Keith Smith ‘Willfully, Deliberately Stabbed’ His Wife, Prosecution Says

By Andrew Michaels - December 8, 2021
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

Sitting next to his defense attorney, homicide defendant Keith Smith faced forward as the prosecutor to his right told the jury that he “willfully and deliberately stabbed Jacquelyn Smith.”

Smith is accused of fatally stabbing his wife with his daughter, Valeria Smith, in the backseat in Druid Hill Park on Dec. 1, 2018. Although originally scheduled as a two-week trial, the prosecutor and defense attorney Natalie Finegar presented their closing arguments after less than a week on Dec. 8.

The jury heard the prosecution’s argument one final time on Wednesday morning, beginning with the 911 call that Smith made after he allegedly killed Jacquelyn. Replaying the call in the courtroom, the prosecutor reminded the jury that Smith told the operator about panhandlers who were asking for money on the 1000 block of Valley Street and then stabbed Jacquelyn after she gave them $10.

From there, Smith drove Jacquelyn and Valeria to the hospital, where the prosecutor said Smith “casually” got out of the car to get help for his wife. Baltimore Police Department officers and homicide detectives later went to Valley Street but found neither a crime scene nor CCTV video surveillance footage of Smith’s vehicle.

“There were no panhandlers. It was all made up,” the prosecutor told the jury. “Valeria Smith testified that her father coached her on what to say [to police].”

The prosecutor explained that Smith’s story to the police frequently changed over the course of the investigation. In one interview, she said, Smith told police he didn’t know what the knife looked like, and in another, he said it was a steak knife.

On another occasion, Smith told police that the panhandler who stabbed Jacquelyn was a man but later said it was a woman.

Smith also never mentioned Druid Hill Park when he spoke with homicide detectives about the family’s driving route that evening, the prosecutor noted. Later, he would tell police that they got lost and ended up in Druid Hill Park.

About two and a half months after Jacquelyn’s death, “he left, he fled,” the prosecutor said, referring to Smith’s unsuccessful attempts to buy plane tickets to Cuba, Canada, and the Virgin Islands after he realized his daughter “was cracking.”

Witness testimony previously stated that Smith decided to go to Mexico, bringing Valeria with him.

“The evidence shows that Keith Smith murdered Jacquelyn Smith, brutally, in Druid Hill Park,” the prosecutor concluded.

Finegar shared her disagreement with the prosecution, telling the jury that there was “not one iota of evidence” that her client murdered his wife. Finegar’s closing arguments focused on Valeria Smith, specifically, how her testimony didn’t add up.

Finegar showed the jury how Valeria said her father sat in the driver’s seat and repeatedly stabbed Jacquelyn with a knife facedown in his right hand. According to the testimony of the assistant medical examiner for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Finegar said, the stab wounds showed an upward movement as well as movement from left to right, which the defense attorney said doesn’t corroborate with Valeria’s testimony.

“I know it’s graphic. I know it’s gruesome. But these are important facts,” Finegar said as she used her arms to show the jury the motion of the stabbing.

Valeria also couldn’t keep her testimony straight about the murder weapon, she added. During her testimony on Dec. 7, Valeria testified that she saw her father dispose of the knife in the woods at Druid Hill Park but later testified that it was thrown down a storm drain.

Finegar moved on to Valeria’s testimony regarding her journal entries that she wrote on their way to Mexico. The entries were “very coherent and self-serving,” Finegar said, despite Valeria testifying that she bought and took a lot of drugs during the trip.

“You have to say, ‘I don’t believe any of this,’” Finegar told the jury.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer then released the jury for deliberations.

Prior to closing arguments on Wednesday, Smith exercised his right not to testify in his trial. The defense was also denied a motion for acquittal.