A man was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to cover up his wife’s death in 2018 by fabricating a story blaming a Baltimore panhandler.
In the death of his wife, Jacquelyn Smith, Keith Smith was found guilty of first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison for a murder on Monday.
Smith expressed regret to Jacquelyn’s family but insisted on his innocence. He informed police that his wife was stabbed after giving a panhandler $10.
Despite the police efforts, no evidence could be found corroborating his story, and surveillance video and cellphone data did not show Smith‘s car along the route he claimed to take.
In March 2019, Keith Smith and his daughter were arrested in Texas for what was said to be a race for Mexico.
She then testified that her father, Keith Smith, drove them to a park while his wife slept, then stabbed her. He later told her what to say to the police.“The story was supposed to be it was a homeless person, or two homeless people, that had a baby, and Mrs. Jacquelyn was supposed to feel sorry for them,” Valeria Smith told the jury. “When she gave them the money, they stabbed her.”
Keith Smith’s lawyer told the jury that inconsistencies in her client’s story do not prove that he murdered his wife.
Valeria was sentenced to five years in jail in December after agreeing to testify against her father as part of a plea deal.
