Homicide Defendant’s Daughter Recalls Being ‘Officially On the Run’ After Her Stepmother’s Murder

By Andrew Michaels - December 7, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

Holding a pink journal with “Good Vibes Only” written in gold on the front cover, the daughter of homicide defendant Keith Smith read entries to the jury on Dec. 7 that she had written nearly three years ago on their way to Mexico a few months after her father allegedly killed his wife.

Valeria Smith, a 31-year-old Baltimore resident, pleaded guilty to accessory to first-degree murder after the fact in September 2019 in connection to the fatal stabbing of her stepmother, Jacquelyn Smith, on Dec. 1, 2018.

Keith is accused of Jacquelyn’s murder, facing charges of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon with the intent to injure.

On the third day of Keith’s trial, the prosecution submitted Valeria’s journal into evidence and had her read from two entries on March 1, 2019 and March 2, 2019, when the defendant and his daughter were on their way to Mexico.

“Today is the craziest day of my life. I’m officially on the run,” Valeria read from her first entry, which also noted they were headed to Mexico, leaving her “two beautiful children behind.”

Valeria noted in her second entry that her children “will probably hate me for leaving them,” but that she didn’t want to go to prison because of someone else’s actions.

The two made several stops on their way to Mexico, she said, including gas stations and Target because she had no luggage.

Earlier in the day, Valeria told the prosecution that her father had raised her since she was a little girl. On Nov. 30, 2018, she said, Keith contacted her and said he wanted her to go to the American Legion with him and Jacquelyn—something the family had done for Valeria’s birthday the past two years.

Valeria shared her history with drug abuse and said that when the family was at the legion, she had gone outside to purchase 10 pills of heroin, taking two and a half pills while there. When the family left the legion, she explained, she thought she was being taken to her boyfriend’s house, but instead, ended up in Druid Hill Park.

“I didn’t know where I was because it was so dark,” she recalled.

It was at that moment, Valeria testified, that Keith allegedly plunged a knife, faced down in his hand, into Jacquelyn’s chest. The defendant’s daughter, who said she was high at the time, told the jury that her father then told her to get out of the car.

Keith proceeded to tell her the panhandler story they would share with the Baltimore Police Department, Valeria testified. Once back in the car, she said, Keith picked up a towel from the backseat floor and covered Jacquelyn face, not her wound as he later told police.

With Jacquelyn’s body in the car, Valeria said she and her father then drove to East Baltimore, where he made the frantic 911 call about panhandlers who allegedly stabbed Jacquelyn in her attempt to give them money.

Valeria’s testimony continued as she told the jury how she and Keith went to Jacquelyn’s workplace the day after her death to retrieve paperwork for insurance. Keith had also allegedly instructed his daughter to put Jacquelyn’s wallet somewhere where someone could find it and use her credit cards, which Valeria said ended up in the hands of young boys who found the wallet on a bus stop bench.

During cross examination, defense attorney Natalie Finegar questioned Valeria’s testimony about the murder weapon, specifically how she testified that her father disposed of it in the woods at Druid Hill Park but then later testified that her father told her to throw it down a storm drain.

Prior to their drive to Mexico, Valeria testified, her and her father mostly communicated using the Google Duo mobile app because it could not be wiretapped.

As homicide detectives began doubting Keith’s story of the events that led to his wife’s death, police enlisted the assistance of the FBI, specifically, the cellular analysis team to take a closer look at the defendant and Valeria’s cell phone records. An analyst, who testified on Tuesday, said he completed cell site and Google location analyses on both phones that placed Smith and Valeria at the center of Druid Hill Park.

Homicide detectives previously testified that Keith did not mention Druid Hill Park when he shared the route he and his family drove in the early morning hours of Dec. 1, 2018.

“Would it be possible [one of the phones] was located at Valley Street,” where the defendant said the incident occurred, the prosecutor asked, as she reviewed the FBI agent’s reports before the jury.

“No,” he replied.

However, during cross examination, the cell analyst told Finegar that the phone could have passed by Valley Street without hitting a tower because it wasn’t in the area long enough to register.

A trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety also testified on Tuesday that he arrested Keith and Valeria roughly 20 minutes from the Mexico border after receiving a call to be on the lookout.

During his testimony, the trooper said police units sent out an alert on a white Toyota Camry with Florida tags on March 3, 2019, in Combes, TX. The trooper said he waited a couple of hours on a shoulder along 69 East when he saw the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop.

The prosecutor played the trooper’s body camera footage from the stop during which he had Keith and Valeria get out of the vehicle one at a time, move toward him, and lay facedown on the ground before their arrest.

When asked what they were doing, Keith can be heard telling the trooper that he and his daughter were “out sightseeing, just riding.”

Cell phones and a jacket were found in the vehicle, which was then towed.

The testimony of a DNA analyst with the Baltimore Police Department revealed that a DNA mixture of two people was found on a knife. The analyst said that DNA from an unknown man and Valeria was found on both the blade and knife handle. 

The analyst said she completed four reports based on her analyses of several pieces of evidence, including the vehicle’s interior door on the front passenger side and center console as well as a nail clippings, clothes, and leather and rubber gloves.

Before ending for the day, presiding Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer informed the jury that the trial may possibly conclude on Dec. 8 or 9 as it was ahead of schedule.