Bond raised from $5,000 to $500,000 in murder case

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Warren Circuit Court Judge John Grise Monday raised the bond from $5,000 to $500,000 for a Bowling Green man accused in the February death of another man at a Porter Pike business.

Bowling Green police responded Feb. 8 to a Porter Pike business where they found the badly burned body of Smajo Miropija, 49. A state medical examiner determined the manner of death to be homicide. Police have not released the cause of death.

A grand jury Wednesday, indicted two men in Miropija’s death; Jeffrey Smith, 46, who is lodged in the Warren County Regional Jail and Antonio Wilson, 39, who left the country before police questioning and is being held in the Philippines, where he is awaiting extradition, according to a release from Bowling Green Police Department.

A grand jury indicted Wilson on charges of murder by complicity, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

The same grand jury indicted Smith on charges of murder, tampering with physical evidence, three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and receiving stolen property.

Monday, Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron asked Grise to increase the original $5,000 bond he set on Wilson, and Grise agreed.

Cohron has also filed a motion to have Smith’s bond increased. His bond is currently set at $25,000. A hearing in Smith’s case is set for Wednesday morning.