A 17th Judicial District jury found an Aurora man guilty of first-degree murder and racketeering after stealing thousands of dollars and plotting to kill a man.

Jerrelle Smith, 44, was convicted of first-degree murder, COCCA pattern of racketeering and theft Thursday after a nearly three-week trial in an Adams County court, according to a press release from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Smith was the mastermind in a payroll scheme in Aurora, authorities said.

Authorities said Smith and his friends pocketed tens of thousands of dollars from the company by faulting the payroll system with ghost employees.

The scheme eventually led to the murder of Ryan Dillard, who was hired at the same company in October 2021 as a supervisor, authorities said.

Following Dillard’s hire, he found out about the scheme.

Michael Poydras, a former Capstone employee, was still on the payroll at the time but was not working for the company and was allegedly ultimately benefiting from the scheme.

Smith then hired Poydras to kill Dillard, authorities said.

Poydras, dressed in all black, hid behind a sign on the Capstone property and shot at Dillard as he left the facility to pick up breakfast for his employees on Oct. 21, 2021, according to authorities.

Aurora Police officers who responded to the reported shooting at 1700 Tower Rd. found shell casings and a crashed vehicle nearby. Inside the car, they found Dillard dead. He had been shot several times.

A jury convicted Poydras of first-degree murder on July 21, 2023. He was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Danny Paulson argued Smith’s payroll scheme netted him between $15,000 to $20,000 a month and that three months before the murder, he had allegedly already collected as much as $750,000.

“The facts of this case are like something out of a movie as they’re impossible to comprehend in real life,” District Attorney Brian Mason said in the release. “Smith stole thousands and thousands of dollars from Capstone Logistics and then hired a beneficiary of that scheme to murder a fellow employee in cold blood.”

The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, contributed to this report