Man who stabbed UCLA student found guilty of murder

Jurors took just over an hour Tuesday to convict a man of murder in the stabbing death of UCLA student Brianna Kupfer while she worked at a Hancock Park furniture store.

Shawn Laval Smith, a 34-year-old homeless man with a long criminal record, was found guilty of murder. The special circumstances were that he had been lying in wait and committed the crime with a deadly weapon, a knife.

On January 13, 2022, Smith stabbed Copper 46 times while she was working alone at the upscale Croft House.

Prosecutors and LAPD investigators say the Pacific Palisades resident texted a friend around 1:36 p.m. to say she was feeling uneasy about someone in the store. The friend did not immediately respond, according to investigators. About 20 minutes later, a customer found Kupfer on the floor covered in blood.

The competency phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 2. Smith could receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole if the judge finds he was sane at the time of the crime. Smith, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, has waived a jury trial for that phase.

Key to the conviction was an audio recording on a device prosecutors said belonged to Smith that provided gruesome evidence of the attack. A man can be heard telling a woman he's “not going to hurt her” and ordering her to “just lay on the ground.” The woman screams and the man says, “It's over, it's over, it's over, it's over, bitch.”

After the knife attack, Smith fled through the back door of the furniture store and left his victim to bleed to death, according to prosecutor Habib Balian. However, Smith left behind the knife, a knife sheath and the audio recorder with DNA evidence that would incriminate him for the murder.

Jurors agreed with Balian's argument that there was “overwhelming evidence” that the murder was premeditated and convicted Smith on the most serious count of premeditated murder, the special circumstances charge and the stabbing count.

Smith was arrested six days after Kupfer's death. A massive manhunt ended when police received a tip that Smith had been seen sitting on a bus stop in downtown Pasadena. The tip came after Los Angeles police distributed his photo and offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

“Brianna Kupfer was a promising young woman whose life was tragically cut short far too soon,” District Attorney George Gascón said Tuesday after the verdict was announced. “I thank the jury for their careful consideration and dedication in finding the defendants guilty.”

“Brianna, a bright and talented 24-year-old student at UCLA, was dedicated to her studies in architecture and had her whole future ahead of her,” he added. “Our thoughts are with Brianna's family, who have shown incredible strength and resilience throughout this horrific ordeal.”

At the time of the attack on Copper, Smith was out on bail awaiting trial in South Carolina in a 2019 case. He was accused of firing a flare gun at a moving car with a child inside.

Smith pleaded guilty in 2018 to resisting or assaulting a police officer two years earlier in Charleston County, South Carolina, and was sentenced to prison time he had already served, court records show.

In January 2021, Smith allegedly vandalized a car in Daly City, California. When officers arrested him, he resisted arrest and bit one of the officers, court records show. In San Mateo County, he was charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to a felony charge of resisting arrest. In addition to an eight-month prison sentence, Smith was sentenced to two years' probation.

He served 133 days in jail and was released, but failed to report to his parole officer twice, resulting in his parole being revoked. A warrant was issued for Smith's arrest, but he disappeared.

City News Service contributed to this story.