Gerald and Jared Smith are twin brothers who were sent to prison for the beating and run-over death of a Good Samaritan, Nathan Halsted, whom authorities said tried to save a woman they were attacking in Fresno, California.
At around 3 a.m. on June 30, 2014, a woman named T. Alexander testified that she was standing at a bus stop when she was approached by a man who asked if she wanted to smoke crack cocaine, according to The Fresno Bee.
She told him no.
Not long after that, a man in a pickup truck pulled up next to her, and she got in. Alexander told the judge that she felt famished and thought the driver was going to take her to get something to eat.
To her dismay, the guy propositioned her for sex.
For the second time that night, Alexander said no. She got out of the truck on Belmont and Calaveras in the Tower District, where she was approached by the Smith brothers.
Alexander asserted that the twin brothers demanded money.
When she informed them that she wasn’t a prostitute and didn’t have any money to give them, Alexander claimed that they attacked her.
Although Alexander exclaimed, “I’m a girl! I’m a girl,” they continued to “punch and stomp on her head” until a Good Samaritan, Halsted, intervened.
The 49-year-old rolled up on his bicycle and attempted to stop the attack, but he soon became a victim himself.
The Smith brothers brutally beat Halsted for several minutes until he fell to the ground. As he lay unconscious in the middle of the roadway, the twins fled the scene.
Minutes later, a vehicle ran Halsted over.
Emergency medical services arrived at the scene and pronounced Halsted dead.
Evidence found on a vehicle belonging to a man who the Smith brothers reportedly tried to fight earlier that night led to their arrest.
They were charged with voluntary manslaughter in connection with Halsted’s death.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer said the driver of the vehicle was not at fault. He said, “The people who are responsible for this are Gerald and Jared Smith, who were the ones that beat this victim and allowed him to be run over and killed.”
The twins’ mother said her sons are not murderers. She added that on the morning of the fatal attack, she was home when her sons “walked through the front door.”
She contended that “they had their tennis shoes on, they had white t-shirts on, their white t-shirts had no blood; they had no blood or anything.”
Fresno police said surveillance footage of the crime debunked her claims.
The grainy video of the twins kicking and beating Halsted was shown in court.
They “were like animals pursuing prey,” Dyer said.
Alexander announced to the court that because of the attack, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and “some sort of psychosis that causes her to fear young people.”
“When I see two boys, I get scared. If I have money, I fear that I will be robbed.”
She later told ABC 30 that Halstad saved her life, and no one had ever done that for her before. She added, “I thought I was going to die. If it wasn’t for that man that rolled by on that bike, I would’ve died.”
The twins maintained their innocence, telling their mom that they “were in the wrong place at the wrong time” and “we didn’t do nothing to that man.”
To avoid trial, the Smith twins, who were 18 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
A photo of the victim could not be found.
A Fresno judge sentenced the brothers to 12 years in prison. They received credit for time served, and they may be released in 2026.