Defense attorney says West panicked

Kim Smith

Monday, July 9, 2001 | 10:17 a.m.

Prosecutors trying to convict Brookey West of murder are making "much ado about nothing," her defense attorney told jurors Friday.

Yes, West, 46, spoke poorly of her mother, Christine Smith.

Yes, she placed her in a trash can.

And, yes, West continued to use her mother's money after she was dead, Scott Coffee, the deputy public defender who is representing West, said.

But, no, she did not kill her, he said.

Instead, Coffee said, West panicked when her mother died of natural causes. She placed her in the trash can. When she realized that was the wrong thing to do, she couldn't call police, because she was afraid she would be arrested, Coffee said.

As for the money, Coffee said West had access to her mother's funds before her death, as well.

"Sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, things are as simple as they appear, and no grandiose explanations are necessary," Coffee said.

The first day of West's murder trial was Friday. She faces an open murder charge and, if convicted of first-degree murder, could receive a life sentence with no parole.

The trial continued today before District Judge Donald Mosley.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou told jurors the evidence will show West killed her 64-year-old mother out of hate and greed.

Bank statements for the three years between Smith's disappearance and the discovery of her remains show someone was using an ATM card to access her bank account, Coumou said.

Smith's body was found in a West Sahara Avenue storage unit in February -- three years after West told friends her mother had gone to live with her brother in California, Coumou said.

Even stranger, Coumou said, is the fact that Travis Smith Jr., West's brother, hasn't been seen since 1995 and was physically and mentally ill and homeless -- hardly the type of person capable of taking care of his elderly mother.

A horrendous smell led to police Smith's remains, Coumou said.

Before they could open the trash can, however, they had to unravel 124 feet of cellophane packaging and cut through a garbage bag and strands of duct tape.

"Whoever did it went through great efforts to keep the oxygen out and whatever was causing the smell in," Coumou said, noting the sole clear fingerprint found on the cellophane was Smith's.

Aside from the unorthodox entombment, police were also concerned when they found a plastic bag wrapped so tightly around the woman's nose and mouth that her hair had been caught in the knot, Coumou said.

While showing the jurors two gruesome close-ups of Smith's remains, Coumou explained that a coroner was unable to determine what killed her.

Although he suspects asphyxiation, the organs that would prove it had liquefied, Coumou said.

A forensic entomologist, or "bug doctor" will testify, however, that the maggots found inside Smith's body prove she may have been alive at the time she was placed inside the trash can, Coumou said.