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On December 1, 2018, Jacquelyn Smith, a 54-year-old electrical engineer from Maryland, was brutally murdered in a gruesome attack. Her husband, Keith Tyrone Smith, said Jacquelyn had been stabbed to death by a panhandler after she had gone out of her way to give money to a homeless woman on the streets of Baltimore.
Keith recounted how a man with the panhandler, stabbed Jacquelyn through the car window and then ran off with her wallet and necklace. Investigation unfolded and it was later revealed that Keith Smith was the person who killed his wife while the story he concocted was a cover for the crime.
On Killer Relationships with Faith Jenkins, the episode delves into what happened to Jacquelyn Smith in one of the more jarring details of her murder case, including how it all came to light, Keith trying to make a stranger out of her murder, and what this case had done for her family.
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The episodes air every Saturday on Oxygen at 8 pm CT and 7 pm ET. Ahead of the show, below is one of the core details about her death and eventually the conviction of Keith Smith.
Jacquelyn Smith's fatal murder and the hoax tale
On December 1, 2018, Keith Smith drove his wife Jacquelyn Smith to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, claiming that a panhandler had stabbed his wife. Keith testified that he and his wife were driving through Baltimore when Jacquelyn noticed a woman holding a baby panhandling. Keith said he pulled over at Jacquelyn's request so she could give the woman $10.
At that point, Keith claimed, a man approached the vehicle, stabbed Jacquelyn Smith multiple times through the passenger window, and ran off with her necklace and wallet. This story first portrayed, to the public and government, a senseless act of brutal violence that had been committed against Jacquelyn.
The incident led to a far greater conversation about panhandlers and street crime, and Keith was seen as a grieving husband who had witnessed his wife being brutally murdered.
The investigation and the shocking truth
Although Keith's story gained much publicity in the press, detectives soon found discrepancies. The turn in the investigation arose when Keith's daughter, Valeria Smith, admitted that her father's story was a lie. According to Valeria, she had seen her father stab her mother to death in Druid Hill Park, a mile away from where Keith reported the attack had taken place.
Telephone records also destroyed Keith's alibi. Cellular data for Valeria uncovered the location of the family in Druid Hill Park at the time when Jacquelyn was murdered, contrary to Keith's claim that the attack had taken place in north Baltimore. As the case built against him, Keith's web of lies slowly unraveled, and the police finally arrested him for his wife's murder.
Valeria Smith, who reportedly did not initially ask her father any questions about his story, then testified against him so that she could be convicted of a lesser crime. She entered a plea of guilt to be an accessory after the fact. She was given a five-year prison term.
Keith Smith's trial and sentencing
In December 2021, Keith Smith was convicted of murdering Jacquelyn Smith. The prosecutors accounted for his stabbing his wife multiple times before going ahead and fabricating an over-the-top alibi story with a false panhandler. In court, it was indicated that Jacquelyn had been stabbed five times in the chest and had a defensive wound on her arm.
Keith Smith's reasons for the murder are unknown to date, but it was apparent to the police that it might be a financial reason. The court sentenced Keith to life imprisonment for his role in a brutal murder. Maryland State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby termed his action as "cowardly, with all of those stealth and cunning manipulations to avoid detection."
The tragic murder of Jacquelyn Smith sent shock waves throughout her community. Keith's ploy to pin the murder on a panhandler first fooled the public and the investigators, but through tenacious detective work and the eventual confession of his daughter, the truth came out.
As the dramatization of Killer Relationships returns with Faith Jenkins to revisit the harrowing case, the audience will have a deeper understanding of how devastating the killing of Jacquelyn Smith has been and how far her husband went.
