LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A prosecutor told jurors Thursday that a man hunted for a vulnerable woman who was working alone and left behind an audio recorder that captured him killing a 24-year-old UCLA graduate student, who was stabbed 46 times in a boutique furniture store in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.
In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian told the downtown Los Angeles jury hearing the case against Shawn Laval Smith that “no one should have to hear what I’m going to play for you,” with the family of victim Brianna Kupfer leaving the courtroom before the audio recording was played.
“This audio captures exactly what happened inside that store,” the prosecutor said. “Ladies and gentlemen, these are the last seven minutes of Brianna Kupfer’s life.”
Kupfer can be heard on the audio recording talking with her assailant before he left the store and then returned, told her “I’m not gonna hurt you” and ordered her to “just get down on the floor.”
Kupfer can be heard screaming in the recording and telling her assailant to “get off of me,” with her assailant subsequently telling her, “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over, bitch.”
“This is Brianna Kupfer in life,” the prosecutor said, showing jurors one photo of the victim.
“This is Brianna Kupfer after seven minutes with this man sitting right here,” Balian said of another photo, while referring to the defendant sitting across the courtroom.
Smith’s attorney, Robert Haberer, reserved his opening statement until the beginning of the defense’s portion of the case.
Smith, now 34, is charged with murdering Kupfer, who was attacked Jan. 13, 2022, while working alone inside the Croft House boutique furniture store in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait, along with a knife use allegation.
He could face a potential life prison term without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.
The prosecutor said Smith had posed as a customer looking for a couch for his girlfriend, left the store at one point to “see if the coast is clear” and then comes back in and “butchers her.”
“He caught her. He forced her to the ground. He stabbed her to death,” Balian told the jury.
She had sent her manager a message on a messaging app, writing that there was someone in the store that is “giving me weird vibes” and asked her manager to call, but her manager didn’t see the message until four minutes later and received no response when she repeatedly tried to call Kupfer, the prosecutor said.
The woman’s body was found on the floor by a woman who came into the store with her boyfriend and then rushed outside to call 911.
“The evidence will show you the defendant had long fled,” the prosecutor.
She was pronounced dead in the store.
Police discovered a bloody knife with a blade that had been bent, Balian said.
“The defendant attacked Brianna with such force, with such determination … that he bent the steel blade,” the prosecutor said.
A plastic sheath for the weapon was found on the floor and contained the victim’s blood, according to Balian.
The deputy district attorney said police also found a digital audio recorder that was still recording when officers arrived.
“The defendant recorded this murder and when he fled, he left the recorder” on the counter, Balian told jurors.
The prosecutor said jurors would hear that the defendant’s DNA was on the recorder, the knife handle and the knife’s sheath. A police detective who had “extensive conversations” with Smith will testify that the male voice on the recording is the defendant’s, Balian said.
The prosecutor said Smith was captured on his own audio recording on the same device just 18 days earlier expressing the most “grotesque thoughts” about women.
“He wanted to kill women,” the prosecutor said.
Jurors will hear evidence that in the 20 minutes or so leading up to the killing that “the defendant began his hunt for a vulnerable woman to kill,” Balian said, telling jurors that Smith had briefly stopped in at five other businesses in the area, including four others where female employees were working as other people were nearby and another at which a dog growled at him.
“He finds Brianna Kupfer after going from store to store to store. He a finds Brianna alone, secluded, isolated,” the prosecutor said.
Smith — who had escaped through the store’s back door — was taken into custody six days later after a Pasadena resident called police to report a sighting of the defendant following an offer of a reward, Balian said.
The defendant gave police a “fake name,” according to the prosecutor.
“His name is Shawn Laval Smith. Shawn Laval Smith killed Brianna Kupfer,” the deputy district attorney said.
Smith has remained behind bars since his arrest.
Superior Court Judge Mildred Escobedo revoked Smith’s right to act as his own attorney during the trial following a contentious hearing in June 2023 in which he directed profanities at the judge during his first appearance before her and abruptly rose from his seat in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
He is now being represented by defense attorney Robert Haberer, who had been appointed earlier as his stand-by counsel in case of a change in the defendant’s ability to represent himself.
Media reports indicated that Smith has an extensive criminal history dating back more than a decade, with more than a dozen arrests in three states.
A day after Smith was arrested in connection with Kupfer’s killing, dozens of people gathered outside the furniture store for a vigil to pay tribute to the young woman’s life and decry the senselessness of her death.
“Bri was the brightest part of anyone’s day who got to interact with her,” Alex Segal, a co-owner of the Croft House furniture store, said then. “She was smart and capable and intelligent. Kind and friendly and just an incredibly driven person.”
Segal said the community is asking “why is this happening,” but said “I don’t know that there … will ever be a sufficient answer to that question.”
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