Capital murder defendant cuts deal, pleads guilty to double murder in Baldwin County

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WALA) - A man on the eve of his capital murder trial agreed Monday to plead guilty to two counts of murder.

Baldwin County Circuit Judge J. Clark Stankoski accepted the pleas and sentenced Antwon Montrex Smith, 40, to life in prison. At the time of his arrest, authorities described him as a Pensacola man, but the Baldwin County Corrections Center lists his home address in Flomaton, in Alabama’s Escambia County.

Prosecutors alleged that Smith fatally shot Ryan Frazier and Joshua Carroll, a pair of contractors from Seattle who were laying fiber-optic cable in 2020 in Elberta. At the time of Smith’s arrest, law enforcement investigators described the shootings as a drug deal gone bad. Investigators said they cracked the case, in part, from a dog belonging to one of the victims.

According to investigators, the dog had identification with the owner’s name. That led authorities to the victim’s missing vehicle.