The 18-year-old charged with stealing hundreds of cell phones collected by Fayette County students to benefit the military is a former classmate many may have known as "Smitty." Michael L. Smith, of 35 Rear Lawton Ave., Uniontown, is facing burglary and theft charges in connection with a break-in at Laurel Highlands Senior High School overnight between March 7 and 8. According to Ed Zelich, assistant principal at the North Union Township school, Smith is no longer a student there, but was enrolled earlier this year. Smith is charged with burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief. Police say he broke into teacher Terry Ainsley's classroom by smashing through a window and making off with a computer and 700 cell phones. Students were collecting the phones for Cell Phones for Soldiers, a national effort to recycle old phones to raise money to purchase satellite phones and phone cards for troops stationed in Iraq. Last week, a garbage can full of cell phones was found near the school with a note explaining that whoever stole them didn't know they were being collected to benefit the military. The computer remains missing. Smith was arraigned on Tuesday and stayed out of jail on $10,000 unsecured bond. But by Wednesday afternoon, he was placed in the Fayette County Prison in lieu of $100,000 cash bond. Magisterial District Judge Deberah Kula modified the amount after she learned that Smith did not appear for the evaluation she'd ordered him to undergo at the county probation department. Trooper John Marshall, the state police investigator who signed Smith's arrest papers, said police don't believe that Smith acted alone and that the investigation is continuing. Police are comparing a court-ordered blood sample from Smith to blood droplets found with the broken glass in the classroom. Since the theft, police and school officials have wondered what, if any, street value the old phones carry. "I believe the inspiration of these criminal masterminds was to put the stolen cell phones on eBay," Marshall said, referring to a popular Internet auction site. "I don't quite understand what the motivation was," Ainsley said. "It's such an unfortunate thing for someone to get in trouble over." Marshall said Smith sold five of the phones, but police recovered one. Ainsley said she recognized Smith's name, but was not familiar with him as a student. His arrest papers indicate he goes by the nickname "Smitty." School officials have been contacted by people as far away as Tennessee who offered help to replenish the stockpile of phones. The Westmoreland County Sheriff's Department donated 500 phones from a surplus the department had amassed through its program to provide cell phones to senior citizens. Smith faces a preliminary hearing on April 7 before Kula.

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