West jury won’t be told about husband’s death

Kim Smith

Thursday, June 28, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

The jurors who will decide the fate of a woman accused of killing her mother and placing her remains in storage will not hear prosecutors' belief that she may be responsible for one other death and an assault.

Brookey West, 46, faces an open murder charge in connection with the death of her mother, Christine Smith, 68. Her trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

Smith's remains were found inside a 55-gallon trash can in a storage unit on Feb. 5. The remains were found with a plastic trash bag tied tightly around Smith's nose, mouth and chin.

West confessed that she put her mother in the trash can but said the woman died of natural causes.

It was later discovered that West's husband of three weeks was killed in 1994 -- two weeks after she was arrested in a shooting in which he was wounded in the neck.

The assault charges filed against West were ultimately dismissed, but West remains a suspect in his death, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also revealed that West's brother, Travis Smith Jr., is missing, and they suspect West continued to collect his Social Security checks -- just as she allegedly did after her mother died.

In addition, West's stepmother, Diane Smith, has come forward to allege that West attacked her with a stun gun in 1996 after she confronted West over missing bank funds.

Prosecutors Frank Coumou and Scott Mitchell told District Judge Donald Mosley Wednesday they find it odd that West told several people her mother had gone to live with her brother when he hadn't been seen in years and she had told the Social Security Administration her brother was a transient.

Taken together, all of the incidents show a "common scheme," the prosecutors said. They show that West is obsessed with money and will do anything to obtain it.

Public Defender Scott Coffee argued that the prosecutors merely want to put on evidence that tends to show his client is a person of bad character, and such evidence is inadmissible.

Mosley ruled that he wants to further explore the financial allegations before he decides whether prosecutors can introduce them at trial.

He told the prosecutors that they can't get into the stun gun incident or the slaying of West's husband, Howard St. John. The judge said it would be easy for the jury to get distracted when it is to focus solely on the current case.

A hearing on the finances is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.