Leon Allen Smith pleaded innocent Friday to 12 criminal charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with the death of 45-year-old Stephan Manuel Pool.
He is also charged with 10 counts of obstruction of justice in connection with alleged attempts to intimidate a witness.
Smith was undergoing mental health treatments, but was found competent for trial after a final report delivered in July 2013 found that Smith to be “malingering,” defined as exaggerating or fabricating symptoms.
Pool was found stabbed in the 200 block of N Street Southwest on Sept. 2, 2012; he was later pronounced dead at an area hospital. More than a month later, Smith was arrested.
Prosecutors believe Smith stabbed Pool in the chest after Pool drove Smith’s girlfriend to see Smith. As the woman exited the vehicle, she hugged Pool, documents say.
Then, Smith punched him one time in the chest. The woman said that after the punch she saw Smith holding a silver knife with a blue handle.
Charging documents say that witnesses told police they saw Smith approach Pool and Smith appeared to punch Pool. Witnesses heard Pool then yell, “He stabbed me.”
According to police, Smith told them that he punched Pool, but did not believe that he stabbed him. He later told police that the knife found at the scene was, in fact, his knife.
Smith is scheduled for a mental observation hearing on May 9.
A copy of the indictment is below.
