Hearing for juvenile lifer begins

Prosecutors say Samuel Edward Smith has been busy in prison after the 1996 murder of David Kenny of Coatesville

WEST CHESTER >> Samuel Edward Smith has been busy in the two decades he has spent in prison for the brutal murder of an elderly Coatesville man, a friendly neighbor whose car he wanted to steal, according to the prosecution at an unusual re-sentencing hearing in Common Pleas Court Tuesday.

But instead of spending his days behind bars studying law, helping other prisoners deal with their education, or focusing on rehabilitating himself, authorities said he spent his time racking up prison misconducts, joining a neo-Nazi organization, and even plotting an escape with other prisoners.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan laid out those assertions during a daylong resentencing hearing before Judge James P. MacElree II made necessary because Smith was a juvenile when he was arrested and charged with the murder of retired teacher and minister David Kenny of Coatesville.

Earlier this year, a U.S. Supreme Court decision held that juveniles who were convicted

of first-degree murder, as Smith was, should not face automatic, mandatory sentences of life in prison. Instead, they must be granted new sentencing hearings at which a judge would set the term they would serve — up to and including a life sentence.

Hogan is asking that MacElree re-sentence Smith, now 36, to life in prison without parole, citing a number of factors that his office contends make Smith an improper candidate for any lesser sentence.

“This defendant is the poster child for a juvenile murderer who should be sentenced to life imprisonment,” Hogan wrote in a 40-page sentencing brief, part of a memo more than 1½ inches high that laid out not only the crime that Smith committed but his behavior in the years since he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life.

“According to the United States Supreme Court, imposition of a life sentence without parole for a juvenile murderer will be ‘uncommon,’” Hogan stated. “Everything about (Smith’s) conduct shows that he is ‘uncommon’ and ‘rare,’ even within the subset of juvenile murderers, and that he is a prime example of irreparable corruption.”

Smith’s defense team, led by First Assistant Public Defender Nathan Schenker, is opposed to the imposition of a new life sentence. Schenker had asked that MacElree postpone Tuesday’s hearing in order to give the defense time to research the case against Smith that Hogan presented, and to determine whether to have Smith evaluated by a psychologist.

MacElree denied the defense’s request to continue the hearing, but said that he would give Smith’s attorneys more time to look into the case against him, and hold off on making a decision in the case until some future date.

Smith, who arrived in the county from prison in Green County, was dressed in a purple Department of Corrections jumpsuit. Sitting next to Assistant Public Defender Kristine Mehok, who is assisting Schenker, Smith wore glasses and had a short cropped beard. He did not address the court during Tuesday’s proceeding.

In the courtroom Tuesday were eight members of Kenny’s family, including his daughters — Nancy Puche, Cindy Smith and Pattti Semler — who are regular attendees at the annual victim’s memorial services organized by the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County.

Testifying were county police who investigated the homicide, as well as an official with the state Department of Corrections to discuss his conduct behind bars, and an FBI agent to discuss the role of neo-Nazi gangs in prisons.

Kenny, who was 64 and an amputee when he died, was attacked in his home by Smith on May 8, 1996. According to Smith’s confession, he had decided to steal Kenny’s car to drive to Florida. But before carrying out the plan, he decided he would have to kill Kenny because, as neighbors in the West End of Coatesville, they knew one another and Kenny could identify him.

Smith — at the time a petty juvenile offender — went into Kenny’s home with a wrench, and struck him in the head 10 times, shattering his skull. When Kenny remained conscious — begging to know, “Why are you doing this?” — he grabbed a butcher knife and cut his throat. He then struck Kenny as many as 15 more times until he stopped moving.

He then took Kenny’s car keys and some cash in his pocket and drove away, picking up his sister for the trip to Florida. The pair were stopped after a car crash in Delaware.

Kenny died several days later on May 21, 1996, at the Brandywine Hospital in Caln.

After his arrest, the county District Attorney’s Office announced that it would seek the death penalty in the case. Smith, in order to escape the possibility of a death sentence, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October 1996 and was sentenced to the mandatory life term. He was 16 years, 10 months, and 11 days old when he committed the crime, and turned 17 while awaiting trial in Chester County Prison.

During his time in state prison, Smith accumulated 19 misconduct citations from corrections officials, for reportedly assaulting another inmate, assaulting a corrections officer, lying, disobeying orders, and possessing contraband, according to the prosecution.

In one instance stolen items and tattooing equipment were found in his cell in violation of prison rules. When confronted with the offense, Smith told a corrections officer, “Take whatever you want. I can replace whatever you take within an hour.”

According to testimony from corrections investigator Michael Torres, of the state’s Office of Special Investigations, in 2005 Smith began to organize a plot to break out of the prison where he was being held at the time, SCI Houtzdale, a medium security prison in Clearfield County. He planned to disable the prison’s electrical system, cut through a wire fence with tools stolen from the prison, meet up with former inmates who were part of a white supremacist group, and get a gun.

In a letter Smith wrote to another of the alleged plotters, he boasted that he would not make the same mistake as others who had escaped from prison.” If he had been successful he would never be captured alive,” Torres said Smith bragged.

When the plot was uncovered after officers were tipped off by another inmate, Smith was transferred to SCI Greene, the state’s maximum security prison where death penalty inmates are housed. There, he became associated with a group known as the State Prison Skin Heads, a neo-Nazi gang, of which he became a leader, according to Hogan’s memo.

He was classified as a “high risk” inmate, and part of a security great group, Torres said.

In his memo, Hogan laid out a number of factors that he said MacElree should consider to determine whether Smith should be granted a reduced sentence or returned to his life sentence status. They include the gravity of the original crime, his potential for rehabilitation, his age, his emotional maturity and development, and his ability to deal with police. All signs point to the conclusion that he remain a risk and should not be granted parole, Hogan said.

“Even within the cohort of juvenile murderers, the defendant is unique,” Hogan wrote. “There almost certainly is not another juvenile murderer in Pennsylvania (or even the United States) with his combination of a murder like the killing of David Kenny, (his) prison misconduct record, (his) psychological profile, (his) planned escape, and (his) gang leadership.”

MacElree continued the hearing to allow for the defense to present its case.