UPDATE: Walter Smith Jr. Pleads Guilty To Rape And Second Degree Murder Of Sister
….on the morning of the third of September, 2007, Walter Smith grabbed a sledgehammer and went after the girl pictured here to the left – Betsy Mary Smith, his 22-year-old sister.
Walter Smith Jr. whacked her a few times, then grabbed a knife and stabbed her.
Then he ripped her clothes off and raped her.
When his niece, two-year-old Andrea Costello, started crying, Walter Smith Jr. hit her with the sledgehammer. On the head.
Then Walter dragged his dying sister, along with little Andrea and a 1-year-old boy into a back room, which was then padlocked.
Betsy Mary Smith died in that room from the injuries her brother inflicted upon her.
(From the story posted in PYSIH 09/06/2007)
SMITH PLEADS GUILTY IN SISTERS MURDER
By Ellen Biltz
The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
On the morning of January 28th, 2009, Walter Leon Smith Jr. pleaded guilty 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.
(end of article)
So we have another defendant who was saved from more serious charges by a diagnosis of mental illness. The one that irks me is the depression diagnoses used as a reason to disqualify a person for a first degree murder charge. Murder committed as part of another crime (The Rape) is almost always considered capital or first degree murder. How does depression have anything to do with any of that is a question I can’t answer. Someone needs to explain all this to me because I DO NOT understand. Personally I think this case has more to do with a prosecutor who is afraid to loose a case than it is about Walter’s mental health. It’s always easier to let some asshole cop a plea to a lesser charge and claim the win than it is to take a chance and fight in court to give the creep gets the justice he deserves. Many times, plea bargaining is an appropriate course of action, but IMHO this case isn’t one of them.
13 Comments »
Ya know, I despise all rapists of course, but there is something about someone raping and killing their own sister that really just pisses me off! I just don’t get how fucked up in the head you have to be to look at your own sister that way! But maybe that is a good thing, cause I dont want to know how they think!
regarding the two year old that was hit on the head…”The girl has made a full recovery since the beating that left her with several skull fractures”…ummm a full recovery? omg I just dont see how…she watched her mother be murdered and raped right in front of her…that is so sad….full recovery? she would be scarred deeply from such at traumatic event, even of she doesnt remember it consciously
Not that it matters its doesnt make any of this better but the woman was the girls aunt not her mother…. I remember when this happened I live in Spotsy.. this is just horrible. And they should have just killed him.
Just because someone has a mental health diagnosis should not mean that they are less culpable for their crimes and they deserve a lesser sentence. It is my firm belief that anyone with a mental health diagnosis who would commit such as crime as to rape his sister, murder her, and beat a two year old on her little head with a sledgehammer is evil first, mentally ill second. I hope that makes sense. He should have to pay for his crimes with his life, I am sure his sister was depressed and had anxiety when he was victimizing her. And that poor child?
I am certain that that child hasnt fully recovered and probably will have traumatic brain injury effects if not right now, but later on in her life. You dont just get bashed on the head with a sledgehammer as a developing two year old and recover with no long-term injuries. Walter Smith Jr. makes me vomit.
He needs to die, die, die.
I don’t think the mental health issue has nearly as much to do with the downgrading the charge as the plea agreement that saves the need for a lengthy/costly trial.
I suppose at least this way he is guaranteed to be convicted … and so long as this POS is never allowed out who cares what number sits in front of his Murder charge.
Even if he were subject to the death penalty he would probaly die of old age in prison anyway, the way the system works.
Depression doesn’t cause people to rape. Now, if this sicko was saying that at the time of the rape, he was hearing command auditory hallucinations telling him to rape his sister, then he might have had a case. It sounds to me that it’s more likely that he’s full of shit.
This is such a sad story. I really hope this guy is not just back out on the streets in a few years. That poor little girl. I can’t imagine having seen something like that.
I hope his future husband read this message about how I’d like to see this guy’s skull split open with a pipe wrench with another pipe wrench shoved up his ass so deep that the coroner just leaves it!
mental health expert??? this kid raped his sister? hit a 2 year old with a sledge hammer?? i would say this guy is depraved and does not deserve anything, not even the air he breathes… f*ck him, let him rot, let him be raped like he did his sister, this f****ker deserves death by beating, nothing more, nothing less
Obviously if you rape and kill your sister then you are mentally fucked in the head. I think that goes without saying but when are we as a society going to get back to considering the victims and those left hurting first and formost rather than worry about the perps. For fucks sake if you rape and kill someone mental problems or not, society in general needs to be protected from you. Responsibility to the responsible.
TNB
some people never learn.
Ugh. I hope this racist ass never comes back around here.
he needs to die r never see the light of day and rot in prison for whats hes done