-Jac was a champion.
If you wanted to walk on the moon,
She'd help you get there.
-54-year-old jacqui smith has the world at her feet...
-Jacqui was a great mom. She loved her boys.
-She had her man,
And she could afford the finer things in life.
-But it's all taken away in the blink of an eye.
-It all happened so fast, and now she's gone.
-...When she's brutally murdered in baltimore city.
-People were appalled.
A random violent attack on a generous person --
It's just -- just awful.
-Investigators sift through clues.
-They were living the high life.
-He was known to rob people.
The information matched to a tee.
-What we discovered was mind-blowing.
-But when it all adds up...
-She had a history of violence.
-...It's a shocking killer relationship.
-I gotta live with that.
[ voice breaking] I gotta live with that every day.
♪♪
-You never know when cupid's arrow
Is going to hit its target.
Some people fall in love in high school.
Others find happiness on their third trip to the altar.
Jacquelyn smith is in her 50th year
When her soulmate waltzes into her life,
And it's a classic case of opposites attracting.
The introverted engineer falls hard
For the charismatic truck driver.
But their marital bliss is short-lived
When, out of nowhere, violence strikes.
[ line ringing ]
♪♪
-The call comes in to homicide
That there is a stabbing of a female,
And she is at john hopkins hospital.
-Jacquelyn smith had multiple stab wounds.
They caused injury to her heart and her lungs,
So she was dead when she arrived at the hospital.
-Myself and my sergeant responded
To john hopkins hospital.
At that time, we meet keith smith
And his daughter, valeria smith.
Keith smith is crying,
And the medical staff is standing around him.
-Mr. Smith was in shock.
I would have been in shock.
But he was able to answer questions
Without emotional distress.
And his daughter, ms. Valeria smith --
She hardly spoke to us.
She was busy sobbing and crying.
-Valeria is overcome with emotion.
She was in the backseat, sitting behind her stepmother,
When jacqui was murdered.
♪♪
-Early morning, I received a phone call from keith
Saying that something terrible had happened.
And I was in shock. Jac is my baby sister.
So it just blew me away. It blew me away.
♪♪
-Born on July 4th, 1964, in providence, rhode island,
Jacquelyn is the youngest of four children
In the trisvan family.
Jacqui grows up in the projects of providence,
Where money is in short supply but love is abundant.
-Jac was an excellent student.
In middle school, after two years,
She begged my mother to take her out of that school.
Jac said they were making her dumb.
They wasn't challenging her.
Jac was driven.
-Jacqui's determination and brilliance don't go unnoticed.
She's hand-picked to attend
One of the best high schools in rhode island.
And after graduation,
She earns herself an engineering scholarship
At north carolina a&t university.
-She was one of the most intelligent people
I've ever met.
That was one of the things that I really admired about her.
Jacqui and I were part of a small group
Of engineering students that we -- we all hung out.
In our junior year of college, I became interested in jacqui.
I remember we were at a basketball game.
We were dancing to music. There was drinking.
And I just remember my friends telling me that,
"derrick, you were on the floor grabbing jacqui's legs,
Saying, 'I'm gonna marry you someday.'"
[ laughs ]
Then -- then we started dating and became serious.
-In 1988, two years after graduating from college,
Derrick and jacqui tie the knot.
Jacqui begins a promising career as an electrical engineer,
While derrick becomes an officer in the u.S. Army.
But when he is posted to germany,
Jacqui has to put her career on hold.
-She was not able to work as an engineer,
So she was kinda, you know, disappointed.
But we adjusted.
We were wanting to start a family.
-In 1993, jacqui gives birth to their first child, kendall.
Six years later, the family welcomes another boy, david.
-Jacqui was a great mom. She loved her boys.
And they loved her.
I mean, she was their best friend.
-Jacqui's world revolved around her boys.
But derrick wasn't around because of work
And traveling for the military,
So, yeah, it was hard for them.
-After counseling and a trial separation,
Jacqui and derrick divorce in 2005.
Jacqui, now age 42, buys a house
And settles in the baltimore suburb of aberdeen
With kendall and david.
She reignites her once-promising career
And enters the dating scene.
-She was like, "you know, I just want to be loved.
I just someone to love me."
And I would just tell her, "jacqui, love will find you."
-In the fall of 2013,
The dream of finding love becomes a reality.
-I had my 45th birthday party,
And I had everyone come.
Anthony, my brother-in-law -- he's like,
"I'ma invite some men, you know,
So it's not just all women."
