A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Friday ordered a 43-year-old man to spend the rest of his life in prison for a deadly 2019 shooting in a dispute over a home burglary.
Judge Peter Williams sentenced Tyler Smith to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of Scott Chase II, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday in a news release.
On Feb. 21, a jury found Smith guilty of first-degree murder in Chase’s death, along with an enhancement for using a gun in the murder and a special circumstance allegation for killing Chase during a robbery. Smith also was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors said the June 28, 2019, fatal shooting stemmed from a burglary. Chase, 38, of Carmichael, had been living temporarily with Smith’s friend. There was a burglary at Smith’s friend’s home while Chase was out of town.
The friend’s safe, which contained a gun belonging to Smith, was among the items stolen from the home in the burglary. Prosecutors said Smith believed Chase committed the burglary and put in place a plan to arm himself with a gun and confront Chase to retrieve the stolen items along with anything else valuable Chase had.
On the evening of June 27, 2019, Smith was armed with a gun when he went to Chase’s home, prosecutors said. When Chase arrived at his home the following morning, Smith started hitting Chase with the gun before shooting him once in the head, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Smith then placed Chase’s body in the back of the victim’s SUV, prosecutors said. Later, a security guard found the abandoned SUV with Chase’s body.
Investigators identified Smith as the shooter in the homicide and arrested him in Nevada two weeks after the shooting, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators never found the gun used in the homicide.