Colorado warehouse employee convicted of arranging murder of supervisor

A Colorado warehouse worker was convicted Thursday of enriching himself by collecting the pay of "fake" co-workers and then arranging the killing of the supervisor who discovered the plot.

Jerrelle Smith, 44, was found guilty of murder and racketeering charges by an Adams County jury at the end of a nearly three-week trial. Smith faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole on the murder charge alone.

That is the sentence already received by the man Smith hired to pull the trigger, Michael Poydras. Poydras was convicted and sentenced for murder in July of last year.

"The facts of this case are like something out of a movie as they're impossible to comprehend in real life," 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason stated in a press release. "Smith stole thousands and thousands of dollars from Capstone Logistics and then hired a beneficiary of that scheme to murder a fellow employee in cold blood."

Poydras dressed in black and hid behind a sign at the facility on October 21, 2021. He ambushed 51-year-old supervisor Ryan Dillard as Dillard drove out of the parking lot to buy breakfast for his employees, per prosecutors. Poydras opened fire on Dillard's vehicle and ran off.

Dillard died at the scene.

Dillard had been in the supervisor position for less than two weeks. But in that short time, he found evidence of Smith's "ghost employees," as described by the DA's office.

When Smith learned that Dillard was aware of the scheme, Smith hired Poydras to murder him. Poydras was a former employee of Capstone.

Prosecutors claimed during the trial that Smith siphoned more than $100,000 through the payroll scheme. Smith handed out some of the extra pay to several other employees.

Capstone operates the King Soopers Distribution Center at 1861 Tower Road.

A wrongful death civil lawsuit was filed against Smith in 2022 by Dillard's widow.