Man convicted of stabbing at Hancock Park furniture store – NBC Los Angeles

A homeless man convicted in the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old UCLA student at a Hancock Park furniture store was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was convicted Sept. 10 of first-degree murder for the Jan. 13, 2022, killing of Brianna Kupfer, 24. Investigators said Kupfer was stabbed 46 times in the brutal attack as she worked alone at the Croft house in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue, near Beverly Boulevard.

After a brief hearing Wednesday morning that included a review or reports from two doctors, a judge concluded Smith was healthy at the time of the crime, which was captured on an audio recording. The judge’s decision allowed the case to move on to the sentencing phase.

In addition to his murder conviction, the jury at trial also found true a special circumstance charge of murder in wait, along with the allegation that the defendant used a knife in the commission of the crime. Smith had pleaded both not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity, which necessitated the reason phase of the case, for which the defendant waived a jury trial so that Escobedo could determine whether he was still sane at the time.

During the trial, prosecutors described the defendant as a man who hates women and tries to prey on a victim. They said he went from store to store in the area looking for a woman who worked alone and then posed as a customer.

“She wasn’t alert,” Assistant District Attorney Habib Balian said of the encounter with Kupfer. “He was lying in wait for his perfect target. She had no idea what he planned to do with her.”

A digital audio recorder left at the scene was still recording when police responded to the Croft store. The attacker can be heard telling Kupfer that he has no intention of harming her.

“Just lie on the floor,” a voice can be heard telling Kupfer.

The recording then captured screams and the attacker’s voice saying: “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over b—-.”

Exclusive images show the arrest after an anonymous tipster called the police. He described how he discovered the suspect after watching surveillance police release him. Angie Crouch reports January 19, 2022.

Kupfer was left bleeding on the floor and died at the scene of the accident. Her body was found by a woman who entered the store and then rushed outside to call 911.

The attacker left the store through a back door and walked down an alley before disappearing between two apartment buildings, prosecutors said. He left behind a knife and the audio recorder. The device contained a recording made weeks earlier in which Smith was heard saying, “I don’t like b——” and vowing to “destroy everything.”

Defense attorney Robert Haberer countered that the December 2021 recording did not prove there was a motive for murder for the man, who he described as a “homeless drifter” who roamed commercial stores to talk to people behind the counter. Smith’s attorney called the recording a “slightly incoherent rant full of profanity” and “not exactly some kind of manifesto” or “striking evidence.”

“The fact that he was upset about women is not a warning sign,” Haberer told the jury about the older recording, describing it as “letting off steam.”

Smith’s lawyer claimed the decision to attack copper was instantaneous.

“This was in no way planned,” he said.

According to prosecutors, Smith was arrested six days after the attack when a Pasadena resident called police to report a sighting of the defendant after being offered a reward.