It took a jury less than two hours to convict a homeless California man of murder in the grisly furniture store slaying of a UCLA grad student.
Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was found guilty of one count of murder and a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait in connection with the death of 24-year-old UCLA student, Brianna Kupfer, according to the Los Angeles County Prosecutor's Office. He was also convicted of using a deadly weapon during the commission of the crime.
Smith stabbed Kupfer 46 times while she worked at a Los Angeles furniture store in January 2022.
"He's hunting for a woman alone and he hasn't found her," Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said, according to KCAL-TV, telling the court of Smith's intentions that fateful day.
Prosecutors argued Smith was motivated by his "hatred for women" and was on the hunt for "a woman who's alone, a woman who's vulnerable, a woman who's isolated, a woman who's unsuspecting."
"Brianna Kupfer was about to become the ultimate target of his vile and disgusting and all mind-consuming hatred of women," Balian alleged.
Smith entered the furniture and acted as a customer before stabbing Kupfer 46 times, killing her, said prosecutors.
"When you send your children off to work, or when they go off to work to be able to pay their bills and continue their education, you don't ever expect them to be — at 1:30 in the afternoon, at work — you just don't ever expect that phone call we got from the sheriff's department," Kupfer's mom, Lori Kupfer, said, according to the station, following Smith's guilty verdict Tuesday.
"Justice will never be served because our daughter's not alive. But the DA did a wonderful job, and the jury really listened to the evidence that they heard. And we are very, very happy that they understood the law and made the correct decisions."
Smith remains held without bail and faces up to life in prison.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
