No charges filed in bar fight death

Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker has decided not to file charges against a bar patron who punched another man, causing him to fall and hit his head, killing him.

The man who died Jan. 6 inside a north Spokane bar was the aggressor, Tucker said, adding that Gregory Patrick Smelcer, 37, picked the one-punch fight inside the Screaming Yak with a larger man, identified as Morris “Carl” Crane.

Smelcer “was really getting after the guy (Crane),” Tucker said. “It looked like mutual combat. The aggressor got hit first. That was the end of the fight.”

The scuffle was recorded on surveillance cameras at the bar located at 118 W. Francis Ave. Sheriff’s detectives sent the case to Tucker without recommending charges.

Crane “was minding his own business. Smelcer was at him the whole time,” Tucker said.

Asked whether someone could be charged with assault even if they didn’t pick the fight, Tucker said that scenario could result in a charge.

But in this particular case, Tucker said he had deputy prosecutors Jack Driscoll and Larry Steinmetz review the tapes as well.

“We all agreed it just wasn’t a case we could take to a jury,” Tucker said.

He added that Smelcer’s blood alcohol content was 0.29 percent, which is normally the level that would cause someone to pass out.

“The fracture (to Smelcer’s skull) occurred from the fall,” Tucker said.

“It could have been a shove instead of a hit and he still would have died.”