Shepherd, 19, changes tune

Tbilisi – A Georgian shepherd, arrested over the killing of a US-Georgian couple and their four-year-old son, denied the charges, pinning the crime on “two foreigners” instead.

Malkhaz Kobauri, 19, was arrested on Monday and police said that he pleaded guilty to killing the Smith family in Georgia’s mountainous Dusheti region.

But yesterday, the accused – who faces life in prison if convicted – said he never admitted guilt.

“I didn’t kill them. There were two men, foreigners, they killed (the Smiths),” he said in court in Mtskheta outside capital Tbilisi.

“They threatened to kill my family,” he said in televised remarks without providing further details.

Investigators said the shepherd shot Ryan Smith and his fouryear-old son dead with a hunting gun, while Laura fell into a ravine as she attempted to flee and died.

Their bodies were found by rescuers sent to the Dusheti region last Friday after authorities received reports the couple had gone missing.

The Smiths had lived in the pro-Western Caucasus nation since 2006 and in 2012 acquired citizenship. –