The man accused of the brutal murder of UCLA student Brianna Kupfer appeared in court on Wednesday
Brianna Kupfer, 24, was killed in January 2022 at the upscale Los Angeles furniture store where she worked by Shawn Laval Smith, now 34. In Los Angeles Superior Court, prosecutors played a harrowing audio recording of the murder, capturing Kupfer’s desperate pleas as she was fatally attacked.
The trial, overseen by Judge Mildred Escobedo, saw intense moments as the Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney presented the alleged murder weapon—a knife and its sheath—for the jury’s review.
Photos from the courtroom show Smith in a striped button-down shirt and cloth mask, seated beside his defense attorney. He listened to witness testimonies as prosecutors outlined their case.
Prosecutors argued that Smith targeted Kupfer, a “vulnerable woman who was alone and secluded.” They revealed that Smith had recorded himself expressing a desire to “kill women” just 18 days before the attack.
“Just 18 days before he found and slaughtered Brianna, the defendant recorded himself talking about the most vile, disgusting and grotesque thoughts about women,” Los Angeles County prosecutor Habib Balian said in court. “The defendant, pretending to be a customer, lured her into a sense of security and safety and vulnerability, even went outside, pretending to call his girlfriend.”
Balian described the scene at the Croft House store, stating, “Brianna Kupfer, lying on the floor in the Croft House covered in her own blood, smear marks of blood surrounding her.”
“He’s telling her, ‘It’s over [expletive],'” Balian added, referring to Kupfer’s final words where she pleaded, “I can help you.”
Kupfer, a UCLA graduate student, was alone at the Croft House store on La Brea when she was attacked. Minutes before the murder, she had texted a friend about a man in the store giving her a “bad vibe.”
Smith, 31 at the time, was apprehended in Pasadena the day after police identified him as the primary suspect. He was found about 15 miles from the crime scene, with a pedestrian’s tip leading to his arrest at a bus stop near Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard.
Smith, who has a lengthy criminal history across multiple states, was out on bail for a separate violent crime at the time of Kupfer’s murder. He had previously been charged with firing a weapon at an occupied vehicle in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2019, and was free on a $50,000 bond when the murder occurred.
Smith’s prior offenses include a 2017 conviction in San Diego for carrying a concealed dagger and brandishing a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $400.
If convicted, Smith faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.