Prosecution rests in trial of woman accused of killing mom

Kim Smith

Tuesday, July 17, 2001 | 9:13 a.m.

Prosecutors rested their case Monday against a Las Vegas woman accused of killing her mother and hiding her remains in a trash can for three years.

Brookey West's defense attorneys plan on calling their first witness at 2 p.m. today, but it's unclear if West will take the stand.

Chief Deputy District Attorneys Frank Coumou and Scott Mitchell say West, 46, killed her mother in February 1998 in order to collect her monthly Social Security checks.

According to court testimony, West explained her mother's sudden absence by telling friends that her 64-year-old mother had gone to live with her son in California.

Her story fell apart when Christine Smith's liquefied body was found in a storage unit five months ago and police learned that West's brother, Travis Smith Jr., was last seen in 1995.

Smith's body was so badly decomposed that a coroner could not determine a cause of death. Dr. Gary Telgenhoff said he suspected the woman was suffocated because a plastic bag was tied around her nose and mouth.

Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee acknowledges that West put her mother in the trash can and continued to use her funds. He maintains that Smith did visit her son for a time but that she came back to Las Vegas and died of natural causes.

West simply panicked and put her in the trash can, Coffee said.

On Monday, Pat Malone, an investigator with the district attorney's office, said Smith's telephone records show she only made long distance calls to two numbers in the weeks before she allegedly went to live with her son.

Neither number had any connection with Travis Smith Jr., Malone said.

Malone acknowledged that Travis Smith could have called her and there would be no record of it. He also could have been exchanging letters with his mother and sister, Malone said.

Metro Homicide Detective Dave Mesinar also testified Monday that he found the storage unit key in one of West's kitchen drawers. It was alongside duct tape that was similar to that used to seal her mother's improvised casket.

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