The U.S. Marshals Service's Smoky Mountain Fugitive Task Force arrested Joshua Wade Smith in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, November 5, 2026, ending a cross-state hunt for the man wanted in Wayne County, Indiana, over a September shooting in Richmond that left an 18-year-old woman dead at the scene and two juveniles seriously wounded, according to the Marshals Service summary reported by WVLT and a Richmond Police Department release reported by WTHR.

Smith, also known as “Jaymurdah” and “J-Murda,” was taken into custody after a short standoff at a home on Park Hill Circle in Knoxville, where task force deputies had found him hiding with a woman after investigating for several days, the Marshals Service said. He was booked into the Knox County Jail in Tennessee.

The charges waiting in Indiana

According to the Marshals Service, Smith was wanted on Wayne County warrants carrying two counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, armed robbery, two counts of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and two counts of burglary. All of the charges are allegations: Smith has not been convicted of any of them and is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.

The case began in Indiana weeks earlier. The Star Press in Muncie reported that Smith was charged in Wayne Circuit Court on Friday, October 2, 2026, with murder and nine other charges, including three counts of attempted murder, attempted burglary, attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, and that a warrant for his arrest was issued the same day. Richmond police were still searching for him in the days that followed.

What happened in Richmond on September 28

Authorities say that on the morning of September 28, 2026, shots were fired through the front door of a home in the 800 block of South East Street in Richmond, Indiana. Court documents reported by The Star Press said eight gunshots were fired through a door. Richmond is a Wayne County city on the Interstate 70 corridor near the Ohio line, a route driven daily by long-haul truckers crossing Indiana.

An occupant of the home, 18-year-old Cecelia Rayne Hargrove, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the affidavit reported by The Star Press. Two juveniles were also shot and seriously wounded; in line with the protection of minor victims, they are not named here. The Marshals summary carried by WVLT says two of the three people shot later died from their injuries, which matches the two murder counts now listed in the warrant summary; the second person who died has not been named in the reports reviewed for this story.

The hunt across state lines

“Information was developed that Smith fled Indiana and travelled to Knoxville where he has family and street gang ties,” the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee said in the statement carried by WVLT. The Marshals Service said Smith is well known to the Knoxville Police Department, had an active Knoxville warrant for evading arrest, and has a long criminal history in Tennessee involving evading, burglary, resisting and weapons violations — all as described by the Marshals Service.

Fugitive task forces such as the Smoky Mountain Fugitive Task Force combine deputy U.S. marshals with state and local officers, which is how a Wayne County warrant from Indiana can be executed at a house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Richmond police had earlier asked anyone with information on Smith's whereabouts to call the department at 765-983-7247.

What happens next

WVLT reported that Smith is scheduled to appear in court in Knox County on Monday, November 9, for a bond hearing. The Indiana charges themselves will be heard in Wayne County, where the case was filed in Wayne Circuit Court. No trial date has been announced, and the allegations set out above remain to be tested in court.