According to reports, a homeless man was found guilty of recording the vicious attack in Los Angeles, California, and stabbing a college student 46 times. The man is heard swearing on the tape that he will not harm her.
In 2022, Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was allegedly “hunting for a woman alone” when he discovered Brianna Kupfer, 24, at the furniture store where she worked.
Ms. Kupfer texted her friend as soon as he walked into the store, expressing her unease about the man there, they said.
She died and was covered in blood on the floor, discovered about twenty minutes after sending that text.
Smith’s audio recording played a crucial role in his conviction for the heinous murder. A man is heard in the video telling a woman to “just get down on the floor” and promising not to hurt her.
The man says, “It is over, it is over, it is over, it is over,” and you can hear a woman screaming.
He left Ms. Kupfer bleeding to death and left the furniture store through the back door after the stabbing.
Prosecutors say Smith had planned to attack a woman who alone and left his house prepared to kill. Ms Kupfer’s lawyer called him a Hannibal Lecter-style sicko who liked the idea of slaughtering women, the New York Post said.
“This man hated women. It’s easier probably to sleep at night to think something is wrong with him rather than face the truth that this man was on a crusade to hunt, to destroy and to kill for the mere fact that she was female,” he said.
At the crime scene, the police found an audio recorded and a filet knife (used to slice and prepare fish). The knife had bent after the frenzied attack.
Both the items were covered in his DNA which was key in proving his guilt.
Smith, who had a long criminal history including assaulting police officer and vandalism, was out on bail after he was accused of firing a flare gun from a vehicle.
“Brianna Kupfer was a promising young woman whose life was tragically taken far too soon. I thank the jury for their thoughtful deliberation and dedication in finding the defendant guilty,” Ms Kupfer’s lawyer said in a statement after the verdict.
