The 34-year-old man who killed a UCLA graduate student and stabbed her 46 times while she worked at a furniture store in Hancock Park was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Shawn Laval Smith was convicted September 10 of first-degree murder the murder of Brianna Kupfer, 24, was motivated by a broader hatred of women, according to prosecutors.
After a brief hearing Wednesday morning that included reports from a few doctors, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo determined that Smith was sane at the time of the killing. Crime of January 13, 2022which was captured on a chilling audio recording. That determination gave the judge the freedom to move forward with sentencing.
During his trial, prosecutors said Smith “went alone hunting for a woman” on the day of the murder. After approaching women who worked at other companies in the central Los Angeles area, he came across Kupfer, who worked alone.
Her body was found by a customer about 15 minutes after she sent a text message to a friend, saying she had been getting “bad vibes” from someone in the store.
Smith was arrested in Pasadena a week after the murder.
In early September, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, along with special charges of murder while lying in wait and that he used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife, during the commission of the crime.
