BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – A Deerfield Beach man who was the first arrest in April under the new risk prevention order was back in court Tuesday.
Still wearing jail restraints, Jerron Smith sat quietly inside a Broward County courtroom as his attorney tried to sway a judge to lower a previously set $100,000 bond.
The argument? A change in medication that has apparently made a positive change in the 32-year-old's behavior.
Smith was arrested in April when detectives arrived at his Deerfield Beach home to confiscate his arsenal of weapons, including an AR-15, a semi-automatic 22-caliber rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Authorities said Smith refused to give up his weapons or allow them inside his home, so they arrested him under the county's new risk protection order law, which was created in the days after the deadly Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Just a month before, Smith was arrested on an attempted first-degree murder charge. That case is still pending, and the Broward Sheriff's Office believed he still posed a significant threat to the community.
Smith is an Army veteran. His neighbors told Local 10 News they were disappointed to learn of his arrest.
Smith has now been in jail nearly three months, but the judge said he was not convinced that a change in medication makes Smith any less of a public threat.
The judge said he wants to hear from more mental health experts regarding how Smith's medications can alter his behavior.