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Walter Leon Smith Jr. pleads guilty to second degree murder in the 2007 death of his sister, Betsy Smith. Date published: 1/28/2009
By ELLEN BILTZ Walter Leon Smith Jr. pleaded guilty this morning in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to second degree murder in the 2007 death of his sister, Betsy Smith. Smith, now 18, also pleaded guilty to his sister’s attempted rape as well as malicious wounding in the sledgehammer beating of his 2-year-old neice, Andrea Washington. All of the guilty pleas came as part of a written plea agreement. Smith was initially charged with first degree murder and rape, but those charges were reduced today by Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Neely in exchange for Smith’s guilty pleas. Smith’s defense attorneys, Kristie Kane and Eugene Frost, asked for his sentencing hearing to be scheduled on another date so they could bring in a mental health expert to testify. Authorities have said that although Smith is legally sane, he has many mental health problems. According to a mental health evaluation done at the University of Virginia Hospital, Smith suffered from depression and psychosis at the time of his sister’s murder. Smith was charged Sept. 3, 2007 after Betsy Smith was found dead in her bedroom floor in her parent’s Brock Road home. She was stabbed and beaten with a blunt object, according to the plea agreement. After she was found by a Spotsylvania detective, Smith admitted to the slaying and said “I did it, I killed her with a sledge hammer,” according to the plea agreement. Smith also admitted to hitting Washington in the head with the sledge hammer because she started crying, the agreement states. The girl has made a full recovery since the beating that left her with several skull fractures. Smith will be sentenced April 7 by Judge David H. Beck. For more on this case, read tomorrow’s Free Lance-Star.
...even if the kid had been found guilty of the crimes by a jury. If he's 18 now, he was 16 or 17 & a juvenile when he committed the crimes. I don't think juries sentence juveniles in Virginia.
Why did Bill Neely make a deal? It sounds like he would have no trouble in court getting 1st deg murder. Or are they afraid of the insanity plea? Or does he think he's just saving the taxpayers money by not having a trial? I'll gladly pay more taxes to put people like this in jail for the max possible amount of time. No reason to bargin with someone like this. I just have a bad feeling that we will be realy disgusted when we hear the sentence for these reduced crimes.
but, why oh why, when there are confessions and proof positive, do we need to bother with trials? why not
skip to the sentencing phase? also, i know we have to have them, but i don't understand being able to
defend cases like this. thank god there are people who can. i'd never be able to live with myself knowing i
helped get a lesser sentence for a monster.
A waste of the taxpayers money.
This story has made me sick to my stomach since I first heard about it. I can't believe anyone would try to "bargin" with this monster! Anyone that is sick enough to beat his sister in the head with a sledge hammer and then rape her after she is dead does not deserve to have any choices. In my opinion he deserves to rot in prison with no possibilty of seeing daylight EVER! People live every day with some sort of mental illness and they don't do this horrific type of assault.
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