Ashley Smith

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For the Welsh rugby player, see Ashley Smith (rugby player). For the Marxist journalist and editor, see Ashley Smith (journalist).

Ashley Smith Robinson
Born	August 1, 1978 (1978-08-01) (age 29) Augusta, Georgia
Nationality	US
Other names	Ashley Smith
Occupation	Author and speaker
Known for	Author and hostage
Children	1

Ashley Smith Robinson (born August 1, 1978^[1]) is an author and speaker.

1 Early Life
2 First Marriage
3 Hostage Ordeal
4 Hostage Aftermath
5 Second Marriage
6 Sources
7 External links

[edit] Early Life

Born Elizabeth Ashley Copeland, Smith's parents divorced when she was young. She was pirmarily raised by her maternal grandfather and aunt in Augusta, Georgia. Smith played high school basketball at Augusta Christian Schools where she attended until 8th grade and Lakeside. As a teenager, she was arrested for petty crimes. In her 20s, she was charged with a DUI.

[edit] First Marriage

She married Daniel McFarland (Mack) Smith just two months before the premature birth of their daughter, Paige. Mack Smith was stabbed to death on August 18, 2001, in Augusta, Georgia. After Ashley's hostage ordeal the case was reopened, and in March 2006, Corey Coggins was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.^[2] Sometime after her husband was killed, she moved to the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Georgia.

[edit] Hostage Ordeal

On March 11, 2005 Brian Nichols allegedly killed several people during an escape from custody at Atlanta’s Fulton County Courthouse. He ultimately forced his way into Ashley Smith's apartment. In an unexpected move, after more than 7 hours of being held hostage, Nichols allowed her to leave her complex upon her claim to visit her daughter. Smith took the opportunity to dial local authorities who summoned the Gwinnett County, Georgia, S.W.A.T. team, who eventually arrested him upon an uneventful surrender.

During her ordeal, Smith read to Nichols from the Bible and from Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. She also cooked him pancakes and gave him crystal methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant, from her personal supply, although she maintains that she did not use the drug along with him. Smith later revealed "that she had been struggling with a methamphetamine addiction when she was taken hostage, and the drug problem had even led to time spent in a psychiatric hospital and the loss of custody of her 5-year-old daughter."^[3] Smith said the last time she used crystal meth "was 36 hours before Nichols held a gun to her and entered her home. Nichols wanted her to use the drug with him, but she refused.” Smith also revealed that she had “a five-inch scar down the center of her torso — the aftermath of a car wreck caused by drug-induced psychosis. She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, ‘Let go and let God.’”^[4]

[edit] Hostage Aftermath

While Brian Nichols was still at large, the governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, offered a reward of $60,000 for information leading to the capture of the fugitive. As the individual who notified the authorities of Nichols' location, Smith is eligible to receive the reward. On March 15, 2005, Perdue released $10,000 of the reward money. The sum makes up the state's share of the $60,000.

It was announced in June 2005 that Smith had inked a book deal with HarperCollins Publishers. She collaborated with writer Stacy Mattingly on her memoirs, Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero. The book came out in September 2005, and Smith revealed her methamphetamine addiction there for the first time. Smith asserts therein that her hostage ordeal awakened her to the fact that she was an addict, and she holds that she has not used drugs since the ordeal.

[edit] Second Marriage

Ashley remarrried in June of 2007 and lives with her husband, daughter and step-daughter in Gainesville, Georgia. She is studying to become a radiology technician.^[5]