The man responsible for the death of Michelle Smith, a 29-year-old Delaware City Fire Company emergency medical technician from Middletown, was found guilty of first-degree murder by the Superior Court of Delaware today.
    Joseph Taye of Bear drove his 2004 BMW 760 over Smith on Dec. 20, 2008, while she was on the side of U.S. 13 in New Castle attending to Edward Reiss, who was critically injured when he crashed his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
    On Dec. 22, 2008, Smith succumbed to her injuries sustained in the accident. Taye, who is a paraplegic and was operating the pedals of the car with a stick, was then taken into custody by police and charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, driving while his license was revoked, leaving the scene of a crash and failure to report a crash.
    The manslaughter charge was upgraded Dec. 30, 2008, to first-degree murder because Smith lost her life while performing her duties as a firefighter.
    Ed Kalinowski, first vice president of the Delaware City Fire Company, said while Taye pleaded not guilty, Judge Jerome O. Herlihy said he was blatantly negligent in committing this crime.
    Kalinowski said Smith’s family was pleased with the judge’s decision.
    “The family is overwhelmed that justice has been served and the fire company supports that,” he said.
    Kalinowski said the Reiss family was in attendance and was also happy with the ruling.
He said Taye elected to not have a jury trial and the judge took several weeks to reach his decision.
    “[Herlihy] basically said that he was guilty on all counts and that it was clear cut,” Kalinowski said.
    He said Taye was surprised by the judge’s ruling.
    “He couldn’t believe it,” Kalinowski said.
    He said Herlihy gave a “lengthy opinion” on the reason to clarify Smith as a firefighter at the time of the accident, which automatically gave Taye a life sentence in prison.
    “He basically boiled it down to that there is no definition [of a firefighter], however the way we all operate and the way everything was testified is that a firefighter is much, much more than just a person who puts out a fire,” Kalinowski said. “They do many jobs and the job you do depends on what the call is and the availability of the individuals that were there. You could go from putting out a fire to a motor vehicle accident to a hazmat incident and on to the various things we actually do.”
    In honor of Smith, Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill 204 into law at the Delaware City Fire Company July 31. Under the legislation, now known as “Michelle Smith’s Law,” any person who is found to have recklessly caused the death of an on-duty paramedic, EMT, fire marshal or fire police officer could be charged with murder in the first degree and receive capital punishment.
    People killing on-duty law enforcement officers, corrections employees and firefighters were already eligible for the death penalty prior to the enactment of the new law.
Kalinowski said the Delaware code still needs to clarify the definition of a firefighter.
    “One of the problems is that there is no definition of firefighter in the Delaware law,” he said. “If you look in the dictionary, it says it’s one who puts out a fire. I can’t tell you the last time I put out a fire, but I can tell you all the different other things I’ve done in the meantime.”
    Smith’s mother Joanne Newton told the Transcript in January that helping people was Smith’s life.
    “This is the way she would have wanted to go; something to do with helping people,” Joanne said. “Every day of her life she would try to do something for somebody.”