A Rensselaer woman convicted of shooting a 24-year-old woman through the trunk of a car has been sentenced to 16 years in state prison, after an Albany County judge said she was disgusted that the defendant kept denying her role in the shooting even after a jury found her guilty. Celanna Smith, 26, was also ordered to serve five years of probation following her release.
Judge Andra Ackerman delivered the sentence in Albany County Court, telling Smith she was disgusted by her continued denials, according to Daily Voice. Smith had testified in her own defense during the four-day trial, telling the jury she was sitting in the backseat of a friend's car and was unaware anyone had been shot. Prosecutors impeached that account by introducing post-incident text messages Smith had sent to friends, according to the Albany County District Attorney's Office.
The shooting happened around 12:45 a.m. on August 13, 2025, when Albany Police responded to reports of gunfire at 22 Albany Street. Officers soon learned from staff at Albany Memorial Hospital that a 24-year-old victim had arrived with a gunshot wound and needed emergency transfer to Albany Medical Center for life-saving surgery, per the same account. The bullet struck the woman in the lower back as she sat in the vehicle's backseat, puncturing a lung and lacerating her liver before lodging near her appendix, Daily Voice reports.
Cellphone Video Captured the Moments Before the Shot
Prosecutors told jurors the shooting followed a confrontation on the Albany street that started as an argument and turned physical, with a car window smashed during the altercation, according to Daily Voice. Cellphone video played at trial recorded a friend repeatedly urging Smith to “blick” — street slang for shoot — and “shoot” the people in the vehicle, right before a gunshot was fired through the car's trunk, the district attorney's office's account states. The video faded to black but kept recording audio through the moment of the shooting.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Carty and trial assistant Katelyn Kaczkowski prosecuted the case for District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon's office, calling 13 witnesses over the four-day trial. The jury convicted Smith on May 11, 2026, of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, and second-degree weapons possession. She had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.
A Five-Week Manhunt Ended in Rensselaer
Smith wasn't taken into custody right away. Albany Police executed a search warrant on September 18, 2025, at a residential address on Third Street in Rensselaer, more than five weeks after the shooting, to make the arrest, the district attorney's office reports. The victim, in a statement cited by Daily Voice, wrote that the trauma changed her physically, emotionally, and mentally, and that she continues to live with fear, anxiety, anger, and emotional pain.
Attempted Murder in the Second Degree is a Class B violent felony under New York Penal Law § 110.00 and § 125.25, carrying a statutory state prison term of 5 to 25 years, according to Hacker Murphy LLP. Smith's 16-year term falls in the upper half of that range. The trial and sentencing took place at the Albany County Judicial Center at 6 Lodge Street in downtown Albany, the same firm notes.
New Leadership, Same Fight Against Gun Violence
Judge Ackerman has sat on the Albany County Court bench since January 2020, after previously serving as a Cohoes City Court judge and a special victims prosecutor, according to Scrutinize. She was elected to a ten-year term running through 2029. District Attorney Lee C. Kindlon took office on January 1, 2025, after winning the 2024 Democratic primary and general election to succeed five-term former DA David Soares, per WAMC. Kindlon campaigned on addressing gun violence and updating office management.
The case lands amid broader state efforts to curb gun violence in the Capital Region. New York allocated $255,629 to neighboring Rensselaer County under the Gun Involved Violence Elimination grant program for the July 2025 through June 2026 fiscal year, funding joint anti-violence and probation intelligence initiatives, Hoodline previously reported. Smith's conviction stands as one of the more significant violent-crime prosecutions completed under Kindlon's tenure so far.
