Darnell Smith (5 of Diamonds, California)

The Deck

audiochuck

True Crime

4.6 • 9.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Darnell Smith’s family never expected him – a pastor’s son and an ambitious student – to get killed in a hail of gunfire. For a young man without even a whisper of a criminal record, no one would have expected his life to end in such a violent way at the age of twenty. But Darnell Smith’s death became entangled in a world his family was never a part of — and left investigators scrambling to unravel what would soon become a neighborhood nightmare. For more than a decade it seemed like there was no hope for justice… but when our reports went to visit one of the crime scenes … they may have stumbled upon the key to solving this case. Listen to the first-ever in-depth coverage of Darnell Smith's case only on The Deck.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Our card this week is Darnell Smith, the Five of Diamonds from California.
0:09.2	Darnell's family never expected him, a pastor's son and an ambitious student, to get killed in a hail of gunfire.
0:16.7	For young man without even a whisper of a criminal record, no one would have thought that his life would end in such a violent way at the age of 20.
0:24.6	But Darnell Smith's death became entangled in a world that his family was never a part of, and it left investigators scrambling to unravel what would soon become a neighborhood nightmare.
0:36.6	For more than a decade, it seemed like there was no hope for justice.
0:41.3	But when our reporters went to visit one of the crime scenes,
0:45.2	they may have stumbled upon the key to solving this case.
0:49.3	I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck.
1:36.6	Thank you. flowers, and this is the deck. This is the deck. It was a summer It was a summer night in San Diego in 2008, when 20-year-old Darnel Smith was cruising around in his new catalog with his friend and his cousin, his playlist blasting.
1:46.0	They were talking about pretty girls, making jokes about who was better at talking to said pretty girls, as their casual Saturday night slipped into Sunday.
1:52.5	Father's Day, actually. Just after midnight, they were on their way to Darnel's aunt's house to hang out.
1:57.2	This was a last-minute decision after the beach party that they were supposed to go to fell through.
2:01.1	Two other friends in the car ahead of them parked in front of Donna Jones Littleton's house, or to Darnell, Aunt Donnas. And since that spot was taken, Darnell pulled
2:06.3	his Cadillac up in front of the neighbor's home instead. It was just about 1223 in the morning
2:12.8	when the guys in Darnell's car hopped out and started making their way up the sidewalk to the house.
2:18.3	But Darnell hung back to lock up his Cadillac.
2:21.2	It was just a few seconds.
2:23.0	But those few seconds changed everything.
2:27.1	They're walking on the east sidewalk.
2:30.7	They're walking northbound on pyramid towards Jones' house from the car, and the shooter
2:35.7	approaches from behind. Several shots ring out. That's Ron Newquist from the San Diego
2:42.3	Police Department. He responded to the scene that night, and he would go on to work
	...

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