Keith was one of the guys that anthony was gonna be bringing.
Jacqui and keith -- they danced the whole night.
-The pair's connection is instant and electric.
Born and raised in baltimore,
Keith smith is a 47-year-old truck driver
Who shares jacqui's love of jazz music and dancing.
-Jac called me and said,
"I met this guy named keith. I want you to meet him."
-Keith loved jacqui.
I remember they had a dinner party one time.
They had a whole jazz ensemble, food.
Those were the types of things she always wanted in her mate.
She wanted someone who loved to do stuff like that.
And they did.
She was happy.
-And so was keith.
Three months into the relationship, he proposes.
[ church bells tolling ]
-The wedding happened on jacqui's birthday,
July 4th, 2014.
-The wedding was great.
But I think his family,
Especially keith's daughter, valeria,
Was a little bit perturbed
That it was so early on in their relationship.
-They felt like jacqui was taking their breadwinner,
If you ask me.
I don't know what happened in between the church
And getting to that reception, but something happened,
And they just were acting crazy
And arguing with keith.
Meanwhile, we're consoling jacqui
'cause she's crying and trying to understand,
Why is this happening?
They had to escort out valeria.
Jacqui looked beautiful,
But she looked sad.
It just was not a good day.
-Blending families can sometimes get complicated,
Even when the children are all grown up.
But jacqui and keith move past the family drama.
Over the next few years, they focus on
Enjoying life together -- taking short trips,
Dining out, even splurging on two luxury cars
And a small yacht.
-I knew jacqui wanted love,
And he made her feel a way that she hadn't felt.
I could just see the difference in her.
-But it's only four years into the marriage
When the couple's bliss is suddenly shattered.
Homicide detectives act fast
To catch the dangerous killers on the loose.
They start by interviewing the two people who were with jacqui
When she was so viciously murdered.
-The story that both keith and valeria smith give
Is that they went to the vf hall
For a late birthday celebration for valeria,
And they were on their way back
To dropping valeria off at her house.
-Jacquelyn smith was in the front passenger seat
Of the vehicle, and valeria smith, the daughter,
Was sitting right behind her seat.
-They pulled up to an intersection.
There was a woman standing outside with a baby.
-It was cold, it was raining, it was almost midnight,
And she was holding up a sign indicating that,
"please help me feed my baby."
-Jacquelyn hands the female panhandler $10.
At that time, a male comes up to the same side of the window
And asks keith if he can thank his wife.
And then the panhandler takes her gold pendant with a heart
Off of her neck and her wallet off of her lap.
-Keith smith seems genuinely distraught.
Yet something about his story
Doesn't sit well with investigators.
♪♪
-The first thing that I thought of was the location.
This area is dark.
It's a one-way street, and it's a stop sign.
It's also almost midnight, and it's raining.
-Two of the corners are vacant lots.
Panhandlers -- they're usually frequenting
High-volume traffic areas.
It just didn't really make any sense.
-For a resident of actual baltimore city,
You knew that that was not an area
Where panhandlers would frequent.
There's something else that they're not telling us.
-The jacqueline smith case became
A very high-profile case very quickly.
-That could have been my mother. It could have been my sister.
-We're gonna leave no stone unturned.
-Baby j -- he'll steal from you. He'll rob you.
He'll break in your house.
-We got you, you piece of [bleep]
-On a cold and rainy night in 2018,
Jacqui smith is stabbed to death
In a desolate baltimore neighborhood.
The 54-year-old wife and mother
Fell victim to a diabolical ruse --
Killer thieves posing as desperate panhandlers.
At the homicide office on the night of the murder,
Detectives pay close attention to keith and valeria smith
As they describe the horror they've just endured.
♪♪
-Valeria says that at the time of the stabbing, she just froze.
She didn't know what to do.
Keith smith said he opened the door
And started to run after the two individuals.
-He gets in the vehicle, calls 911.
And that's when he's driving back
Towards john hopkins hospital,
Where ultimately she's pronounced dead.
-Keith smith is upset.
Valeria smith -- she's also upset,
But she's high, and it's very noticeable.
-She mentioned that she had been drinking,
But she's obviously under the influence of narcotics.
-Valeria smith is saying she didn't really get
A good look at the suspects, but she does provide
A similar description as her father did.
-A black male, goatee,
A hoodie, jeans, in his 30s.
The female individual was black,
Long brown coat, holding a baby.
-While detectives gather more details from keith and valeria,
Baltimore pd sends another team to process the crime scene.
By morning,
The hunt for jacqui's killer is in full swing.
