MANISTIQUE -- It's an anguish that only a mother could feel. One son dead and the other son behind bars...charged with fatally stabbing his own brother.
Twenty-one-year-old Nicholas Andrew Smith appeared in the Schoolcraft District Court today for his arraignment. He's charged with homicide in the stabbing of his 26-year-old brother, Michael Peter Clement Smith.
“I’m holding up fine right now,” explains the young men’s sister, Haleigh Smith. “I’m just waiting for it to hit me. But the rest of my family is not taking it well at all. It’s a shock."
By the time officers arrived shortly after midnight Thursday, Mike Smith was already dead.
According to their mother, both young men have had a history of drug and alcohol abuse.
“Michael was addicted,” explains mom, Kelley Smith. “He had told me one time, Mom, you don't know what it's like to be addicted. The only thing you ever really need to live is air."
But childhood friend, Scott Gravelle, says that murder is just not in Nick's character.
“It never would cross his mind to hurt anybody,” says Gravelle. “And just for people to say he's done this is wrong. I don't believe Nick did this at all."
Manistique Public Safety Director, Ken Golat, said that drug abuse plays a big part in crime here.
“I would say that throughout the U.P., murders are becoming more common,” said Golat. “Crime is on the uprise. There has been more serious crime in the Upper Peninsula."
The exact motive behind the stabbing is still under investigation.
Nicholas Smith will have his preliminary hearing in District Court on March 23. He's currently being held without bond in Schoolcraft County Jail.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWLUC