Jury gets case of woman accused of killing mother

Kim Smith

Thursday, July 19, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

In the end, prosecutors told jurors Wednesday, their decision comes down to a plastic bag wrapped over Christine Smith's face.

Prosecutors say the bag was used to suffocate Smith. Attorneys for Smith's daughter Brookey West, who is charged with her murder, say it was a shroud used in an unconventional burial.

"Think to yourselves, has that bag tied around her nose and mouth been adequately explained?" Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell asked. "To compare that bag to a shroud is almost blasphemous."

West is accused of killing her mother in February 1998, stuffing her in a 45-gallon trash can and hiding the remains in a storage unit.

If convicted of first-degree murder, the 46-year-old woman could face life in prison. Second-degree murder carries a 10-year to life sentence or a 10- to 25-year sentence.

After sitting through eight days of gruesome testimony and three hours of closing arguments, jurors began deliberating West's fate this morning.

Smith's liquefied remains were found in February after renters began complaining about the stench wafting from a Sahara Avenue storage unit.

Found around Smith's head was a plastic garbage bag, but because of the condition of her remains, no cause of death could be determined.

Both the bag and the maggots that covered the remains disprove West's claims that her mother died of natural causes, Mitchell and fellow attorney Frank Coumou said Wednesday.

The prosecutors reminded the jury that the type of maggots found are those that only arrive several months into the decomposition process.

Had Smith, 64, died of natural causes and been placed into the trash can after rigor mortis had set in, as West's attorneys claim, a different sort of maggot would have been found with the body, the prosecutors argued.

The pair also reminded the jurors about the handful of witnesses who testified how tight the plastic bag was around Smith's face even after decomposition.

"The state suggests to you that a plastic bag tied tightly over the nose and mouth doesn't cause a natural cause death," Coumou said.

Prosecutors believe West hated her mother, but also wanted to get her hands on her monthly Social Security checks.

The prosecutors also hammered on the story West told her friends and neighbors -- that her mother had gone to live with her brother, Travis Smith Jr. in California.

Again, the prosecutors reminded the jurors that no one has seen Travis Smith since 1995.

West's attorney, Scott Coffee, said Smith went to Travis Smith's house, but she came back. She didn't die until June or July of 1998.

Coffee asked the jurors to recall the testimony of Steve Cornett, a neighbor of West's and her mother's.

He testified that he saw West and Smith and several packed boxes around the time West said she was taking her mother to her brother's.

"Steve Cornett's testimony, I suggest, is like a bullet to the heart of the state's case," Coffee said.

Evidence in the case also shows a prescription filled in California, bolstering that contention, he said.

West put her mother in a trash can, Coffee noted, but that doesn't make her a murderer.

"She's a flake," he said. "I'm not here to vouch for her character, that's not what this is about."

The plastic bag doesn't prove anything either, he said.

"It's a shroud placed over the face, in effect," Coffee said. "Tying a bag over a face, it's pretty strange, but it's not murder."

Coffee told the jurors they can see that the knot in the plastic bag is "squishy," so the bag was obviously not tight enough to suffocate Smith. Another photo clearly shows a hole in the bag.

If the state can't prove Smith was suffocated, they can't prove West murdered her, he said.

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