THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510280311
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
After a year of setbacks, a Portsmouth man turned his frustration on his estranged wife, then fled. As a sheriff closed in, he took his own life.
First he lost his job. Then his wife left him. Finally, his home became nearly unlivable when the electricity, gas and water were shut off.
For James E. Smith, life during the past year went from difficult to intolerable in a slow but steady downfall.
``He would tell me that he was going to lose everything,'' said next-door neighbor Carey ``Pat'' Patterson. ``He was real depressed.''
Police believe Smith's state of mind went from depression to murderous rage sometime on Wednesday when, investigators say, he took a knife and stabbed to death his 43-year-old estranged wife, Deborah E. Smith. Her body was found that night at the rented home she and her husband had shared in the 4300 block of Deep Creek Boulevard.
On Thursday afternoon, police tracked Smith to Tazewell County, near the West Virginia border. With a murder warrant in hand, Tazewell County Sheriff D.J. Johnson and a deputy tried to arrest Smith at an apartment building near Bluefield, Va., where a relative of Smith's was staying.
Smith, armed with a knife, refused to be taken into custody, and held the sheriff and the deputy at bay on a porch.
First, Smith attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the chest as the sheriff and deputy watched in horror. Then, brandishing the knife, he charged at them. The deputy fatally shot Smith once in the chest.
Portsmouth police said Smith had prior felony convictions and had served time.
But before this year, Smith's life seemed normal enough to those who knew him, his wife and his 14-year-old son.
``You could tell the clock by Debbie,'' said Wayne White, a manager at Portsmouth's Safeway Cab Service, where Deborah Smith drove a taxi. ``She was a real good worker.''
White had known the Smiths for about eight years. James Smith used to own his own taxi in Portsmouth before going to work for a contract cleaner that serviced several of the area's shipyards.
It was when James Smith lost that job earlier this year that things began to fall apart for the couple.
White said Deborah Smith moved out of the house on Deep Creek Boulevard and began a relationship with another man. Eventually, James Smith also left the house with his son. They went to live with Smith's mother in Fairwood Homes, White said.
During the separation, James Smith got increasingly desperate, White said.
``She told me several times that her husband was going to kill her,'' White said. ``And I heard him making idle threats about killing Debbie.''
White said he urged Deborah Smith to leave the area for her own protection, but she refused. Eventually, she began living again, this time alone, in the house on Deep Creek Boulevard, so she could save money.
``She was staying in the house with no water, lights or gas,'' White said.
White took Deborah Smith home Wednesday morning after work and became alarmed that afternoon when she failed to show up for work. White called police at about 7 p.m. Wednesday.
White, who identified the body, said Deborah Smith was found in her bedroom with stab wounds to her chest, neck and face.
``She had told me that she was scared of Jimmy,'' White remembered. ``Her last words to me were that she was finally happy, but she knew Jimmy was going to kill her.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Deborah Smith
James Smith
KEYWORDS: MURDER SUICIDE by CNB