn’t know the shooter, who appeared to be a boy of about 16, records show. Detectives continued to investigate over the years, sending evidence for processing as forensic techniques advanced.
On Thursday, police finally arrested a suspect: Jake Powell III, 47, of Tampa. Powell was 17 years old at the time of the shooting. He faces charges of first-degree murder, robbery, carjacking and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The evidence gathered over the years is outlined in Powell’s arrest affidavit released Friday.
On June 1, 1994, Powell, Smith and a third person stopped for food at a Pizza Hut near the intersection of Busch Boulevard and 40th Street. After the meal, Smith took from his pocket a sum of cash between $2,000 and $2,500 and put it down on the table, according to the affidavit.
The third person, whom the Tampa Bay Times is not naming because he is a homicide witness, knew Smith but had never met Powell and didn’t know his name.
The witness said he, Smith and the teen got into a 1988 Ford Bronco. The witness agreed to drive at the request of Smith, who said he was tired. Smith sat in the passenger seat and the teen was sitting in the back seat.
The witness said he heard a loud bang. When he looked to his right, he saw Smith slumped over and bleeding from his head. The witness then saw the teen in the back seat was pointing a silver revolver at him.
The teen ordered the witness to pull off of Nebraska Avenue onto a side road and stop. The teen then got into the driver’s seat of the Bronco and drove away with Smith still in the passenger seat. The witness walked to a nearby gas station, called 911 and reported what happened.
The witness said the shooter was Black, maybe 16 years old, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with short hair and a small build. He was wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt and gray pants. Booking details for Powell in 1994 and 1995 list him as 5′4″ and 5′5″ and weighing 130 pounds, according to the affidavit. Both photos in the entries show Powell with short hair.
The next morning, a city of Tampa employee came upon the Bronco parked at a dead end near the intersection of 36th Street North and 23rd Avenue. Smith was slumped over in the front passenger seat, dead. In the mouth of a nearby storm drain, detectives found two pieces of gray clothing with what appeared to be large amounts of blood.
An autopsy determined Smith had been shot twice in the head with a .375- or .38-caliber gun. He had 95 cents in his pocket.
An analysis by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the substance on the clothing was blood. Investigators also collected eight fingerprints from the Bronco. There was no money inside.
The Bronco’s registered owner told police that Smith was his roommate and had borrowed the vehicle the previous day. The owner said that after Smith and the witness left the house that day, a teen boy came to the house looking for him. The roommate gave a description of the teen that was similar to the one the witness gave of the boy who shot Smith, according to the affidavit.
A dozen years passed.
In 2016, investigators again submitted the bloodstained shirt and pants to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis. In early 2017, a report came back indicating the blood was Smith’s and showing DNA present on the clothing that belonged to another male.
About a month later, another report showed that the other DNA on the pants was Powell’s, the affidavit states.
In an interview with detectives in June 2017, Powell said he lived in Tampa around the time of the murder but didn’t know anyone named Shay, a nickname of Smith’s, according to the affidavit. When police showed Powell photos of the witness to the shooting, Powell said he didn’t know him.
In early 2018, police got a warrant to obtain a buccal swab from Powell to collect his DNA and compare it to the DNA on the gray pants. That spring, the results came back: The DNA was 700 billion times more likely to come from Powell than another person, the affidavit states.
That summer, detectives showed the shooting witness an array of photos of different people, one of whom was Powell. The witness showed interest in two photos, including the one of Powell, but said he couldn’t be sure given how much time had passed.
On June 6 of this year, investigators tried again to find the prints that had been collected from the Bronco.
“Up to this date, attempts to locate the prints had been unsuccessful,” the affidavit states.
The next day, a Tampa police forensic technician found the prints. Four of the eight collected were good enough for analysis. One matched the Bronco’s owner, and two collected from the driver’s window matched another man.
On June 24, police questioned the man whose prints were found on the window and showed him photos of the Bronco, its owner and the home where the Bronco owner and Smith lived at the time. The man said he knew Smith as Shay and though he did not recognize the Bronco, he said he probably rode in it if Smith drove it.
On July 9, detectives again interviewed the Bronco’s owner, Smith’s roommate. The roommate said the day that Smith was murdered, the roommate saw him counting a large sum of money laid out on his mattress. The roommate said the same small-framed teen boy who’d come looking for Smith later that day returned the next day. The roommate told him Smith had been killed.
The teen boy “immediately began fact-finding and specifically asked what police knew,” the affidavit states.
On July 16, detectives interviewed Powell again. He denied knowing Smith, said he did not recognize photos of the witness to the shooting, denied being present when Smith was murdered and said he has never been in a vehicle when someone was killed, according to the affidavit.
On July 22, investigators again interviewed the shooting witness, who repeated details he’d previously given to police and said he hadn’t met the shooter and they were never introduced.
The next day, a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement completed an analysis of the blood patterns on the gray clothing and concluded the person wearing the clothing was in the Bronco at the time of the shooting.
Police arrested Powell on Thursday at his home on the 2900 block of East 22nd Avenue, booking records show. He was being held at the Falkenburg Road Jail without bond on Friday.
In a statement, Tampa police Chief Lee Bercaw said police hope his arrest brings a sense of closure to Smith’s loved ones.
“This case reflects the tireless and unwavering dedication of the men and women of the Tampa Police Department and law enforcement as a whole,” Bercaw said in the statement. “It also serves as a reminder that our efforts to seek justice for victims and hold suspects accountable are what motivates us every day.”
State records show Powell has previously served two stints in state prison, one in the 1990s and one in the 2010s, for charges including carrying a concealed firearm, possessing an illegal weapon, battery on a first responder, cocaine possession, aggravated fleeing and eluding law enforcement and resisting law enforcement with violence.
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