-Police recruits paired up with detectives,
Poured over back alleyways and empty lots, looking for clues.
-We're gonna leave no stone unturned
With respect to this case.
-There was an army of police personnel
That responded to that location.
We had crime-lab technicians that were scouring the area
Looking for evidence of blood, looking for a weapon.
-Complicating matters is the falling rain.
If there was evidence at the intersection,
It likely washed away.
-There was nothing to be found.
There was no blood trail. There was no witnesses.
-We tow the vehicle to the crime-lab bay for processing.
-Perhaps the perpetrator reached in
And put his hands on the door jamb,
And perhaps transfer some type of dna evidence
Or fingerprints in a smooth surface of the glass.
-While the forensic team begins
A detailed examination of the car,
The baltimore police hit the streets in force.
-We go out and talk to homeless people,
We talk to drug addicts, we talk to drug dealers,
We talk to anybody from the area
To see if they know who these panhandlers are.
-Officers scour pawn shops for jacqui's necklace,
Scrutinize her financial records for fraudulent activity,
And follow up on hundreds of tips.
Keith smith joins police in issuing a warning
To good samaritans like jacqui.
-Be careful when we see these panhandlers out there.
The last thing I thought
That they were gonna take my wife's life.
And so now I gotta live with that.
[ voice breaking ] I gotta live with that every day.
-Surrounded by dozens of police officers,
Detectives, and cadets,
Keith smith is overwhelmed by the events
That took his wife's life over the weekend in east baltimore.
-I was in the backseat,
So I wasn't really paying anything any mind
Until I seen someone actually approach the car.
And then that's when, you know,
It just all just happened so fast,
And now she's gone.
-Over the next three days,
Tips and sightings of the suspects pour in,
And news of jacqui's shocking death gets national attention.
Oprah winfrey even sends a tweet.
-The jacquelyn smith case became a very high-profile case
Very quickly, and it was all hands on deck.
-Things were already very depressing
In baltimore that year --
The fourth year of 300-plus homicides.
And this made matters worse.
-It must stop here. It must stop now.
-On the steps of sweet prospect baptist church...
-Pick up the phone and tell somebody.
-That could have been my mother. It could have been my sister.
-As news of jacqui's murder spreads,
So does fear among the city's residents.
-If there are panhandlers
That are randomly attacking strangers,
This is a major risk to the community.
-Whether you lived in baltimore or not,
You were afraid to come into the city
And you were especially afraid of these panhandlers.
-Police are still looking for the woman with the alleged baby
And the man that stabbed smith,
So anybody with information should call police right away.
-Then, all of a sudden, the calls started coming in
To the metro crime stoppers.
We're excited. There's gonna be a lead.
-Late on December 3rd, detectives get a big break.
-An individual calls up and says that a panhandler
They know called baby j was responsible for this murder.
-He was known to rob people.
He had a girlfriend. They were homeless.
The information matched to a tee
What keith smith had provided for us.
This is our guy.
-Three days after the terrifying murder of jacqui smith,
A hot tip comes in.
The caller knows someone who matches
The detailed description of the suspect --
A panhandler who goes by the name "baby j."
-Baby j is homeless, and he has an open warrant for robbery.
He has a girlfriend, and they have a child together.
Immediately, I get excited.
Can't help myself. I'm human. We're onto something.
[ police radio chatter ]
-So we sent officers and detectives to find baby j,
And actually several times they did locate him,
But he'd take off running.
And so now we're thinking,
Is he running because he really did this?
-It's a game of cat-and-mouse as baby j keeps dodging the law.
But after four days, police finally nab their suspect
And take him into custody.
-Baby j -- he's a character.
He'll steal from you. He'll rob you.
He'll break in your house.
He's obviously out there on the streets
Doing some wrong in his life.
But I didn't get a sense that he was built for murder.
You can feel it --
That boldness, that carefree, that evil.
And he comes up with an alibi.
He says that he and his girlfriend
Were at a hotel on the night of the murder.
-Detective mike moran and I interview baby j's girlfriend,
And baby j's girlfriend tells us
The exact same thing that baby j tells us.
-To corroborate the couple's alibi,
The police subpoena the hotel's registry
And surveillance footage.
-Well, lo and behold,
Here's baby j and his girlfriend on the camera
In this hotel at the time of the murder.
-You can imagine how heartbroken, in a way,
We were to learn that baby j and his girlfriend
Were not the suspects, because everything fit
And we thought, we got 'em and we got 'em fast.
