Kelsey Smith in a photo ID released by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.
An Atlantic City man who previously pleaded guilty in a gang-related killing nearly two decades ago is now accused of fatally shooting a man in Atlantic City.
Kelsey Smith, now 37, was charged with murder Friday, just over two weeks after Robert Stanley Davis was found with a gunshot wound to the head outside Shore Park apartments.
Davis was the resort's first homicide victim of the year.
Smith has been in the Atlantic County Justice Facility since shortly after the shooting, charged with weapons offenses after personnel in the city's Surveillance Center alerted officers to two men dressed all in black who fled the area, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by BreakingAC.
As police looked for the men, they saw Smith "loudly screaming on the phone," Atlantic City Detective Mustafa Maarouf wrote in the affidavit. "Smith had a large bulge in his right jacket pocket, which appeared to weigh the jacket down."
His actions made the detectives believe he had a weapon, Maarouf writes.
As they approached him at Maryland Avenue and Route 30, Smith looked at them and said, "Kill me," according to the affidavit.
He tried to pull away from the detectives, but was able to be patted down, and a defaced Cobra CA380 was recovered, the affidavit states.
Smith's cell phone also was seized.
He was charged with four counts, including first-degree possession of a weapon by a person who has a prior racketeering charge.
Smith and three others pleaded guilty to first-degree racketeering in 2013, after admitting they were members of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of Bloods street gang, according to the Attorney General's Office at the time.
They each admitted to participating in the Jan. 23, 2006, killing of Leroy Lindsay in Vineland, after an attempt to "discipline" him disrespecting another Nine Trey member turned deadly.
Smith was sentenced to 10 years in prison under the No Early Release Act on Oct. 11, 2013. He already had about three years and one month of jail credits toward his mandatory 8½ years of NERA. It was not clear when he was released.
He will remain in the Atlantic County Justice Facility pending a detention hearing.
Smith is listed as having applied for a public defender in the related weapons case.
