A homeless man accused of brutally stabbing to death a UCLA student while she was working in a boutique furniture shop was found guilty Tuesday.
Los Angeles County jurors convicted Shawn Laval Smith, 34, for the gruesome killing of Brianna Kupfer. Jurors also convicted Smith of a special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait, along with an allegation that he used a knife during the commission of the crime for the Jan. 13, 2022 murder, Fox Los Angeles reported.
Kupfer, 24, an architectural graduate student, was working alone at Croft House in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood when Smith, a homeless man with a long criminal history, entered the store and stabbed her dozens of times during an unprovoked attack.
WHO IS BRIANNA KUPFER, THE LOS ANGELES STABBING VICTIM?
Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was convicted for the 2022 killing of Brianna Kupfer, 24, who was stabbed multiple times while working alone in a Los Angeles furniture shop. (KTTV/Linkedin)
During his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian told jurors that Smith hated women and went from business-to-business “hunting for a woman alone.”
He posed as a customer when he saw Kupfer alone inside the shop, Balian said.
Kupfer was stabbed 11 times, with injuries to the chest, two in the abdomen, one to the pelvis, two on her right arm, five on her left arm, two on her right leg and three on her left leg. Security cameras showed Smith at the store and his DNA was found on the knife, prosecutors said.
He was arrested days later.
BRIANNA KUPFER SENT PAL OMINOUS TEXT BEFORE SHE WAS STABBED TO DEATH
Flowers are placed outside Croft House furniture store in memory of graduate student Brianna Kupfer. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Prosecutors said Smith also left behind a digital audio recorder in which he was heard ranting about his hatred of women, as well as a recording of the killing, authorities said.
Smith’s lawyer called the recording a “mildly incoherent rant laced with profanities” and “not exactly some sort of manifesto” or “smoking gun” for a “ghastly murder 2 1/2 weeks later,” the news station reported.
“The decision to attack Brianna Kupfer happened in an instant … This was not planned in any way,” the defense lawyer said.
Smith faces life without parole if a judge determines he was sane.
Days after the killing, mourners gathered at the furniture shop to remember Kupfer.
A memorial for Brianna Kupfer, a Pacific Palisades resident who was found dead inside Croft House on North La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles is seen on Jan. 20, 2022. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily via Getty Images)
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“Brie was the brightest part of anyone’s day who got to interact with her,” said Alex Segal, co-founder of the shop where Kupfer had worked for about a year, said at the time. “The question just screams why and how are we here and how is this happening.”