And it felt good. And then when we realized
That they were not the suspects, it just...
Yeah, it was -- it was difficult.
-A national media storm has followed the death
Of jacquelyn smith, and her family has requested
No cameras at tonight's memorial service.
♪♪
-December 7th was her memorial.
It's -- it's...
It was hard.
-It was really difficult to celebrate her life,
Being how tragic she was taken away.
But jac was honored from family members and friends
Who knew the type of person she was.
-A couple of friends and colleagues got up there
And told of how she had helped them.
She was a mentor to many.
[ applause ]
-You could look at her photo portrait at her memorial service
And just could tell, this does seem like a joyous person.
-[ singing indistinctly ]
-I wanted to mention the music.
I was so taken with it.
-[ singing indistinctly ]
-And it really moved me.
It is a beautiful celebration of life happening here,
And such a horrible crime.
-Police in baltimore are looking for suspects
In jacquelyn smith's apparent murder,
While her family here in providence
Grieves her loss and waits for answers.
-It was two weeks after the murder,
And the pressure was palpable.
It was real and you could feel it,
And there's no sleep, and you just keep going.
-With their most promising lead amounting to nothing,
Detectives revisit the witness testimony
For anything they might have overlooked.
This time, what draws their attention
Is the lack of affinity between stepmother and stepdaughter.
-We had multiple conversations with family members and friends
That had advised us
That there was not a very good relationship
Between valeria smith and jacquelyn smith.
-They didn't have a good relationship, that I know.
Jac shared that with me.
-Part of our investigation is to investigate
The victim and her family,
And what we learned about jacquelyn smith
Was that she was a successful, college-educated woman.
Valeria was unfortunately a drug addict,
And there's lots of problems with her.
-Valeria, I guess, was living in keith's home
And using drugs or whatever, I don't know, not paying rent.
So jac, being the jac she is, said,
"we should fix this house up
And either sell it or make money off it."
-Keith listened to jacqui and sold his house.
But suddenly, valeria was forced to find a place to live
And a way to pay rent.
-Looking at valeria, being involved in drugs
And not having a lot of money,
She could have something to do with this.
-I know the dislike that valeria had for jacqui.
I was thinking that valeria did it.
I'm sorry.
-Our thoughts are, did valeria set this up?
-The high-profile murder of a 54-year-old mother
And engineer rocks baltimore city.
Detectives now suspect her stepdaughter, valeria,
Who was a passenger in the car when jacqui was killed,
Could be involved.
Did valeria devise the panhandling ruse
To cover up the murder of her stepmother?
-The night they left the party,
They were going back to take valeria home.
Where this incident occurred was chase and valley street,
Only a few blocks from valeria's grandmother's house,
Where she now stayed.
So did she have someone do it?
Was one of those panhandlers her friend and her boyfriend?
-The investigators pull valeria's record,
Looking for anything that could bolster their suspicions.
-Valeria had a history of violence.
She had actually been accused
Of a domestic incident involving a knife.
And she was an aspiring rapper.
-[ rapping ] ♪ there ain't nobody [bleep] with me ♪
♪ don't come too close or she might shoot, she might shoot ♪
-And one of the videos that she put out publicly
Was a rap about stabbing somebody with a knife.
-The investigators zero in on valeria.
But they don't take their eyes off the other person in the car,
Jacqui's own husband, keith.
If valeria was behind jacqui's murder,
Did keith know, or worse, did he help her?
-Keith smith gave a very specific route of travel
From when he left the party at the vfw
To where the incident occurred.
But we needed proof.
-So we went back and sought out cctv cameras.
We started reviewing the footage for a couple days.
-That route of travel
Has 30-plus cctv cameras along those routes.
None of those cameras captured his vehicle.
-At that point, we knew he was lying.
-Keith's lies keep piling up when, in mid-December,
Investigators receive all the results of the forensic tests
And the final medical examiner's report.
-We had jacquelyn's fingernails tested
For potential suspect dna.
What was really alarming was that on her right hand,
It's just her dna, but on her left hand,
Which is the hand closest to keith smith,
There is not only her dna
But an overwhelming amount of dna from keith smith.
It was as if she's trying to stop him
Because he's reaching across and stabbing her
And she's grabbing and grabbing and grabbing at him.
-In January 2019
When the data analysis of the smiths' cellphone
Is released to investigators,
They uncover another inconsistency
In keith and valeria's description
Of the route of travel from the night of the murder.
-What we discovered was mind-blowing.
Jacquelyn's phone was turned off and has no data.
