The man accused of stabbing a UCLA student to death 26 times in a lawless Democratic city has been found guilty of murder.
A jury found Shawn Laval Smith, 34, guilty of first-degree murder with a special circumstance on Tuesday after Brianna Kupfer, 24, was killed inside a luxury Los Angeles furniture store on January 13, 2022.
Jurors also found that Smith waited to ambush Kupfer with a knife while she worked alone inside Croft House furniture store that day.
His trial will now move into a non-jury sanity phase that will begin on October 2, Fox 11 reported.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if the judge finds Smith was sane during his trial.
Brianna Kupfer, 24, died inside a luxury Los Angeles furniture store in January 2022
A jury found Shawn Laval Smith, 34, guilty of first-degree murder with a special circumstance on Tuesday. (pictured: Smith in court on September 4)
After their daughter’s killer was found guilty, Kupfer’s mother and father expressed an ‘overwhelming sense of relief’ after ‘a brutal couple weeks.’
‘Justice will never be served because our daughter’s not alive,’ Lori Kupfer told CBS News.
‘But the DA did a wonderful job, and the jury really listened to the evidence that they heard. And we are very, very happy that they understood the law and made the correct decisions.
‘As I said, it’s not just. But it will protect the public, which is what I think it’s meant to do,’ she added.
On Monday, Kupfer’s heartbroken family faced Smith in the courtroom as closing arguments began.
‘He used her kindness against her. He then slayed her… When he was close and he was safe and her guard was down… left her body on the floor,’ Habib Balian, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney said.
Brianna Kupfer was stabbed 26 times in the attack in January 2022
Jurors also found that Smith waited to ambush Kupfer with a knife while she worked alone inside Croft House furniture store that day
‘With this filet knife, penetrated her body – punctured lung, punctured stomach, punctured liver,’ he added.
Smith was seen sitting in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday as prosecutors played the chilling audio recording of the horrific murder, which captured Kupfer’s desperate please for her life as she was stabbed to death.
The murder trial, presided over by Judge Mildred Escobedo, saw dramatic scenes as the Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney held up the alleged murder weapon – a knife – and its sheath for the jury to examine.
Photos obtained by DailyMail.com show the accused killer wearing a striped button-down shirt and cloth face mask.
Smith, who was sitting next to his defense attorney, listened to testimony from witnesses as prosecutors laid out their case against the accused killer.
In an opening statement, the prosecution argued Smith was on ‘a hunt to kill a vulnerable woman who was alone and secluded.’
The suspect reportedly had a recording expressing his desire to ‘kill women.’
After their daughter’s killer was found guilty, Kupfer’s mother and father expressed an overwhelming sense of relief’ after ‘a brutal couple weeks.’ (pictured: Kupfer with her family)
The murder trial, presided over by Judge Mildred Escobedo, saw dramatic scenes as the Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney held up the alleged murder weapon – a knife – and its sheath for the jury to examine
‘Just 18 days before he found and slaughtered Brianna, the defendant recorded himself talking about the most vile, disgusting and grotesque thoughts about women,’ said Los Angeles County prosecutor Habib Balian in court.
‘The defendant, pretending to be a customer, lured her into a sense of security and safety and vulnerability, even went outside, pretending to call his girlfriend,’ the prosecutor said. ‘The evidence we’ll show you, they weren’t looking for a couch. It was all a lie.
‘Brianna Kupfer, lying on the floor in the Croft House covered in her own blood, smear marks of blood surrounding her.
‘Her last breathing words, she’s just telling him, ‘I can help you, I can help you, I can help you,’ and he’s telling her, ‘It’s over [expletive].’
Although Smith’s attorney Rober Haberer did not argue his client was innocent, he insisted that the recordings of him did not prove motive to slay Kupfer.
‘The dude was expressing his tantrum to himself, it sounds like he was blowing off steam, probably because he was pissed off about something in that moment. Who the hell knows what it was?,’ Haberer said.
She was stabbed to death while working alone at the Croft House store on La Brea, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was ‘giving her a bad vibe’
Smith – who reportedly has a rap sheet spanning two coasts – was out on bail when he stabbed Kupfer to death
Smith’s legal team also challenged the first-degree murder charge and claimed that the crime was not premeditated.
‘The decision to attack Brianna Kupfer happened in an instant. To say that the perpetrator engaged in something like reflective contemplation is ludicrous,’ Smith said.
She was stabbed to death while working alone at the Croft House store on La Brea, just minutes after she texted a friend that a man in the store was ‘giving her a bad vibe.’
Smith, at the time of the killing, was tracked down in Pasadena a day after the Los Angeles Police Department named him as the top suspect in the unprovoked slaying.
Smith – who reportedly has a rap sheet spanning two coasts – was out on bail when he stabbed Kupfer to death.
He was cuffed without incident at a bus stop near Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard about 11:50am. It’s not clear whether he was armed.
Smith was taken into custody about 15 miles from the high-end furniture store where Kupfer was killed.
A pedestrian tipped cops off after spotting the wanted man sitting on a park bench.
Smith – who police believe has been a homeless transient – initially gave officials a false name, a source told the news outlet. However, the LAPD fugitive unit was able to confirm his identity with a fingerprint reader.
Smith was previously arrested and charged with violent crimes in at least three states.
At the time of Kupfer’s murder, he was free on a $50,000 bond after allegedly firing a weapon toward an occupied vehicle in Charleston, South Carolina, in November 2019.
