Keith Smith shocked the country when he told how his Good Samaritan wife, Jacquelyn, had been stabbed to death by a panhandler as she offered him money while they were stopped a Baltimore intersection.
His tearful appearances on TV news even led to Oprah Winfrey – a one-time Baltimore resident – weighing in when she tweeted: ‘This story struck my heart. I’ve done this a 1k times. But will think twice before ever doing again.’
But the 53-year-old man is just months away from a murder trial now, after his daughter, Valeria Smith, 29, admitted to helping him cover up 54-year-old Jacquelyn’s December 2018 slaying.
Keith Smith, 53 (left), is expected to go to trial on murder charges in April. His daughter, Valeria Smith, 29 (right), pleaded guilty to an accessory after the crime charge in September
Keith (right) is accused of first-degree murder following the stabbing death of his wife, Jacquelyn Smith, 54 (left), in December 2018
Keith was charged with first-degree murder in March 2019, after police investigated his panhandler claims and came to believe that they were untrue.
Baltimore is currently experiencing a homeless crisis, with the Maryland Interagency Council on Homelessness estimating in 2018 that it provided services to more than 12,000 homeless people in the city. In comparison, the city’s total population is estimated to be just 609,800.
After her death, Keith allegedly told police that his wife of four years had been attempting to give money to a female panhandler who was holding a baby money at an intersection in Baltimore, Maryland.
He said a man then approached the car, reached inside and fatally stabbed her.
The father and daughter told police that they were in the car with Jacquelyn when the incident occurred.
Police later said that that Keith and Valeria made up the panhandler stabbing story and that they ran once they knew authorities were closing in on them.
They were arrested on March 5 in Texas, during what police said was an effort to flee to Mexico.
The father and daughter – who were both charged with first-degree murder at the time of their arrest – claimed that they were just going on vacation together.
Court documents, obtained by Fox 45, revealed that Jacquelyn had been stabbed five times in the chest and once on the lower right arm.
Keith told police and the media that Jacquelyn had been stabbed by a panhandler who she had been trying to give money to. The pair are pictured here on their wedding day
Police later said that Keith’s story about the panhandler was untrue and suspected that Keith (pictured with Jacquelyn) had been responsible for the death of his wife of four years
Court documents stated that police believe Jacquelyn (pictured with Keith) had been about to divorce Keith and that he had once asked his brother to kill Jacquelyn
Police also said that they reviewed surveillance camera footage from the street where Keith claimed the stabbing occurred and did not find any evidence of the Smiths’ car being there at the time of the incident.
Among the other evidence against Kevin police said they uncovered, was that Keith had allegedly asked his brother to kill Jacquelyn and that she had been planning to divorce Keith.
Following Keith and Valeria’s March 2019 arrest, Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh held a press conference and said that ‘These individuals took advantage of a situation, a city that is already dealing with its own problems. So we are looking forward to this cruel act being brought to justice.’
Kevin Lindamood, President & CEO of Health Care for the Homeless, was prompted to tweet: ‘I remember vividly the public hysteria over public begging that followed this story last year. If there was half as much public outrage over poverty itself we could end homelessness altogether. How reprehensible to play into stereotype & falsely fuel fear.’
Keith and his daughter, Valeria (pictured), were arrested in Texas in March 2019 after they allegedly went on the run in an effort to escape to Mexico as police closed in on them
Valeria was originally hit with a first-degree murder charge, but was then indicted on one charge of accessory after the crime. She is shown at left in her mugshot and at right in an undated image
Valeria pleaded guilty to the accessory charge in September 2019, 10 days before her father’s murder trial was originally expected to begin
In June 2019, prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Valeria, indicting her on one charge of accessory after the crime.
Valeria pleaded guilty to the charge on September 26, 2019, admitting to watching Jacquelyn’s murder, concocting the panhandler story and helping her father – the alleged killer – try to escape to Mexico, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Valeria was expected to have been sentenced in January, but it’s unclear if her sentencing occurred or the date was moved.
Because of her father’s impending murder trial, her plea agreement was kept under a seal, so it’s unknown whether prosecutors have agreed to a sentence or if Valeria will need to testify against her father during his trial.
It’s thought that she could face up to 10 years in prison on the accessory charge, however.
Keith’s murder trial was originally scheduled to begin on October 7, about 10 days after Valeria pleaded guilty – but was postponed to February 4, because his defense team needed additional time, according to WJZ.
In early January, the Baltimore Sun reported that Keith’s trial is now expected to begin on April 20.
In the wake of Keith’s arrest, Jacquelyn’s mother, Anna Trisvane, said that the panhandler story didn’t add up from the beginning because Jacquelyn was a cautious woman who would not have given money to a person in the street in the way Keith claimed she had.
‘It was all phony. I knew it was not real. I suspected that he had something to do with it,’ she told WBALTV in March 2019.
‘She was too cautious. She doesn’t like things like that. She would have said to herself, “No that’s phony,”‘ Trisvane added.
Keith was previously arrested for robbing a bank three times in 1999 and 2000.