Teen Found Shot to Death Near Dumpster Is Identified

Homicide investigators Wednesday identified a 14-year-old boy found dead Tuesday near a trash dumpster in an industrial area of the city.

Nicholas Lynn Smith of Huntington Beach, a continuation high school student, had been shot in the head. He was discovered Tuesday morning by a sanitation worker who was collecting garbage.

Smith’s mother, Linda Smith, 43, said she reported him missing to Huntington Beach police Saturday night.

His body was discovered about 8 a.m. in the 3000 block of South Croddy Way. His head had been covered with a plastic bag.

Santa Ana homicide investigators did not know how long Smith had been dead or whether the killing took place within the city, said Lt. Robert Helton. Police said they are still looking for a motive in the slaying.

“We just don’t know enough about this guy,” Helton said. “We’re going to be looking at everything.” He said it appeared that Smith’s head was covered with the bag after he was shot, but he declined to speculate about the reason.

Helton said investigators feared that the heavy rains Tuesday morning, which doused Smith and the area around his body, might have erased clues.

Smith’s mother said the boy had claimed to be a gang member, but police said they did not know whether the victim was in fact a gang member or if the killing was gang-related.

When Smith was 11 years old, “he told me he was a member of a gang and then jumped out,” Linda Smith said. “I don’t know if he was a gang member. . . . He was one of those wanna-be kids.”

“He acted the tough kid. He didn’t want to let anyone see the inside of him,” she said.

In her living room, a tearful Linda Smith said she feared that something had happened to her younger son after he did not return to their Tamaru Drive apartment Saturday night. Her elder son, Jeremy, 23, lives in Brea, she said.

Nicholas “said he would see a friend and be back,” she said, and left behind his cigarettes and jacket. “There was nothing to lead me to believe he wasn’t coming home.”

Smith, described as 6 feet tall and 260 pounds, usually hung out with older people, his mother said. “People always expected him to be older because of his size.”

Smith went to Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach before transferring two weeks ago to Valley Vista High School, a continuation school in Fountain Valley, his mother said.

Neighbors said Smith was on probation because of a weapons possession charge. His mother, who confirmed he was on probation, would not elaborate.

Linda Smith said raising Nicholas has been a challenge because “he was much too big and much too fast sometimes” for her to control.

But she said her son also had a soft side and “could make himself to be as streetwise as anybody, but underneath he was still a kid.”

“He was my son and I loved him and he loved me,” she said.