BILLINGS - A Billings man has been sentenced to 75 years in prison for a fatal shooting following a fight during a drug deal.
Loren Cody Smoker, 25, was sentenced Friday by Yellowstone County District Court Judge Ashley Harada following his conviction at a trial held in May.
At trial, the jury found Smoker guilty of deliberate homicide with a weapons enhancement and tampering with evidence. The jury rejected Smoker's defense that the fatal shooting was a justifiable use of force.
Harada ordered Smoker to serve 70 years at Montana State Prison for deliberate homicide and an additional 10 years for the weapons enhancement, according to court records. The judge suspended 10 years of that portion of the sentence.
Harada ordered Smoker to serve a five-year consecutive prison sentence for the tampering conviction. She also ordered Smoker to pay $23,777.65 in restitution.
Smoker was convicted and sentenced for the June 23, 2024, shooting death of 27-year-old Dennis Fabian Rolon, who died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Prosecutors said the fatal encounter began at about 2 a.m. at a residence on Country Manor Boulevard. Officers were called to that residence for a report of a fight, but as they were responding they received another call of a shooting in the area of Central Avenue and Shiloh Road.
When officers arrived they found Rolon slumped over in a car that was stopped in the southbound lane of Shiloh Road. He had been shot in the head and died a short time later at a Billings hospital. Officers found several bullet holes in the driver's side of the car.
Two people who were passengers in the car identified the shooter as Smoker, who they said had contacted them earlier about obtaining drugs. An argument broke out, they said, and the three of them drove to Smoker's apartment on Country Manor Boulevard where the argument turned into a fight.
Rolon left with the two others in a car, but the trio was chased by another vehicle driven by Smoker, court records state. Around Shiloh and Central, Smoker pulled up next to the car driven by Rolon and fired several shots before driving away, court records state.
Officers eventually located Smoker at a residence on the North Side where he was arrested. Officers also later retrieved the vehicle Smoker was driving and the firearm used in the shooting, court records state.
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