The trial for the murderer of Brianna Kupfer is taking place downtown at the ClaraShortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Before Medical Examiner Richard Ou took the stand, Defense Attorney Robert Haberer, asked that the number of photos shown of Brianna Kupfer, be limited. He said would be prejudicial to the jury.
District Attorney Habib Balian said that more than 200 photos had been taken of the wounds of Kupfer, who had been stabbed 46 times.
“I’ve narrowed it down to 14,” he told Judge Mildred Escobedo. “I did a modesty screen and cleaned up some of the blood.”
He gave the photos to the judge, who asked “how many times was she stabbed?”
“Forty-six,” Balian said. The judge looked at the photos.
She then told Haberer, “Your objection is well taken. But here you have 14 selected from different aspects of the body. I do not find that prejudicial.”
The defendant, Shawn Laval Smith, is on trial for murder of Brianna Kupfer. He faces two special circumstance allegations: lying in wait and the use of a knife.
The jury was brought into the courtroom.
“I started the examination on January 17,” Ou said, “and concluded it on January 18.”
When Balian asked why it took two days, Ou said, the case “was slightly out of the ordinary because of the large number of skin injuries. It took a day to document the injuries.”
He was asked to describe the injuries. “There were 46 sharp force injuries: 26 stab wounds and 20 incised wounds,” Ou said. “There were injuries to internal organs, the right and left lung, liver, stomach and the aorta.”
He said that “if severe injuries do not receive immediate medical attention, it will cause death.” Ou said that seven of the wounds were classified as severe and estimated she could have died anywhere from seconds to minutes.
As the photos were shown of Kupfer of the stab wounds, her parents and other spectators in the courtroom covered their eyes.
There were four stab wounds on the right side of the chest, one in the center and six to the left side of the chest.
Ou explained that a stab wound is deeper than it is long, and that an incised wound would be longer than it is deep. Balian showed a long wound by her neck and Ou told him that it was 6 inches long and from about 1/16 to ½ inch deep.
The deepest stab wound was five and a half inches deep.
Brianna Kupfer, a petite woman, was stabbed more than 46 times.
Ou was asked if Kupfer had defensive injuries – injuries sustained while trying to protect herself.
He said “there are numerous cuts on her left arm, that would be consistent with defensive injuries. There are more defensive injuries on her right arm.”
Ou also showed an injury where a sharp object entered and exited the petite Kupfer’s arm. She was 5’3” and weighed 123.
An additional entrance and exit wound was on her left chest. “She sustained more than 46 injuries because a blade exited and entered her body in different places,” Ou said.
Kupfer was on her back, and she put up her legs in a defensive effort to stop the stabbing, but then was stabbed in several places in the back of her legs.
The defense asked if hormones might have helped blunt the effect of the stabbing and if knife wounds were different with different body tissues such as fat or muscle.
“It would depend on the person,” Ou said.
The day had started with the devasting and emotional testimony from The Croft House owner Robert “Riley” Ray. The owner of the furniture store said he did not know Brianna well, that the day-to-day management of the store fell to Kari Steib (who testified earlier).
Ray explained how he had mounted three NEST cameras in his store, one on a wall behind a sales desk, one on pole facing the entrance and a third on a pole facing the back exit. He said the cameras allowed him to watch the interior of the store on his phone. “It was set up to look at live and to record for 30 days,” he said.
How come the video was not available to the court? Nest was purchased by Google and Ray later learned he had not purchased a subscription to Google.
When asked what happened on January 13, 2020, Ray said, “I received a phone call from a co-worker [Kari] who asked me to check the cameras. I told her to call the police immediately.”
He also called the store next door [Chiropractor’s office] and asked them to check on Kupfer, but they didn’t answer. Ray watched the cameras in the store on his phone and reviewed the historical data as he drove to the shop. “I saw a person interacting with Brianna at the counter,” Ray said.
When he arrived at the store on La Brea, he was met by a police officer. “I asked what had happened to Brianna and if she was okay. The officer said she had expired.”
On the stand, Ray was distraught and fought to hold back tears, as he continues to explain what happened that day. He said he showed his phone to the officer [LAPD Officer Paulette Gonzalez] who took screen shots of the person who had been in the store with Brianna.
Habib asked him “Were there other images that you saw that were not here?”
“I saw him [Smith] coming into the store touching things,” Ray said.
Then Ray described Brianna running from behind the counter to try and get to the front door. “It was like she was fleeing, escaping,” he said.
The suspect was on the other side of the sofa from Kupfer. “I saw the images several hundred times,” Ray said.
“Why did you keep looking at the images,” Balian asked.
“How could you stop looking at it?” Ray asked.
The defense attorney asked him if he saw a knife in the defendant’s hand.
“No,” Ray said.
“Could you say with any degree of certainty that he had anything in his hands?”
“No,” Ray said.
On the redirect Ray was asked by Balian about his statement “His back was to me, and I couldn’t see his hands.”
Haberer asked if Smith was running.
“I don’t know if he was running or jumping. All I could see was his silhouette,” Ray said. “I could tell she [Brianna] was running.”
Ray spoke about a footprint that was on the white sofa cushion. Ku was found by the sofa near the door. Ray speculated that “I think she was running, and he leapt over the sofa.”
He said after the police left, he cleaned up the blood from the crime scene and also the footprint from the sofa.
Also giving lengthy testimony today were two DNA experts. Penny Reid, an LAPD criminologist, who is the technical DNA director and has been a DNA analyst since 2008, testified that she has tested thousands of samples during her career and testified in more than 50 cases.
Reid said there are steps in place to ensure protocol was followed and that no cross contamination occurs. She reported that on the knife blade the DNA was of Brianna Kupfer. On the digital recorder the DNA belonged to Smith. On the knife sheath, it was a mixture of two individuals, Kupfer and Smith. On the knife handle there were three samples of DNA (Kupfer – 17 percent. Smith – 83 percent and an unknown person one percent).
Shawn Laval Smith is on trial for murdering Brianna Kupfer.
The audio recorder that was left on the counter of the Croft House, during the murder was taken into custody by the police. Detective John Lamberti has been with LAPD for 15 years. Prior to that he was in television production. “Anything video or audio falls in my lap,” he said.
The recording from the Olympus digital recorder was downloaded and stored on a computer. “It shows the date the recording was made,” Lamberti said. When asked he said it could record 80-100 hours. The tape was played during the opening arguments and details the last minute of Kupfer’s life.
Councilmember Traci Park was in the courtroom today, listening to testimony.
“No family should ever have to hear testimony about the brutal, senseless, intentional murder of their beautiful daughter,” Park said. “We have no choice but to remove threats from our streets. Period.”
Tomorrow the trial will continue at 9:40 a.m., downtown in Department 126 on the 15th floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, 210 West Temple Street, L.A. Ca. 90012.
Parking ($12 a day) is available a block away in the former L.A. Times building, entrance on second street, off Broadway.