Robert Lee Ward will serve life in federal prison for the 2013 shooting death of a confidential FBI information as the man dropped off his son for school.

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington sentenced the 55-year-old Fort Myers man for the murder and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. A jury found Ward guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine on February 18, 2022 and another jury found him guilty of killing Kristopher Smith, the FBI informant, on September 29, 2023.

According to the evidence and testimony presented during the trials, Ward was the leader of a drug trafficking organization in Fort Myers that distributed cocaine in Fort Myers and other locations for over a decade until his arrest in 2018.

Ward and his co-conspirators routinely purchased kilograms of cocaine from Ward’s supplier in Miami and distributed the cocaine in Fort Myers and Panama City.

Federal investigators used confidential informants to make multiple purchases of cocaine from Ward’s co-conspirators. A confidential informant that purchased cocaine from Ward was relocated by investigators after they learned of a threat against the informant’s life.

In 2012, the FBI obtained the assistance of Smith, a member of Ward’s organization, who agreed to cooperate in the investigation against Ward.

After learning about Smith’s cooperation with investigators, Ward solicited James Broomfield to kill Smith. Broomfield agreed to kill Smith for $30,000. Ward provided Broomfield with a loaded firearm and told him where to locate Smith.

On January 7, 2013, Broomfield and another individual followed Smith and his girlfriend as they drove to their son’s school.

Smith, who remained in the car while his girlfriend entered the school, was approached by Broomfield who ran up to the car and shot Smith several times, killing him.

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