Philip Smith survived a shooting at a Northside barbershop in 2013 with a bullet lodged in his back and wounds to his jaw and chest. He carried that bullet, and the infections it caused, for 13 years — until he died this week in Cincinnati, according to his mother, who says the man responsible is still free.
Rachelle Smith told FOX19 that she woke up from her own surgery this week to learn that her son had died. “I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it,” she said. Smith was her only son and first child, and she described him as a good father, a good student, and a basketball star who once had a full scholarship to North Carolina before the 2013 shooting upended his life.
A Wound That Never Fully Healed
Doctors amputated both of Philip Smith's legs at some point after the shooting, and he spent the following 13 years fighting infections tied to the injuries he suffered that day at the barbershop, per the FOX19 report. He survived the initial attack in 2013, but his mother says the toll of the bullet lodged in his back never went away. He died Wednesday, August 19, in Cincinnati.
The man convicted in the 2013 shooting, Tracey Washington, was found guilty of felonious assault and has already served his sentence — he is now free, the station's report notes. Rachelle Smith wants Washington off the streets and says the original punishment no longer matches what her family has lost. “You can't give my child back,” she said.
Will Prosecutors Pursue Murder Charges Now?
The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office was asked whether it plans to upgrade Washington's charges to murder now that Smith has died, and the office indicated it will respond soon, according to the same account. Whether that happens may hinge on a legal wrinkle specific to Ohio: under Ohio Supreme Court precedent set in State v. Carpenter and reaffirmed in State v. Dye, prosecutors are barred from filing murder charges after a victim dies of initial injuries if the defendant already entered a negotiated guilty plea — unless the state expressly reserved the right to bring additional charges on the record at the time of that plea. The First District Court of Appeals, which holds jurisdiction over Hamilton County, applied that same rule in State v. Stiles, upholding the dismissal of a murder indictment against a defendant whose stabbing victim died 18 months later because the original plea deal contained no such reservation.
Federal law takes a different view. Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1912 ruling in Diaz v. United States, double jeopardy does not automatically block a later murder prosecution when a victim dies years after an assault, since homicide is considered a distinct offense with an element — death — that had not yet occurred at the time of the earlier trial. Ohio's own statute of limitations poses no obstacle either way: under Ohio Revised Code Section 2901.13, there is no time limit for prosecuting murder or aggravated murder, even though felonious assault charges must normally be filed within six years.
A recent case elsewhere in Ohio shows how these rules can play out. In August 2025, a Lorain County Common Pleas judge ruled that charging a defendant with murder after a victim died from paralysis complications 11 years after a 2008 park attack did not violate double jeopardy, according to the Chronicle-Telegram. Whether Hamilton County prosecutors can follow a similar path in Smith's case will likely depend on whether Washington's 2013 plea included any reservation allowing future charges, and whether the coroner formally links Smith's death to the original shooting.
A Neighborhood Still Grappling With Gun Violence
The 2013 shooting happened in Northside, a Cincinnati neighborhood that has continued to see gun violence in the years since. Just this past February, a late-night shooting along Hamilton Avenue left four people wounded, underscoring ongoing safety concerns in the same commercial corridor where Smith was shot, as Hoodline reported at the time. Citywide, shooting incidents in Cincinnati actually dropped 20% in 2025 to 283 total victims, down from 353 in 2024 and 377 in 2023, according to data reported by Local 12 WKRC.
For Rachelle Smith, none of that context changes what she lost. She says her son's death 13 years after he was shot has left her family searching for a form of justice the legal system may or may not be able to provide. As Hamilton County prosecutors weigh their options, her message remains simple: the man who shot her son should not still be walking free.
