NWMSU honors slain student

Tomarken Smith came to Maryville as a stranger, just another lone freshman a long way from home at Northwest Missouri State University.

But by the time of his tragic death three years later during an alleged Sept. 14 assault outside a Maryville tavern, this town had become a second home.

Everybody who ever met the big kid with the weightlifter's body and the thousand-watt smile seems to have fallen a little bit in love with him.

Smith is now in his grave, but the love remains, and it was given physical expression Friday during a memorial service at Northwest Missouri State University.

More than 200 people were there, including the two veteran Maryville police sergeants who struggled valiantly, and in vain, to save the young man's life.

Officers Rex Riley and Rick Smail gave Smith CPR and mouth-to-mouth respiration as he lay dying on a sidewalk directly across the street from the courthouse where one of his alleged attackers is to appear today on charges of second-degree murder.

Smail, who has been a Maryville cop for nearly 25 years, and who has witnessed more than a reasonable share of violence and death, said he is still shaken by Smith's passing.

He and Riley were on "bar patrol" inside Molly's, a dance club on Market Street, when a scuffle broke out involving Smith and Tony M. Overlin, now one of two men charged with second-degree murder and felony assault.

Smail said the "shoving match" involved young women who were hanging out with Smith and who did not want to dance with Overlin.

The two cops broke up the fight, and bouncers escorted Overlin and his companion, Kevin Dell Mooney, from the premises. Smail recalled that both men were in good, if inebriated, spirits and didn't appear to be looking for trouble.

That's what haunts Smail, who said Friday he has gone over the scene in his mind countless time wondering if there was something he missed, something that would have moved him to arrest the men before they left the bar.

While talking to Smith after the initial scuffle, Smail said the young man, with whom he was somewhat acquainted, actually thanked him for "keeping it safe at the bars."

"I feel like I let him down," Smail said at Friday's memorial service.

But there apparently wasn't much Smail or Riley either one could have done. On the fatal night, as Molly's closed around 1:15 a.m., Smith exited the tavern onto Market Street and walked north toward the corner with one of his fraternity brothers.

According to several witnesses who testified at Mooney's preliminary hearing, Overlin and Mooney burst from the shadows and struck the young man almost simultaneously on either side of his head.

Smith dropped to the pavement, cracked the back of his skull on the sidewalk and never got up. A forensic pathologist later testified that he died from blunt-force trauma.

Overlin and Mooney were arrested by other officers on patrol a few minutes later. Overlin, according to both Riley and Smail, actually returned to the scene to watch as the two sergeants struggled to save the victim's life.

After Smith was declared dead at St. Francis Hospital, Smail sought comfort from Fr. Martin DeMeulenaere, the priest at Maryville's St. Gregory Barbarigo Catholic Church.

"He told me I'd done all I could," Smail said. "But it sure didn't feel like it. Just because we have a badge and a gun and a blue suit doesn't make us invincible."

Rick Smail is a big, tough man, not given to tears. But he was very close to shedding them after Friday's memorial ceremony when Northwest's Bell of '48 tolled 21 times, once for each year of Tomarken Smith's short life.

"I remember his smile most of all," Smail said. "He really impacted us, and it was hard for me to deal with. It still is."