Man gets 40 years in death of actor

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 9:49 a.m.

A 52-year-old homeless handyman on Thursday was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for the killing of 87-year-old "Our Gang" actor Jay R. Smith.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly said Smith, who played the role of a freckle-faced character called "Specks" in the series of comedies popular in the 1920s, had been allowing Charles Crombie to live in a shed behind his home, and Crombie repaid Smith by stabbing him three times in the abdominal area.

Weckerly said Crombie then used Smith's car to drive the body to a dumping spot near the Apex exit of Interstate 15 on Oct. 5.

Weckerly said Crombie went on to use Smith's ATM card and live at Smith's home. According to police reports Crombie used Smith's Visa debit card to buy tickets to several movies and used it to withdraw more than $3,200 from Smith's checking account.

"This man (Crombie) is guilty of killing someone who was elderly and who did nothing but try and help the defendant," Weckerly said.

Neither Crombie nor the authorities have offered any insight as to why Crombie killed Smith.

Smith's granddaughter didn't care why Crombie killed Smith, but cried on the witness stand as she hopes not a day passes that his actions don't haunt him.

"You had no right to do what you did to my Grandpa," Darlla Wann said. "All he was trying to do was help you get back on your feet. I hope his ghost haunts you every night in your cell until the day you die."

In what District Judge Jackie Glass called "probably one of the most contrite letters I've ever received from a defendant," Crombie said, "I have not denied nor tried to make excuses for my actions."

"I now have blood on my hands that shall never wash clean; a remorse that time will never erase; a self loathing of which only God's forgiveness has allowed me to partially overcome," Crombie wrote.

Crombie had entered an Alford plea to the murder charge against him. Under an Alford plea a defendant technically does not admit guilt but agrees that prosecutors could prove their case at trial.

Crombie would go on to tell Glass he deserved "no special consideration from the court, the victim's family or of those I have inconvenienced." When given a chance to address the court Crombie stood up in chains and said softly "what needs to be said has been said."

Glass said she appreciated Crombie's letter, but pointed out that Smith was "a man who was trying to help you (Crombie), befriend you, a man in the golden years of his life and you took the remaining years away from him."