Keith smith's phone is turned off and has no data.
But valeria's phone shows that they go
And drive out to druid hill park.
-That vehicle went north from the vfw,
Not south, as keith said before.
And they parked in druid hill park
For 12 to 15 minutes.
-This is when we think the crime really occurred,
At druid hill park inside of their vehicle,
Shortly after leaving the vfw.
-Investigators are now confident valeria didn't kill jacqui.
It was keith who wielded the knife.
But they don't know why he would want her dead,
Nor what role valeria played in the crime.
So on February 12th, 2019, detectives bring
Keith and valeria back to police headquarters
To confront them in separate interrogation rooms.
-I told him about the mapping of valeria's phone.
I said, "why were you sitting in the park for 12 to 15 minutes,
You know, trying to get home?"
-Remember, his phone was turned off.
And from that point on,
Everything just started multiplying.
-And then I hit him with it.
Mr. Keith smith, who loved to talk,
Wouldn't say a word.
He put his head down. Only thing he said was, "wow."
Valeria smith -- during her questioning,
She's being very confrontational.
She won't answer questions, and finally she just lawyers up.
-Detectives reach an impasse.
As compelling as the evidence against keith appears,
It's not the definitive proof prosecutors need
For a guilty verdict.
-A defense attorney is gonna say
He wouldn't have called the police right away.
He wouldn't have come down here and been interviewed.
He wouldn't have given us his dna.
He wouldn't let us look through his phone.
There's no way he killed his wife.
So there's a possibility of raising reasonable doubt,
And this might not result in the conviction they're seeking.
-What's more, investigators are baffled by motive.
By all accounts, jacqui and keith were deeply in love.
Then, on valentine's day,
A tip comes in offering a plausible reason
Keith would want his wife dead.
-We get information from a confidential source
Who says that keith was expressing to his brother
That his wife was seeking a divorce,
And he was considering...
Killing her.
-It's a stunning revelation.
But it's secondhand information.
So investigators go straight to the source, keith's brother.
-Vick smith -- he started telling us
That keith and jacqui were not happy in their marriage.
He wouldn't come out and say it,
But he knows his brother did it.
-Even if vick can't admit the whole truth to police,
Learning that jacqui wanted out of the marriage is critical.
-They were living the high life.
[ camera shutter clicking ]
And when we looked at the banking records,
Most of that high life was being financed by jacquelyn.
-A divorce means the part-time truck driver
Would have to give up his lavish lifestyle.
But if jacqui were to meet a tragic end,
Keith would get the cars, the yacht,
And a hefty payout from her life-insurance policy.
-The insurance money had a provision.
If jacquelyn died of natural causes,
The payout was about $200,000.
If it was termed accidental, which includes a homicide,
Then the payout quadrupled.
-If jacquelyn smith is murdered and he's the sole beneficiary,
He gets $804,000.
-We were worried that they were gonna get away
And we were never gonna see them again.
-We were listening to their conversations.
-I literally jumped up out of my seat
And started screaming to the top of my lungs.
-And then the phones went dead.
♪♪
-52-year-old keith smith is the prime suspect
In the homicide of his wife, jacqui.
Once investigators learn that he stands to gain
A small fortune should his wife die a violent death,
The motive for murder becomes crystal clear.
Right after police confront keith with new evidence
Implicating him in jacqui's death,
He hightails it to the sunshine state.
-Keith rented a truck and packed up
About half to three-quarters of his house,
And he was on a one-way trip to florida.
-Keith smith hadn't been around much since jacquelyn died,
Neighbors told us.
-He came in one night with a very large moving truck
And rapidly loaded it the next day,
And we never saw him since.
-Investigators no longer have keith in their orbit,
Nor do they have the evidence they need
For a bulletproof case against him.
So they ask a judge for permission
To monitor keith's phone down in florida
And valeria's cellphone in baltimore.
-We went up on what's called a t3 wire,
Which means we were listening to the phone conversations.
-We had detectives around the clock,
And their job was to listen to every phone call,
Read every text message, look at the gps data on the phones,
So we could know where these people were 24 hours a day.
Hopefully, keith would slip up and say something on the wire,
Or valeria would because she witnessed the stabbing.
-An otherwise chatty keith is noticeably tight-lipped.
So investigators opt for another approach.
They obtain a warrant to search valeria's residence
For any leads that might connect her
Or her father to the murder.
-We took her laptops.
She had some handwritten books, so we were hoping
That this information would generate
Some type of information for us.
