Christopher Dodge Smith’s 5-year-old daughter told police her father had just killed her girlfriend.
Smith, 40, allegedly gunned down Jessica Antolini, 30, outside a Safety Harbor, Florida bar on Oct. 13 before running over her body as he fled with the child and their pet dog in the car, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office affidavit. The girl, who has not been publicly identified, repeated to investigators multiple times, “Daddy shot Jess.”
The shooting unfolded around 9 p.m. At the Harbor Bar after Smith appeared to be “hunting down” Antolini, the affidavit states. Witnesses told deputies he had been acting “extremely strangely” inside the establishment, walking around as if “possessed” while searching for her.
Once Smith located Antolini, the couple argued in the parking lot. As she followed him toward his vehicle, he suddenly produced a handgun and fired a single devastating shot.
“in the face, through her left eye, and out the rear of her skull,” the affidavit describes the wound.
Smith did not stop after the shooting. With his daughter and dog still inside the vehicle, he allegedly ran over Antolini’s body as he sped away from the scene, authorities said. The child and the animal were unharmed and are now safe.
The suspect’s flight was brief. Multiple 911 callers reported the shooting and provided details about Smith’s vehicle, according to a sheriff’s office press release. Deputies spotted the car and attempted a traffic stop, but Smith refused to pull over and officers were forced to immobilize the vehicle.
Smith then allegedly called his mother with his daughter in tow, telling her he was bringing the child over because he had “messed up” and “shot Jess,” the affidavit alleges.
Antolini was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died from her injuries.
Smith now faces first-degree murder and child abuse charges. He is being held without bond in the Pinellas County Jail.
The case centers on a domestic pursuit that escalated into lethal violence in full view of a child too young to process what she witnessed, yet old enough to tell authorities exactly what she saw.
