A federal judge has ruled that the estranged spouse of the woman who drowned in the back seat of a Meigs County patrol car should not share in any proceeds from her wrongful death case.
Judge Clifton Corker said Andrew Colbaugh withdrew from his relationship with Tabitha Smith before her accidental drowning death in the car driven by Meigs County Deputy Robert J. Leonard.
The judge said Nathan Smith - the son who also filed suit in the case - "has presented sufficient evidence that Colbaugh willfully withdrew from the marriage for two years. From April 2018 to October 2020, Colbaugh publicly entered into relationships with two different women, expressed no desire to continue a relationship with decedent (Ms. Smith), and petitioned for an Order of Protection to prohibit her from contacting him or their child."
Judge Corker said a single case should proceed in the matter that includes Nathan Smith and three minor children.
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 is suing Meighs County for $10 million. Colbaugh sued the county for $100 million for negligence.
Colbaugh and Ms. Smith married and their daughter, London Smith, was born in 2016. According to testimony, by 2018 it became evident that Ms. Smith 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, Ms. Smith 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 recent 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 Ms. Smith 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 Colbaugh 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. Nathan Smith is also represented by attorney Robin Flores.
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.