Trial reset for former pastor accused of statutory rape

Lake News
January 6, 2016

http://www.lakenewsonline.com/article/20160106/NEWS/160109545

Travis Ray Smith in 2010

Laclede County

After a mistrial in December, the trial of a California, Mo. man - accused of multiple counts of statutory rape and sodomy and one count each of forcible sodomy, forcible rape and sexual abuse from alleged incidents in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2005 - has been moved and rescheduled.

Travis R. Smith, a former pastor in the region, is reset to begin April 18, 2016, at the Laclede County Courthouse. He was arrested in 2012 by the Missouri State Highway Patrol with additional charges filed later in Moniteau County Circuit Court.

The charges stem from allegations made by two different women.

Smith's trial had formerly gotten under way with jury selection on Dec. 7, 2015. The trial was cut short though when the defense attorney requested the mistrial.

According to Special Prosecutor Michael Gilley, one of the potential jurors made comments about the defendant that potentially tainted the entire jury panel.

Judge Kenneth Hayden granted the mistrial and transferred the case to Laclede County from Moniteau County.

Two prior trial dates in 2014 and 2013 had been rescheduled before the recent mistrial.

Smith’s 2012 arrest came just one year after being acquitted by a Miller County jury on a charge of child molestation that was filed in Morgan County in 2010. That case was tried in Miller County on a change of venue at the request of Smith.

Smith was once the pastor at First Baptist Church of Stover.