Hungry Horse murderer dies in prison

The 56-year-old former Hungry Horse man who shot and killed his wife in December 2007 died at a prison infirmary in Lewistown on May 27.

Neighbors of Charles Glenn Smith said they didn’t think much of the sounds of gunfire at Smith’s home on First Avenue NW in Hungry Horse on Dec. 9, 2007. He and his wife had a rocky relationship and were often heard arguing, and Smith was dying of cancer, which they thought could be a motivating factor.

Deputies arrived around 8 p.m. to find Smith sitting on the front porch. He had called 911 to report he had shot his wife, and he surrendered peacefully.

Inside, deputies found Jody Smith, 46, in a bedroom dead of four gunshot wounds to her chest and abdomen from a 9 mm handgun. She had been sitting in a chair knitting or sewing at the time. The gun was found nearby.

Smith had been arrested twice for assaulting his wife. He was accused of hitting her with a frying pan in 1998 and of hitting her in the head and pulling her hair in 2004. Alcohol was a factor in the 2007 shooting.

Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler sentenced Smith to 80 years in prison in July 2008 after Smith pleaded no contest one month earlier.