EDITOR’S NOTE: The byline of this story reads as “Daily Campus Staff” to protect the reporter of this story. This decision follows an incident in which a former reporter of The Daily Campus received messages via social media which made them fear for their safety.

SMU police arrested a 23-year-old man who’s accused of harassing an SMU student, primarily through social media.

The 23-year-old, Ian James Smith of Plano, faces a charge of harassment with prior conviction. Earlier this year in April, he was arrested for harassing two other SMU students.

Smith remains in Dallas County jail with a bond set at $10,000.

Smith is not allowed on SMU’s campus, according to SMU police. If students see him on campus or are contacted by him, they should reach out to SMU police.

“Just contact us directly because he’s got a criminal trespass on campus, so he’d be arrested immediately if he’s on campus,” Lt. Keith McCain said. “We highly encourage anybody to call us if he does show up on campus.”

Smith’s behavior of stalking and harassment has been a menace to women on this campus starting in 2021; he’s racked up a total of eight charges since then. He was previously sentenced and convicted in 2021 for terroristic threat, harassment and retaliation.

On March 13, 2024, Smith was released from jail.

After his release, on March 17 and 19 of this year, two students filed reports with SMU police stating they had been contacted by Smith through social media. According to one affidavit, Smith left a comment on a student’s post saying “When you took this, I was locked in a single cell in Dallas County. My friend messaged u but you blocked him. Why did you let me suffer. For years.”

These student reports warranted an SMU Aware alert which warned students of the convicted felon’s previous behavior toward women at SMU. On April 12, 2024, he was arrested in Carrollton and charged with harassment and stalking with prior conviction.

These charges were based on interactions with two different SMU students.

Following his arrest, an order was made to evaluate Smith’s mental health on April 14. On Oct. 4, a document noted Smith “appears to the judge/magistrate that defendant is mentally competent and said plea free and voluntary…”

Smith’s current charge of harassment with a prior conviction came after a different SMU student reported being contacted by Smith via social media, including video calls.

In an affidavit obtained by The Daily Campus, an SMU police detective directly notified Smith to cease contact with the SMU student “to which he understood and acknowledged.” However, Smith continued unwanted contact with the student via social media and video calls.

Smith’s charge of harassment with a prior conviction is classified as a Class A misdemeanor while stalking results in a felony charge. The difference between the two charges, attorney Matt Schlake said, all lies in the semantics of the situation that leads to the charge.

“Stalking itself is a pretty complicated charge,” Schlake said. “Harassment is kind of a catch all. If we can’t figure out if it’s quite stalking or not, they just charge as harassment.”

Schlake explained that a stalking charge does involve the possibility of gaining a protective order by contacting the Dallas County District Attorney’s office.

“One of the benefits of that protective order, at the end of the day, it’s still just a piece of paper, right?” Schlake said. “But eventually, if you get charged for violating a protective order, that’s an additional Class A [misdemeanor], if you violated a second time within 12 months, it becomes a felony, and it just gets worse and worse from there.”

If a student should ever feel they are being stalked, either by Smith or another perpetrator, they should contact SMU police immediately.

The Daily Campus will continue to update this story as more information about these charges come to light.