-Though valeria's personal files don't give police
Anything solid, her reaction to the search does.
-She knows that she's a suspect.
At the very least, she would be an accomplice.
So she contacts her father and starts to break down.
-She started calling keith,
Crying about how he abandoned her
And put all this on her shoulders
And had taken a one-way trip to florida.
Keith said, "just sit tight and don't do anything
And don't say anything."
-He says he is going to give her money,
Bring her to florida, and get her set up in a house.
-We're listening to their conversations.
The days and weeks started going by.
-At the end of February we intercepted telephone calls
Of him calling travel agents,
Trying to get a one-way ticket to cuba, to canada.
-When the travel agent asks for his passport number, he says,
"oh, oh, I-I didn't know you needed a passport."
And the agent puts him on hold.
While keith smith is on hold, he proceeds to ask google
"where can you cross into mexico without going through customs?"
I was monitoring the wire at that time.
I literally jumped up out of my seat
And started screaming to the top of my lungs,
And I said, "we [bleep] got you, you piece of [bleep]"
-Keith's blatant attempts to flee the country
Provide the exigent circumstances
Investigators need to arrest him.
But before they can get the warrant
From the state's attorney, keith makes another move.
-He completely abandoned the house he was living in florida,
And he drove through the night.
-We tracked his vehicle from florida,
And he drove it all the way to valeria's house in maryland.
-We got a ping to his phone in baltimore,
And that's how we knew he picked up valeria,
Because all of a sudden valeria disappeared,
And then the phones went dead.
They had shut them off.
We were worried that these two were going to escape,
They were gonna get away.
-Detectives turn to federal law enforcement agents
Using license plate reader technology
To track suspicious vehicles.
-I get the call.
My buddy over at homeland security stated,
"hey, I think the car is traveling southwest,
'cause it's hitting on license plate readers in texas."
-Not only are the lpr hits telling us they are in texas,
They're going to cross into mexico through brownsville,
And they're 20 minutes away from fleeing into another country.
-Jacqui smith's killer and his accomplice are on the run,
And police fear they're about to cross the border into mexico.
It's a race against time
As baltimore detectives cut through red tape
And expedite the arrest warrants
To their lone star state counterparts.
[ siren wailing ]
-Thank god for those texas rangers,
Because they located the vehicle and they stopped them
And they detained them, and we were able then
To formally put them under arrest.
-Keith smith is charged with first-degree murder
For stabbing his wife.
As her father's accomplice,
Valeria is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
-Keith and valeria smith returned to maryland
Early Thursday morning after being arrested in texas
Just miles away from the u.S.-Mexico border.
-Because valeria was charged with conspiracy,
She would be facing the same amount of time
As if she had committed the murder herself.
-Valeria -- when she realizes
She's also getting charged with murder,
She flips on her dad.
-Her lawyer called the state's attorney
And said, "valeria wants to talk.
She wants to tell you everything that happened that day."
-She ended up testifying against her father in court.
She admits she was an accessory
And she helped him try to get away with it.
-He definitely used his daughter.
He manipulated her and used her as his alibi.
-We found out that keith had a relationship
With this other woman.
So the theory was that jacquelyn --
She had somehow found out
And she was threatening to leave him,
And this was gonna put him in a difficult financial situation.
-After two days of deliberations,
A five-day trial, four days of testimony,
The jury returned a verdict this morning.
-Keith smith was found guilty of murdering jacquelyn smith
And was sentenced to life in prison.
-Valeria smith gets 10 years for her role in the heinous crime.
-People were appalled that he would use this story --
A bleak east baltimore street, a panhandling person,
A random violent attack on his generous wife.
I mean, it's just -- just awful.
It exploited all the fears people had about baltimore.
♪♪
-I don't think anybody who knows her
Could say anything bad about her, you know?
She was a champion.
If you wanted to walk on the moon,
She'd help you get there.
That's who jac was.
-Jacqui did not deserve this,
And he snatched her from us.
I miss her.
I think of her every day.
[ voice breaking ] it's hard.
-Take a pebble and drop it in the water
And watch the ripples.
That's what death does.
That -- especially traumatic death.
It ripples and everybody feels it,
And it hurts for a long time.
-The waves of pain caused by jacqui's death
At the hands of her callous husband continue
To ripple across the hearts of family and friends.
Keith smith is a pathological liar.
Not only did he falsely accuse a community at the margins
To fabricate a cover story for his vicious crime,
But he concealed his true nature and outsized greed
From his loving wife,
Ultimately trapping her in a killer relationship.