Teen kills mother's boyfriend
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

Robert Terrell Smith was arrested Wednesday for shooting his mother's boyfriend five times.

A Waynesboro teenager gunned down his mother's boyfriend in the middle of East Twelfth Street.

Lorne Letwaine White, 34, was pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday, just minutes after he was shot five times.

Robert Terrell Smith, 18, the son of Mr. White's girlfriend, pulled the trigger after a heated argument spilled out of his mother's North Liberty Street home and into the side street.

According to Burke County Coroner Betty White, Mr. White was shot in the arm, chest, ear, neck and lower back.

The confrontation and shooting were captured by an outdoor security camera mounted at the Jet Food Store across the street.

The video footage also shows a visibly upset Mr. White talking to family members in the Jet Food Store parking lot just moments before the shooting.

He set off toward the house with a gun in his hand, but according to Investigator Claude Wade, witnesses say he threw it down in the grass before confronting Smith.

The teenager's mother, Joanne Bonner, pushed herself between them, but within seconds, her son drew a gun and began firing.

Mr. White took off running and collapsed in the front yard of a neighboring home.

He was rushed to Burke Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

While investigators haven't said what triggered the fight between Mr. White and Smith, records show that Mr. White had a history of domestic violence.

Last fall he was arrested for beating up his wife behind the Burke County Court House, and in March 2003 he was arrested under the Family Violence Act for an assault involving a knife.

Although there are no reports of physical violence involving Bonner, police were called to the North Liberty Street home several months ago when she and Mr. White got into an argument, and he took her car without permission.