Havre de Grace Man Knew Panhandler Didn't Kill His Sister: Report

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — After murder charges were filed in the death of an Aberdeen woman this week, police said that her husband and his stepdaughter had made up the story that she was killed by a panhandler in east Baltimore. Now the two are charged with murder.

The victim's brother said he did not believe the story all along.

"I knew it was a circus...it was a show," Marcel Trisvan of Havre de Grace told Fox. "I knew this day would come. I didn't know it would come this soon."

His sister — Jacquelyn Smith, 54, an engineer at Aberdeen Proving Ground — had been riding in a vehicle in the 1000 block of Valley Street in east Baltimore around midnight on Dec. 1 with her husband and stepdaughter when, her husband told police, he opened the window for her so she could give money to a woman holding a baby or an object wrapped to look like a baby.

"What man puts the window down on his wife that time of night in Baltimore or in any city?" Trisvan asked ABC News.

A man approached the vehicle appearing to thank Smith and instead reached inside to grab her wallet, they struggled, and the man stabbed Smith in the torso with a knife, her husband and stepdaughter told police.

Trisvan said the pieces of the picture did not add up.

"My sister and his stepdaughter didn't get along," Trisvan told ABC, "so the fact that they were in the car together raised an eyebrow for me and my family."

The family had allegedly been out celebrating the stepdaughter's birthday the night Jacquelyn Smith was killed. However, court records indicate the stepdaughter's birthday is Oct. 30.

The father and daughter also told investigators that the stabbing took place near Valley Road in east Baltimore, but none of the surveillance cameras in the area corroborated that, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Keith Tyrone Smith, 52, of the 4900 block of Villa Point Drive in Aberdeen, and his daughter Valeria Shavon Smith, 28, of the 1300 block of Homewood Avenue in Baltimore, were taken into custody in Texas on an arrest warrant for murder near the Mexican border, Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison reported on Sunday, March 3.

Police have not released a motive or details surrounding the Dec. 1 murder that led to charges, citing the ongoing investigation and pending court case.

The motive may have been monetary since Jacquelyn Smith was "100 percent the breadwinner" in the house, Trisvan told The Baltimore Sun.

In addition, Keith Smith was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy on his wife of at least $500,000, according to WBAL.

In February, Keith Smith reportedly moved to Winter Park, Florida, where his daughter lived with him. According to The Sun, Keith Smith had been googling essentials for traveling to Jamaica and had been looking for a way to enter Mexico without going through border personnel.

Neighbors of Keith Smith say he moved out of Harford Co house in a hurry Feb 4. Took a pic because it was so odd, neighbor said.
Smith now charged with daughter in killing of Smith's wife Jacqueline then blaming panhandlers pic.twitter.com/M4rIQYBbVt
— Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) March 5, 2019

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