Convicted cattle rustler and former McAnsh Park resident Scott Eric Smith has avoided a second criminal trial by taking a negotiated plea deal which adds crimes to his rap sheet, but will not add years to the time he’ll serve in state prison.

Smith worked as a ranch manager at Bhakta Farms on State Road 60, a job he got after fleeing pending cattle rustling charges in Wyoming. The owner of the ranch, craft whiskey distiller and entrepreneur Raj Bhakta, had his sights on raising high-end Angus-Wagyu beef cattle west of Vero Beach.

According to the case file, Smith took advantage of his absentee boss by having a herd of cattle hauled to the Okeechobee Livestock Market, selling them, and depositing the $279,000 proceeds into his own account instead of turning the money over to Bhakta.

In exchange for Smith’s no contest plea to felony grand theft and weapons charges, Judge Robert Meadows sentenced Smith to seven years in prison plus eight years of probation. “It will be concurrent with the Okeechobee sentence,” said Assistant State Attorney Elise Keating, one of the prosecutors on the 2020 case.

In June, an Okeechobee County jury had convicted Smith of selling a herd of stolen cattle and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison plus 10 years of probation. His new sentence will be served concurrently with those terms.

Part of the plea deal last week was $36,407 in restitution to make Bhakta Farms whole for Smith’s other thefts – apart from the cattle – during his employ.

Smith’s crimes were not discovered right away. His scheme only began to unravel at a traffic stop, when he initially gave police a false name. When police identified Smith, he was initially arrested on a fugitive from justice warrant from Wyoming, and for possessing a firearm as a felon. Smith had been convicted and served time in California for swindling wealthy customers in an adventure guide scam.

When Florida is finished with Smith, he’ll face trial in Wyoming for 31 counts of cattle rustling, theft and forgery.