A 43-year-old Cut Bank man has been charged with a felony count of deliberate homicide after allegedly shooting his girlfriend in the head during an argument at his apartment where he stored her body in the complex’s basement freezer last month.
Alfred Joseph Smith on Feb. 9 was arrested in Fort Benton after authorities received a tip of his whereabouts. He is being held on a $1 million bond.
According to an affidavit filed by Deputy Glacier County Attorney Joseph Sherwood, Cut Bank Police Department officers on the afternoon of Feb. 7 were flagged down by Shirley Racine who told law enforcement a female, later identified as 36-year-old Cerenity Shawl, had been murdered and her body was located in the 10 South Central apartment complex’s basement freezer.
Authorities went to the scene and after the apartment’s owner granted permission for law enforcement to enter, they discovered a freezer with blankets tied around it, secured with a gun lock and duct tape placed around the seals. Large splotches of blood were observed on top of the blankets and there was a decomposition odor.
Authorities opened the freezer briefly and confirmed there was a human leg inside. The entire freezer with the body still inside was packaged and sent to the Montana State Crime Lab for an autopsy.
Racine was brought to the Cut Bank Police Department for an interview that day where she told authorities that Ashton Small disclosed to her that Smith had shot Shawl in the back bedroom of the apartment that belonged to his father, Tony DuBray. She also told authorities she learned the bedroom had been repainted following Shawl’s death.
During the investigation, officers reviewed body camera footage captured from an unrelated routine call for service on Jan. 5, 2026, which revealed white walls at the apartment along with separate body camera footage captured on Feb. 3 that showed yellow walls.
Law enforcement learned from an employee of the Cut Bank Chamber, which is located next door to the apartment complex, that he heard a single gunshot on Jan. 17, 2026 while he was working sometime between noon and 3:30 p.m.
On Jan. 20, 2026, Smith resisted arrest during an interaction with law enforcement for an unrelated offense and a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver was secured by the Cut Bank Police Department following his arrest. An examination of the firearm noted the revolver’s cylinder had six chambers, five of which contained live rounds, according to the affidavit.
At 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 7, Small was interviewed at the police department where she told officers she heard that Shawl had been murdered and her body was stored in a freezer. Earlier in the day, Tony Manyguns told Small that Smith forced him to clean up the murder scene by washing the blood off the walls and he said Shawl had been placed into the freezer.
Small told law enforcement she had not personally witnessed the homicide, but she knew the defendant had access to firearms. She showed officers a photo of Shawl and the defendant together while displaying a revolver, which detectives observed looked similar to the same revolver seized from Smith on Jan. 20.
During the early morning hours on Feb. 8, Manyguns was brought into the police department at 2:44 a.m. and provided authorities a statement, initially indicating he didn’t know anything. After learning about Small’s statement, he told authorities he was “extremely scared” because Smith had threatened to shoot him and his mother if he told anybody what happened, records state.
Manyguns told officers that several weeks earlier, the defendant approached him while he was walking around Cut Bank and said “I shot Cerenity” before trying to convince him to steal a car. He then presented a firearm and forced him back to his residence at 10 South Central where the homicide took place.
When they entered the apartment, he observed his mother sleeping in the living room with the defendant’s father, Tony Dubray, and Smith escorted him to the back bedroom where he used a flashlight to illuminate the scene and lift a blanket off Cerenity’s body, which was positioned with her head slumped forward and sitting on a milk crate. The defendant then used the flashlight to show Manyguns the entry and exit wound.
Manyguns confirmed Smith and Shawl were in a relationship and told officers the defendant had claimed he and Shawl were arguing when she attempted to grab the gun from him, prompting him to fire the gun and shoot Shawl in the head, according to documents.
Smith then showed Manyguns the bullet trajectory, which struck a wall, entered another room and struck a coffee pot after exiting Shawl.
After the defendant showed him the body, Manyguns said the defendant “sacked up” Shawl’s body in a blanket and carried her downstairs.
At this point, Manyguns said Smith forced him to clean Shawl’s blood from the room using cut up pieces of towel and dish soap. After the scene was cleaned, the defendant forced Manyguns and his mother to stay in the home for nearly two days and said he was fearful the defendant would follow through on his threats to shoot them if they tried to leave.
During this timeframe, Manyguns said several people came to the apartment, but the defendant refused to answer the door and told people to go away.
Two days later when Manyguns and his mother were permitted to leave the apartment, Smith threatened them and said he would harm them if they said anything about the incident.
Manyguns and his mother left and “hid out” in Browning where he continued to fear for his safety. He said he had spoken with a retired law enforcement officer to “try and get help” and said he recently had begun telling a few people what happened.