PHOTO BY DEAN OLSEN; MUGSHOT FROM SANGAMON COUNTY SHERRIFS OFFICE
Katherine Smith in the hallway of the Sangamon County Courthouse on June 25, 2024, after testifying at the trial of Dayne Woods, who was later convicted on first-degree murder chargesfor stabbing Dohndre Hughes to death. Inset, Smith at the time of her arrest in February 2018.
A 26-year-old Chatham woman originally charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 robbery and killing of 19-year-old Springfield resident Dohndre Hughes may only serve a few more months in custody after she was sentenced Aug. 4 in a plea deal.
She received a prison sentence of 13 years after pleading guilty to home invasion in the case.
With good behavior, Smith could have been released in 6½ years. But she will receive credit for more than 6½ years based on the time she spent in the Sangamon County Jail and more than one year after that on home confinement and electronic monitoring while awaiting trial.
Smith is expected to be released after being held for processing by the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Associate Judge Rudolph Braud said in Sangamon County Circuit Court that he agreed with Mark Wykoff, the attorney for Katherine Smith, that Smith deserved leniency for the role she played in the Feb. 23, 2018, stabbing death of Dohndre Hughes, 19, for other circumstances in the case and for steps she has taken since her arrest to turn her life around.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser asked for a 25-year sentence. Home invasion carries a potential sentence of six to 30 years in prison. If the judge had agreed with Milhiser, Smith could have been forced to serve slightly more than five years in prison after taking into account time served and good behavior.
Smith was 18 when she conspired with two Springfield men – Dayne Woods and Mark Meszaros, then 20 and 21, respectively – to rob Hughes.
Smith wasn’t present during the confrontation but told Woods and Meszaros where Hughes lived.
All three were responsible for what happened, Milhiser said. All three were charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, home invasion and theft after Woods and Meszaros broke into Hughes’ home in the 1900 block of East Jackson Street in search of money and marijuana.
In opening arguments at Woods’ trial, Milhiser said Woods, Smith and Meszaros planned the home invasion and robbery of people in the house who they thought were selling drugs and were unlikely to report the robbery to police.
Milhiser said during Woods’ jury trial in June 2024 that Woods and Meszaros pretended to be police and yelled “police” when they broke into Hughes’ home shortly before 12:30 a.m. Feb. 23.
Meszaros then used pepper spray to subdue one of the three men living there while Woods, wearing a “police shirt,” allegedly entered the bedroom and stabbed Hughes once in the chest, according to Milhiser. Woods and Meszaros fled with $600 in cash but later were arrested, along with Smith.
Woods, now 27, was found guilty by a jury on all charges and was sentenced to 37 years in prison. Because of the first-degree murder conviction, state law calls for him to serve 100% of the sentence.
Meszaros, now 28, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to armed robbery and home invasion. The other charges were dropped and he received a 30-year prison sentence, with a potential 50% reduction in time served for good behavior.
Wykoff said Smith had “no worldly idea” that Woods and Meszaros would get into a physical confrontation with Hughes and that Woods was carrying a deadly weapon.
Wykoff said Smith was a victim of domestic violence, and her decision to help plan the robbery was “induced” by physical, verbal and emotional abuse inflicted by Woods.
Smith was a poor student at Lincoln Land Community College before her arrest but a straight-A student after her pretrial release in mid-2024, Wykoff said.
Smith said during the Aug. 4 sentencing hearing that she was a “weak individual” before the crime. “There are so many things I should have done differently,” she told the judge.
She apologized to Hughes’ family, saying, “There will forever be a hole in my heart. I know it will never compare to what you have gone through.”
Smith initially was charged with murder based on the concept of felony murder, in which a person commits a “forcible felony” – such as home invasion – that sets off a chain of events leading to a death, even if the person wasn’t present and didn’t intend to injure or kill.
Some critics of the state’s felony murder law want that option for charging murder abolished. Milhiser said he favors retaining the option even though he agreed with Smith’s plea bargain based on her testimony against Woods during Woods’ trial and other circumstances in the case.