Man sentenced in 2008 murder plot

A man charged in an unsuccessful 2008 plot to kill since-slain Berryville Town Councilwoman Gail S. Smith pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge in the case.

Edward Robert Poley, 34, received a suspended jail sentence in Nottoway County Circuit Court on a misdemeanor charge of acting as an accessory to the fact of a felony, according to an online court database. He originally had faced a felony murder conspiracy charge.

Poley was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all of the time suspended, according to the database.

Smith was found dead from a gunshot wound July 30, 2009, in her Pickett Court home in Berrvyille. Authorities have said a subsequent conspiracy likely led to her death.
No one has been charged in the actual slaying.

Smith's brother, Timothy R. Smith Jr., was sentenced to two years in prison Aug. 4 on a murder solicitation charge in the 2008 case.

Poley and another man, Edward Visosky III, 40, of Meherrin, rented rooms from Timothy Smith in Burkeville in the summer of 2008.

Visosky, who also once faced a murder conspiracy charge, received a suspended sentence in August after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor accessory charge.