An evidentiary hearing took place in Chattanooga on Monday to determine the status of the relationship between Andrew Colbaugh and Tabitha Smith before her accidental drowing death in the back seat of a patrol car driven by Meigs County Deputy Robert J. Leonard.
In February, 2024, with Ms. Smith handcuffed in the back seat, the new-to-town deputy missed a turn and drove into the Tennessee River, where they both died. Nathan Smith, one of four children of Tabitha Smith, is suing Meighs County for $10 million. Colbaugh, husband of Ms. Smith, is suing the county for $100 million for negligence.
The court is trying to sort out which is the rightful heir to a potential large settlement.
The question that Federal Judge Clifton L. Corker must decide is if Colbaugh abandoned the marriage or willfully withdrew from it two years prior to her death. They married and their daughter, London Smith, was born in 2016. According to testimony, by 2018 it became evident that Tabby was failing to watch the toddler and leaving her by herself. When the child was around two years old, an incident report showed that she had wandered out of the house and was found several doors away. By 2018, Colbaugh testified, Tabby had walked away from the family three times and left the child, was using drugs and was not taking care of her baby. At some point, he got custody papers for London.
During the hearing Colbaugh was in the witness stand with his wrists and ankles chained, having been brought to Chattanooga by officers from the Meigs County Jail.
He said he had been in jail since 2021 or 2022 for either DUI or for failing a drug test and failure to go to a halfway house. Colbaugh replied to most questions that he could not remember dates and, during the hearing, relied on Facebook and other social media postings for the times and to remember what happened.
During the next two years, Colbaugh started seeing a woman who he said was an old friend who came to help him with London, and the relationship became that of girlfriend and boyfriend. Then she moved into the Colbaugh house. After a period of time she moved out and a second lifelong friend, Sheena McCoon, in 2019 moved in. But Colbaugh described the relationship as “It wasn’t nothing consistent.” She lived there until he was sent to jail.
During the relationships with Tabitha and the other two women, Colbaugh shared drugs with them, primarily meth and fentanyl, it was stated.
During the time that the women lived with him he said that Tabby would show up “unannounced, high and messed up.” She spent the night just several times and was there for a day and no more than a week, then she would be gone again, said Colbaugh.
He said he went to see Tabitha several times after she had moved to Birchwood and one time found her living in a trailer with no electricity or water. He said he asked her to come home. On one of the other visits, he said she stole his car.
In October 2020, Colbaugh obtained a temporary order of protection for Tabby and the next April obtained an actual legal order of protection. When she showed up once at 5 a.m. "messed up,” he said he did not try and enforce the order of protection. However, in 2021, he said his grandmother called the law on her. In one conversation on Facebook with Amber McKinney, Tabitha’s sister, he said that Tabby showed up unannounced and high but that “she would always be welcome at my house because she’s my baby mama.”
At the hearing Amber said that she parted ways with her sister when she was about 17 and had not been around Tabby and Cobaugh together except for twice, and one of those times was at her niece’s first birthday party. She said the couple had separated within a year of that party. It was after they separated that Amber’s husband offered the abandoned trailer to her sister. Amber visited her sister there just once and took the child, London, to visit her mother in jail one time in the summer of 2023. She said she had separated herself from her sister and had no communication with her because Tabby was not good for her mental state so she did not invite her sister into her home. She also said that she believed that Andy was a good dad but added, “How could he be because he struggles with drugs?”
Colbaugh said he learned of Tabby’s death on Facebook.
Attorney Michael Thomas, representing Tabatha’s son Nathan Smith, said he believes that the relationship between Andy and Tabby ended aroud 2017-2018 after Colbaugh’s repeated attempts to make it work. And he said that he had willfully abandoned the marriage by having relationships with the two other women.
Judge Corker will consider the testimony to assertain if Colbaugh finally gave up and moved on because for two-and-a half years he lived with other women.
Attorney Alyson Oliver of Michigan, representing Colbaugh, said that if her client had wanted a divorce, he could have gotten one. She said at some point her client had stopped bugging Tabby and had relationships with other women. She said, "You cannot abandon someone who has already abandoned you." She said that Tabby walked off and Andy had kept trying. After years, then he accepted it.
Judge Corker said he will make a decision on the issue if Andy Colbaugh willfully withdrew two years before Tabitha Smith’s death.