Mother Lori Kupfer’s Victim Impact Statement:
I want to thank the prosecution and his team for all the support they have given us throughout this process and your honor for her time and for keeping an orderly proceeding.
I have written this statement in my mind a million times, but this is the first and last written version I wrote.
The last time I saw my daughter Brianna was the night before she was murdered. She was packing for a trip. I was helping her find warm clothes before she left. I hugged her and told her I loved her and to have a safe trip. That was the last time I would ever speak or listen to or hug my daughter. The last time I would see her smile or hear her laughter.
Brianna was a beautiful person inside and out. She was artistic. She was intelligent. She was a hard worker. She was a daughter, a sister and a friend to many. She cared about people in a selfless sweet way that few possess. She was a true empath. She cared so deeply about her family and her friends. She was always trying to make everyone peaceful and happy. She was trying to make the world a better place.
She was still in school with dreams of owning her own business. She dreamed of getting married and having kids and had a list of baby names. She had a list of hundreds of books she wanted to read; she was an avid reader. She had a bucket list of all the places she wanted to travel. She had aspirations and goals. She had a list of where she wanted to be in three years, five years and 10 years.
She will never get her graduate degree from UCLA, start her business, get married and have kids, read those books, travel to those countries, nor make those three-, five- and 10-year goals. We will never hear her laughter nor receive phone messages from her nor have any deep and intelligent discussions with her. We will never have any more holiday gatherings with her. We will not meet her husband or her children.
Forty-six stabs took that away. The holes he made in her body, he made in my heart.
Not a day goes by that I do not feel the loss. She’s not in a better place because she is supposed to be here. The end of this trial is not closure. There’s no such thing for me. This crime did not end with my beautiful daughter’s death but lives on forever in all the lives of the people who love Brianna. She will forever be in my mind and heart, but today is the last day I will ever think of this murderer.
I had to sit in court and listen to evidence of the murderer going into my daughter’s place of employment and lie to my sweet daughter about his intentions.
I had to listen to my daughter scream and plead that she can help him as he ruthlessly kept stabbing her 46 times stating “it is over bitch,” her last words” I can help you,” but the last thing she heard was him shouting obscenities.
I find it appalling that my world is home to people like him who have total disregard for a stranger’s life.
Throughout this trial the murderer sat there with zero remorse. His actions were the worst evil and most heinous actions I could ever imagine towards a sweet innocent girl who only showed him kindness,
He took away one of the most precious things in my life, but he did not beat us, he did not break us down for all the hatred and pain and needless suffering that his actions and this trial entailed. We are stronger. He did not rob me of my hope nor my faith in the good parts of this life.
He ruthlessly ended my daughter’s life, and made my family smaller, and my life forever will be changed, but he did not destroy us, he only destroyed himself. Martin Luther King stated darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that, hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that. My daughter represented pure light and love.
I plead with this court to protect society from this evil person and sentence the murderer to prison for life without the possibility of parole for any reason so that he can never inflict pain and hurt another beautiful innocent person.
Father Todd Kupfer’s Impact Statement:
Good morning your honor. I am guessing by now you know that I am Brianna’s father.
Before Brianna’s murder, I felt that our family was blessed. My wife and I had four healthy, well-achieving and amazing children. Each of them was unique, yet they shared an incredible bond. At Christmas time just three weeks before the murder, the care and love between them was so palpable and endearing, I had to comment on it for the whole family to hear.
I think that all of us would agree that Brianna was the glue between the siblings, the go-to person when any of them needed advice, on anything. I should include my wife and I in this, she had great insight that was genuinely delivered for anyone, any age.
Obviously, Brianna was a cherished daughter. She gave the world love, kindness, wisdom, grace, courage, curiosity, laughter, and an uncanny ability to make others feel important, heard, and loved. I cannot be prouder of who she was.
I also could not be sadder by her loss. I wish I could have seen what incredible things she would have accomplished, who she would have included in her life, and perhaps the babies she would have loved and nurtured. She could always surprise you with new accomplishments in things you didn’t even know she was interested in; I would relish to see what those may have been in her future.
There isn’t a day, and for that matter, a night, that I don’t think of her. No one can understand the depth of despair and sadness at the loss of a child unless they have experienced it. It is a nightmare that haunts you to your core.
The criminal, on the other hand, and I will only refer to him as the criminal, he doesn’t deserve to be called by his name, couldn’t be more opposite than Brianna. He has given the world darkness, hatred, malice, fear, and cowardice. The first of these nouns speak for themselves. He is beyond evil; He is evil incarnate. The last noun, cowardice, I use to describe him because he not only preyed on a defenseless and unsuspecting female victim, killing her senselessly and brutally, but he has forced us to view and relive the heinousness of his crime here in this courtroom, even though he knows the facts of his guilt were overwhelming, and his sanity never questioned. In a better world, he would have been denied his deceitful plea and sentenced for quick elimination. He deserves nothing but that. After this day, I hope I don’t ever have to hear of him again.
I believe Brianna is amongst the angels in heaven. I know she would prefer to be here on earth, but heaven deserves her and is better because of her. The angels got a really good one in Brianna.
Then there is hell; I believe that a reservation is being held there in the criminal’s name, most assuredly in its deepest and darkest depths.
Your honor, as much as I wish it, I know it is not in your power to send him to that reservation today, but I would ask that you use all the legal power you have to sentence him as harshly as possible. If not, I fear there will be other parents, family members, friends, and communities, who will suffer the same fate as we all have.
(Editor’s note: the sanity portion of the trial against Shawn Laval Smith ended yesterday, October 2. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the brutal murder of 24-year-old Palisadian Brianna Kupfer, who he stabbed 46 times as she worked in a furniture store on La Brea Avenue. Brianna’s siblings and friends also gave victim impact statements about the beauty of their friend and sister, who provided inspiration and goodness, and how her death has changed their lives forever.)
This is such a tragic story. My heart bleeds for the Kupfer family. I agree, there must be a way to send the Shawn Smith’s of this world to hell before they take the lives of others.