Jacquelyn Smith was murdered as she lay sleeping in her bed by her own husband Keith and his daughter Valeria but the evil killer husband made silly mistake ahead of this while searching online
while asleep in the car
Jacquelyn beamed in a white, strapless wedding dress, complete with a traditional veil and grasping a bunch of white and yellow flowers, while her proud husband Keith Smith complemented her with a yellow bow tie and matching waistcoat. Although they came to marry later in life, Jacquelyn and Smith were the very image of a blissful bride and groom.
By 2018, after four years of marriage, they resided in Aberdeen, Maryland, USA. Jacquelyn, at 54, was a bright and generous electrical engineer working for an army research centre, and mother to two adult sons from a previous partnership. Smith, aged 52, had a grown daughter named Valeria and earned his living as a driver.
READ MORE: Triple killer’s alarm went off at 1:10am as he had grim job to do
On the unfortunate night of 1 December, Smith made a harrowing call to emergency services around midnight from his car, rushing a bleeding Jacquelyn to hospital, pleading, “You’ve got to help me,” he sobbed, “They stabbed my wife!”
Upon reaching Johns Hopkins Hospital with daughter Valeria by his side, medical staff endeavoured to save Jacquelyn’s life. She had suffered five stab wounds to her chest and another knife injury to her lower right arm. Despite their efforts, Jacquelyn tragically succumbed to her injuries.
In the wake of the tragedy, a heartbroken Smith and his daughter recounted the evening’s events. They explained they’d been out celebrating Valeria’s 28th birthday at Baltimore’s American Legion Hall. On the drive back, Jacquelyn had noticed a woman begging on the street, whom she thought was cradling a baby.
He recounted how Jacquelyn, seated beside him, had urged him to pull over so she could hand a $10 note to her. Valeria was in the rear seat.
Smith and his daughter recalled halting the car and Jacquelyn rolling down her window. Abruptly, they alleged, a man joined by the woman reached inside the vehicle, snatched Jacquelyn’s necklace, and stabbed her five times in the chest with a knife before making off with her handbag along with his accomplice.
Smith insisted they had hurriedly driven Jacquelyn to the hospital, thinking it faster than waiting for an ambulance. Valeria corroborated his account.
The murder sent shockwaves across America. The street beggars, known locally as panhandlers, became subjects of fear as Baltimore faced a severe homelessness crisis with over 12,000 people without homes at that time. Jacquelyn’s ‘Good Samaritan’ death dominated headlines, instilling a dread of homeless individuals amongst the public.
Smith and Valeria appeared in heart-wrenching press interviews, appealing for a panhandling ban to prevent further tragedies. In a poignant confession, Smith recalled swaying with his wife to John Legend’s All Of Me mere hours before her demise. “They took my wife’s life. I hope it was worth it because you’re going to answer to that one day,” he declared during one such interview.
The heinous crime even grabbed the attention of telly icon Oprah Winfrey, who took to Twitter to express how the incident shifted her stance on donating to beggars. “This story struck my heart,” she disclosed. “I’ve done this a 1k times. But will think twice before ever doing it again.”
Jacquelyn’s tragic demise was thrust further into the public eye. Yet, as detectives delved into the case, Smith’s account began to fall apart. The conundrum loomed: why had he stopped at such an ungodly hour and allowed her to roll down the window to complete strangers?
While Jacquelyn’s kin never questioned her charitable spirit, they were dubious about her willingness to halt so late under those circumstances. Cops scrutinised CCTV footage from where the stabbing supposedly took place, only to find no trace of Smith’s motor. Even his mobile phone records contradicted his claimed route, instead placing him four miles off at Druid Hill Park.
It then emerged that Smith had previously solicited his brother to off Jacquelyn, as she was on the brink of severing their four-year marriage. Smith was no stranger to the law. In 2001, he had admitted to robbing the same bank thrice within nine months in Timonium, Maryland.
He served half of his 12-year sentence for armed robbery and evading the police before being released in 2007. It remains unclear whether Jacquelyn was aware of his criminal past. As evidence began to pile up, casting doubt on Smith’s account, it emerged that both he and his daughter had vanished. While he’d claimed to be Florida-bound, the rental car he’d hired was found a staggering 1,700 miles away, en route to the Mexican border.
On 5 March 2019, Smith and Valeria were apprehended in Harlingen, Texas, just 20 miles shy of Mexico. They claimed to be holidaying, but Smith had been attempting to secure one-way tickets to Cuba and Canada.
Lacking a passport, he’d resorted to online searches for ways to exit the country without one. Both were slapped with first-degree murder charges, and the headlines took a dramatic turn. Police accused Smith of exploiting the homelessness crisis and stoking unwarranted fear in the community to mask his wife’s murder.
Despite his pleas of innocence, Valeria struck a deal just as their trial was set to commence in September 2019. She admitted to being an accessory after the fact, confessing she had witnessed her father commit the murder of Jacquelyn and then assisted him in concealing the crime. In exchange for her testimony against him, she received a five-year prison sentence followed by three years on probation.
In December last year, Smith faced trial, with prosecutors arguing he murdered his wife as she intended to leave him, labelling the tale about the homeless couple “a hoax”. Forensic experts discovered blood spatter inside the car window where Jacquelyn was seated, contradicting Smith’s claim that she had rolled down the window to give money. Valeria testified that her stepmother had been asleep when they arrived at the park.
Smith had fatally stabbed Jacquelyn, and Valeria had played her part in lending credibility to his fabricated story. She abandoned Jacquelyn’s handbag at a bus stop, and her father instructed her on what to tell the police.
“The story was supposed to be that it was a homeless person, or two homeless people, that had a baby, and Mrs Jacquelyn was supposed to feel sorry for them,” Valeria recounted in court.
She described her father as composed post-murder but feigning distress during the 911 call. Days later, she revealed, he visited Jacquelyn’s workplace to collect documents related to her life insurance, from which he stood to benefit.
‘PREMEDITATION AND INTENT’
Smith chose not to testify. His defence cast doubt on Valeria’s account, suggesting she altered her story to dodge jail time. They pointed to her drug habits, and although Valeria conceded to being under the influence, evidence placed Smith, his spouse, and Valeria at the park for a quarter of an hour – a location Smith failed to mention that evening.
The jury convicted Smith of first-degree murder. In March, at 55 years old, he received his sentence via video link from prison.
The judge expressed she had never encountered a case with such “showed more premeditation, wilfulness and intent”.
“The victim had no way of knowing her husband would stab her over and over again,” the judge remarked. “The victim was the definition of defenceless and vulnerable. She was asleep. He blamed vulnerable people: panhandlers.”
Smith was handed a life sentence, with an additional three years for weapon use, to run concurrently. Jacquelyn’s relatives issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the verdict, acknowledging it couldn’t bring her back but justice had been served.
Smith’s actions were nothing short of horrific, having taken his wife’s life and then attempting to pin the blame on the innocent and marginalised panhandler community.