West gets life for killing mother, storing remains

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

A part-time Las Vegas resident convicted of killing her mother and keeping her stored in a garbage container for three years will spend the rest of her life in prison, a judge ruled Monday.

District Judge Donald Mosley Monday gave Brookey West, 46, a no-parole life sentence in connection with the February 1998 death of Christine Smith, 64.

Smith's liquefied remains were found Feb. 5 inside a 55-gallon trash container, which had been placed in a storage unit. A plastic trash bag was tied tightly around the remains of Smith's nose, mouth and chin.

West was convicted of first-degree murder during a July trial and chose to have the judge -- not the jury -- sentence her.

Prosecutors believe West, who also maintained a residence in San Jose, Calif., suffocated her mother so she could continue to collect Smith's monthly Social Security checks.

Medical examiners were unable to determine what caused the elderly woman's death, and West's defense attorneys tried to convince jurors that Smith died of natural causes.

Deputy Public Defender Scott Coffee said West panicked after her mother died. West then placed Smith's body inside the trash can, using the bag as a shroud.

Mosley said he believes it is more likely the bag was used as a murder weapon.

The judge said he wonders how West could possibly have thought her mother's remains would stay safely hidden in the storage unit.

Although West is also considered a suspect in the death of her third husband, Howard St. John, Mosley said he did not take that into consideration when pondering her sentence.

St. John was found shot to death in the Sequoia National Forest in California in June 1994.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell told Mosley that five days earlier St. John told insurance investigators that he had burned a Jaguar owned by West for $19,000 in insurance money.

St. John also told insurance investigators that West had shot him in the neck a few weeks before because she didn't want him to divulge the plot.

West has not been prosecuted for the earlier shooting or in connection St. John's slaying.

Coffee said he intends to appeal West's conviction, particularly since Smith's death certificate still lists her cause of death as unknown.