A former DeKalb County resident and registered sex offender is facing three counts of felony stalking after Smithville police nabbed him for allegedly using a pre-paid cell phone to make sexually explicit calls from his current home in Paris, Tennessee to female store clerks in Smithville.
According to city police, Walter Smouthers, 52, was arrested by Detective Brandon Donnell and Corporal Travis Bryant, who investigated the case, at his home in Paris last week.
Authorities said Smouthers used the phone, purchased at a Walmart, to make hundreds of sexually explicit calls to female clerks at six different local businesses over the past year.
Donnell said Smouthers was arrested in 2007 for making similar calls to some of the same victims he allegedly called in the new cases.
The detective said the calls had resumed over the last few months, and Smithville police obtained a search warrant for the records related to the phone number the calls originated from, which led them to Paris.
The device was reportedly a prepaid phone from Walmart.
Police said Smouthers had placed a call to his last call 20 minutes before police arrived to take him into custody.
Smouthers was prohibited from possessing a cell phone under the rules of his sentencing on a 2008 conviction for criminal attempt to commit sexual battery.
According to the detective, the phone was found hidden under a dresser in Smouther’s home, and was likely used for the sloe purpose of placing obscene calls.
Smouthers bonds total $30,000, and he will appear in court on August 15.
Authorities said more charges are pending.
Smouthers faces felony stalking charges

