Investigations
Jaremy Smith pleaded guilty to murdering trooper Justin Hare
He hijacked Hare's cruiser on Interstate 40 after a fake flat-tire stop and led a two-day manhunt across two states.
Before dawn on March 15, 2024, Jaremy Alexander Smith shot New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare on Interstate 40 west of Tucumcari and stole his patrol SUV. Dr. Insanity assembled radio traffic, dash and body camera footage, and court records from the case that ended in Smith's capture and two guilty pleas.
Hare, 35, had eleven years in emergency services and was nearing the end of his shift when dispatch sent him to mile marker 318 for a welfare check. A semi driver reported a man in the travel lane and a white BMW on the shoulder. Smith asked for help with a flat tire, then told Hare to meet him at the front of the cruiser. He shot Hare multiple times, shoved him into the passenger seat, and drove west on the frontage road.
Hare's duress alarm kept triggering while backup units searched near the abandoned BMW. Officer Esparza spotted the stolen cruiser speeding toward him, turned around, and chased it until Smith crashed near mile marker 305. Responding officers found blood on the passenger seat and an empty car. Smith had pulled over earlier and left Hare on the roadside. Officer Garcia found Hare near the 311 exit more than forty-five minutes later with gunshot wounds to his head and neck. Hare died at the hospital. He left a pregnant partner and two young daughters.
Near the crash site officers recovered an EMS jacket, a Taser, a lighter, and two cell phones. The BMW was registered to Phonesia Machado-Fore, a 52-year-old paramedic reported missing in Marion County, South Carolina. Her roommate Emily Bales told investigators that Smith, a neighbor who had spent the night at their home, left with her the morning Machado-Fore vanished. Smith was a 33-year-old felon who had served roughly eight years for attempted armed robbery and hostage taking.
Recovered dash and body camera video and a facial recognition match tied Smith to the shooting. South Carolina investigators traced Machado-Fore's BMW to a property near Jones Drive and found her behind an abandoned house with her hands zip-tied, her eyes covered, and a single gunshot to the back of the head. While New Mexico officers still searched, a ranch worker near Quervo reported gunfire after Smith appeared on the property. Smith fled again before agents linked one phone to him and the other to his ex-girlfriend Cheyenne in Albuquerque.
On March 17 a gas station clerk near Cheyenne's neighborhood recognized Smith and called 911. Bernalillo County deputies boxed in a residential area around Unser and Anderson Hill. Smith ran, jumped fences, and reached for his waistband before deputies shot him four times. He survived and went to the hospital under guard after roughly forty-eight hours as a fugitive.
On January 17, 2025, Smith pleaded guilty in federal court in Albuquerque to five counts tied to Hare's death, including carjacking resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death, and using a firearm during a crime of violence. Judge James O. Browning sentenced him on April 21, 2025, to life in federal prison without parole. On September 15, 2026, Smith also pleaded guilty in South Carolina to kidnapping, carjacking, and murder in Machado-Fore's death, with another life sentence and no possibility of parole.
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