Gulfport man pleads guilty to armed robbery and manslaughter

Gulfport, Mississippi – District Attorney W. Crosby Parker announced today that 24-year-old Samuel Maurice Bridges, of Gulfport, pled guilty last week, to a 2019 armed robbery, and for the 2020 killing of 23-year old Quincy Smothers.

After accepting the pleas, Circuit Court Judge Randi P. Mueller sentenced Bridges to 40 years to serve in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

The armed robbery investigation began on September 15, 2019, when Gulfport police responded to the Exxon located on 30th Avenue. Witnesses were able to give a description of the suspect and a vehicle used to flee the location.

Police canvased the area and located a matching vehicle in the parking lot of the Island View Casino, which was registered to Bridges.

Police were able to obtain video surveillance from the Island View Casino that showed Bridges matched the description provided by the witnesses. Police also were also able to obtain Bridge’s GPS information from his phone, which placed Bridges in the area of the Exxon at the time of the robbery.

The investigation into the death of Quincy Smothers began during the early morning hours of July 9, 2020, when the Gulfport Police responded to a 911 call on Michigan Ave. Upon arriving at the scene, police located Smothers deceased from multiple gunshot wounds.

Police located shell casings and clothing near Smothers’ body. A witness later came forward and stated that on the night Smothers was killed, Bridges came over to a house, and made the statement “If he ain’t dead, I’m dead.”

The witness also told the police Bridges hid the gun in a wooded area off of Jackson Street, and then came inside the house and washed his hands with bleach.

Police were able to recover a 9 mm pistol wrapped in a t-shirt in the area described by the witness. Investigators were able to determine that the gun located in the woods on Jackson Street was purchased approximately one month prior by Bridges’ girlfriend “Forensic evidence would later confirm that Bridges’ 9mm pistol was used to kill Smothers, and that Bridges’ DNA was on the clothing located at the crime scene,” said Assistant District Attorney Ian Baker, who prosecuted the cases.

At sentencing, Circuit Court Judge Randi Mueller commented on the epidemic of gun violence currently plaguing our area and the nation.

Judge Mueller recognized that in this situation “two families have lost a loved one, one to the grave, and the other to the penitentiary.” Judge Muller then pronounced the 40-year sentence.