Belding
VERNON — The Jennings County prosecutor said Friday he was uncertain whether he will file criminal charges against a man who is accused of taking a gun into the North Vernon Elementary School office more than a week ago.
Jennings County Prosecutor Brian Belding said he had not made a charging determination in the case of Eric E. Smith, 47, of North Vernon. Smith was arrested Feb. 2 after police said he entered the school’s main office carrying a loaded firearm.
“At this point I can’t say I’m going to file charges or not file charges,” Belding said Friday morning, noting he had not received a completed police report. A North Vernon police official told The Republic on Thursday morning that a report had been furnished to the prosecutor’s office.
State law says anyone other than a law enforcement officer or qualified person who knowingly or intentionally possesses a firearm on school property commits a Level 6 felony punishable by up to 2½ years in jail.
“I don’t think there’s any question he had a firearm on school property,” Belding said of Smith. “We have to determine why he had a firearm, and I don’t know what his intent was.”
However, Belding acknowledged that the law provides no exceptions based on a person’s intent.
North Vernon police reported on Feb. 2 that Smith had been arrested after he went to the school and asked people in the office about the policy about bringing guns into school. Smith then showed them he had a handgun on his person.
Staff members then escorted Smith outside and notified Jennings Schools School Resource Officer Matt Staples, who placed Smith under arrest, police said. Smith did not get near any students, according to school staff.
Staples and Detective Wes Thayer interviewed Smith and his spouse separately at the North Vernon Police Department where they learned that Smith had made a statement two weeks earlier to his spouse that he was thinking about taking a gun to the school and addressing it with staff members, police said.
Smith gave a verbal confirmation that he had the discussion approximately two weeks prior, and that he was told by his wife that it was a bad idea.
After his arrest on Thursday, Feb. 2, Smith was booked into the Jennings County Jail, where he remained until he was released on Monday. North Vernon police said Smith was being held on suspicion of Level 6 felony counts of possession of a firearm on school property and intimidation.
Belding said he believed that Smith was employed as a delivery worker, but he didn’t know who he worked for or whether Smith had been at the school in his capacity as a delivery person.
“Like I said, I don’t have a report. The details would be in the report, I’m sure,” Belding said. “… Once I look at it, it won’t take too long to make that (charging) determination. I don’t know all the alleged facts without reading that report.”
Belding also said that police may have to do followup interviews to complete their investigation before a charging decision can be made.
The incident at the school involving Smith comes less than two years after he was charged in a separate felony case in Jennings County, court records show.
On March 15, 2021, the prosecutor’s office filed charges of Level 6 felony strangulation, domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years old, and a misdemeanor count of domestic battery against Smith for an incident in which he had been arrested by North Vernon police on Jan. 28, 2021.
Belding’s office dropped those charges against Smith in August of 2021, court records show.
