00:00A deadly twist of fate tonight, a man once convicted of taking a teen's life is now dead himself and
00:06his half brother is accused of double murder. It's a case that raises a chilling question. When violence is in
00:15your past, does it come back to find you in the future? James Smith convicted in a teen's death at
00:20a party in Hanover County in 2024 becomes a victim in 2026. He took a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter
00:27and he did a year and seven months.
00:30He was home five months before this happened. And he said that he didn't want to take that because he
00:35did not leave here with ill will to do any harm to anybody that night. Smith is one of two
00:39men killed in this Ashland Square parking lot last week in the evening hours. His half brother, 24 year old
00:45Unique White, has been charged with two counts of first degree murder. So why are they charging with the murder
00:51of his brother? I wish I had the answer for that. You know, we've seen the videos that are out
00:56and from what I can tell, it doesn't, his brother was
00:59the one that wasn't the one that pulled the trigger for James. Um, the two girls that were there. That's,
01:05they've said that James, he didn't own a gun. He didn't have a gun. He had no access to a
01:08gun. And they've said that he was shot first and then returned unique shot. Um, the other guy actually detectives
01:16continue to work the case. Sources telling me detectives believe there was a dispute over a woman that escalated from
01:22using fists to firepower, all of it playing out in a busy shopping center parking lot, leaving behind at least
01:29three families.
01:30Ruined by split second decisions. The younger generation, I don't know why we always have to resort to picking up
01:35guns. You know, my generation, you know, we were raised to fight with your hands. And if you lost, you
01:40lost. We'd be friends the next day. For the teen killed in 2024, his family and friends have been in
01:46my inbox and their feelings seem a bit complicated. Of course, there's no undoing their pain over their loss. And
01:53now another life is gone. These two tragedies connected by violence ending the same way. They've been
01:59the gang. In Ashland, John Burkett, CBS 6 News.
