Post by SoulTrainOz on Jun 28, 2006 18:48:28 GMT -5
He blames his attorney for the sentence, denies killing the victims
A Houston man who killed his ex-girlfriend and her 11-year-old daughter after the woman stopped dating him should pay with his life, a Harris County jury decided Tuesday.
Demetrius Dwayne Smith, 29, blamed his attorney after hearing the death sentence for the March 24, 2005, slayings of Tammie Evette Harris and Kristina Harris.
The jury convicted Smith of capital murder last week. Prosecutors said Smith, of the 900 block of Marcolin, barged into Harris' home in Humble and shot her because she had ended their relationship a few weeks earlier. He then killed her daughter.
During the trial's sentencing phase, Smith called Harris "beautiful,
intelligent and respectful" and denied shooting her or the girl. He said he loved Harris, 31, and denied that she had broken up with him.
Witnesses said Kristina grabbed a kitchen knife after her mother was shot, but Smith chased her and shot her in the driveway as her friends watched. She was crouched behind a car with her arms covering her face.
When asked who could have killed Harris and her daughter, Smith replied, "Somebody who probably wanted to take her away from me, I guess." He added that the girl probably was killed by "somebody who wanted to destroy my life."
Smith denied witnesses' testimony that he had made threatening phone calls to Harris on the day she was killed.
He charged that his court-appointed attorney, Terry Gaiser, had failed him by not calling alibi witnesses during the trial's guilt/innocence phase. Gaiser responded that Smith had tried to get friends and a relative to say he was somewhere besides the victims' home at the time of the killings.
"Of course, we investigated his alleged alibi," Gaiser said. "His alleged alibi was obviously false."
Source: Houston Chronicle
A Houston man who killed his ex-girlfriend and her 11-year-old daughter after the woman stopped dating him should pay with his life, a Harris County jury decided Tuesday.
Demetrius Dwayne Smith, 29, blamed his attorney after hearing the death sentence for the March 24, 2005, slayings of Tammie Evette Harris and Kristina Harris.
The jury convicted Smith of capital murder last week. Prosecutors said Smith, of the 900 block of Marcolin, barged into Harris' home in Humble and shot her because she had ended their relationship a few weeks earlier. He then killed her daughter.
During the trial's sentencing phase, Smith called Harris "beautiful,
intelligent and respectful" and denied shooting her or the girl. He said he loved Harris, 31, and denied that she had broken up with him.
Witnesses said Kristina grabbed a kitchen knife after her mother was shot, but Smith chased her and shot her in the driveway as her friends watched. She was crouched behind a car with her arms covering her face.
When asked who could have killed Harris and her daughter, Smith replied, "Somebody who probably wanted to take her away from me, I guess." He added that the girl probably was killed by "somebody who wanted to destroy my life."
Smith denied witnesses' testimony that he had made threatening phone calls to Harris on the day she was killed.
He charged that his court-appointed attorney, Terry Gaiser, had failed him by not calling alibi witnesses during the trial's guilt/innocence phase. Gaiser responded that Smith had tried to get friends and a relative to say he was somewhere besides the victims' home at the time of the killings.
"Of course, we investigated his alleged alibi," Gaiser said. "His alleged alibi was obviously false."
Source: Houston Chronicle