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New Hanover & Pender County District Attorney
Jason W. Smith
North Carolina Prosecutorial District 6
Jason W. Smith, District Attorney
Before being elected District Attorney in November 2024, Jason Smith served as an Assistant District Attorney in New Hanover and Pender Counties since 2010. During his tenure in the office, Jason handled all manner of cases, ranging from white collar crimes to sexual assaults and homicides. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Jason had his own law practice and worked for Webb & Graves, focusing on business, tax, and estate law at both firms. He also served as corporate counsel for Coastal Discount Stockbrokers. An Alabama native, Jason earned his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 1999 and a bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Virginia Military Institute. Jason and his wife Tamara, also an attorney, live in Pender County and have four children.
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In addition to his public service in our region, Jason served in the United States Army Reserve as a Captain as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Officer. In 2003 he was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jason was an Executive Officer and platoon leader for the 413th Chemical Company for 15 months, until his honorable discharge from the Army as a Captain in 2005. When he is not at work or spending time with family, Jason volunteers for several organizations and serves as a Board member of the Wilmington Christian Academy School and as a Deacon at Grace Baptist Church. He has volunteered as a coach with both Pop Warner Football and the Topsail Youth Lacrosse Association. Jason was also a Board member for A Safe Place and regularly speaks to student and parent groups about internet safety, social media safety, and making sound decisions. If you are interested in inviting Jason to speak at your organization, please contact his assistant Samantha Dooies.
Community-Based Prosecution
The District Attorney's Office belongs to the people of New Hanover and Pender County, and we understand the importance of getting out into the community we represent. Every year, we speak to thousands of students at all levels in our public schools to have a dialogue about choices and consequences before they have the right to remain silent. We also hold seminars for our senior citizens on identity theft, fraud, and other issues confronting them. We proactively work with area agencies and advocacy groups to confront issues ranging from drug addiction to domestic violence and sexual assaults to property offenses. Assistant District Attorneys and Victim Witness Legal Assistants sit on the boards of charitable and civic organizations that are too numerous to mention and every person within the office is encouraged to volunteer in the community. Simply put, community-based prosecution means working with everyone to achieve justice.​​
Constitutional Duties​
The District Attorney's office is the largest law firm in the Sixth District, representing the nearly 300,000 people living in New Hanover and Pender Counties. Our attorneys have over 200 combined years of experience prosecuting crimes. We have two primary responsibilities in the District Attorney’s Office: first, to advise local law enforcement, and second, to prosecute every criminal matter in both counties. There are more than 1,000 sworn law officers in over 20 different state and federal law enforcement agencies with whom we work every day. We employ a police/prosecutor team approach and proactively work with officers during all phases of a case. When cases come to trial, we set the calendar and have the burden of proof in all cases from simple traffic offenses to first degree murder. There are more than 50,000 traffic offenses, 20,000 misdemeanors, and 5,000 felonies calendared each year in the Sixth District.
Setting Priorities and Setting the Tone
If everything is a priority then nothing is. Our priority has been, and will continue to be, the prosecution of violent crimes and career criminals. We will always be defined by the cases we try in front of juries; however, winning murder trials not only gives justice to victims in those individual cases, it sets the tone for the whole District. When you consistently win the big cases in front of juries, then the drug dealers, thieves and other violent offenders line up to plead guilty to their charges. Around the state, 98% of all cases result in a plea--a non-jury disposition in front of a judge--saving valuable resources and court time.
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