Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504190011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Monday, Smith was sentenced to 60 years in prison for what a Roanoke prosecutor called his worst crime yet.
Smith, 19, received the sentence for sodomizing an 18-month-old boy. The toddler is believed to be the youngest victim in a sex crime prosecution in recent Roanoke history, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner said.
"You cannot think of a more innocent and more vulnerable victim than a 32-pound, 18-month old infant who was brutally sodomized by this man," Gardner said in asking Judge Richard Pattisall to impose a life sentence.
From the beginning, Smith has admitted having anal sex with the victim, whom he was baby-sitting in a Northwest Roanoke home in March 1994. The only remaining question - why he did it - was answered to some degree Monday at his sentencing hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Richard Frazier, a child psychiatrist who has been treating Smith for nearly 10 years, testified that many of Smith's emotional and learning problems stem from an incident when, at the age of five, he witnessed a woman kill his father with a shotgun.
"It seems that his emotional development almost stopped on or about the time his father died," Frazier testified.
Two years later, Smith's stepfather was killed in an automobile accident, and his older sister died a short time later. Those experiences, combined with mental and physical abuse that Smith has suffered, have left him emotionally disturbed and a risk to both himself and others, Frazier said.
"He really feels that life is useless," he said.
Smith did not testify Monday, but Pattisall said the information presented in court provided a "clear picture" of what had happened, and why. "There's been a lot of tragedy in your life, and I think that explains, to a great degree, what has molded your behavior," the judge told Smith.
Lawyers say it is much more difficult to determine whether the victim has any memory of the crime, and whether he will suffer any lasting emotional harm.
"We have heard evidence that he is now a healthy and happy child," Smith's attorney said. "We can only hope and pray this is not something he will relive."
Several Roanoke prosecutors have said they could not recall another sexual abuse case involving a victim as young as 18 months.
Even if a young victim is able to explain an offense, a judge must first qualify the child to testify in court, or make a finding that the child understands the difference between telling the truth and a lie. In most cases, a child has to be about 5 before he or she can be qualified.
Because the 18-month-old was not able to tell what happened to him March 25, 1994 - much less be qualified - the case against Smith consisted almost entirely of a confession he made to police Detective D.K. Mays.
According to evidence presented earlier, this is what happened:
After leaving her son in Smith's care, the victim's mother returned to the apartment and found the door locked. Smith did not let her in right away, she told authorities. When she got inside, she saw her son, naked, standing in a stairway.
He seemed to be acting strangely, she said, and would not come to her when she called.
Later, the child began to scream when she patted him on the behind. The toddler was taken to Community Hospital, where doctors found evidence that he been sexually abused in a way that caused internal bleeding.
When Smith was later confronted by police, he readily admitted having sex with the 18-month-old.
At the time of the offense, Smith had recently been released from probation from a juvenile court for an assault and battery offense. In his long history of treatment for emotional problems, Smith has assaulted three staff members at different institutions - prompting Gardner to call him "a time bomb waiting to go off."
by CNB