Gov. Mary Fallin has named a career prosecutor as the new district attorney for three south-central Oklahoma counties.
Fallin says Paul Smith of Seminole was appointed Friday as district attorney for Seminole, Hughes and Pontotoc counties. He replaces Chris Ross, who retired on Jan. 1, and will serve out the remainder of Ross's term, which expires in January 2019.
Smith has 30 years of prosecution experience in Oklahoma and has served as first assistant district attorney in Seminole, Hughes and Pontotoc counties the past five years. He has also worked as a prosecutor in Choctaw, Pushmataha, McCurtain and Tulsa Counties.
Fallin says Smith has won guilty verdicts in various homicide cases throughout his long career and is co-founder of one of the state's first rural drug courts.