Drifter duo to stand trial in Santa Cruz County slaying
SANTA CRUZ >> Suspected killers in a Graham Hill Road fatal stabbing nearly a year ago will stand to face murder and other charges at trial, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.
The case involves Kimberly “Sky” Smith, 55, who was found fatally stabbed March 31 at her Graham Hill Road home.
According to detectives’ testimony over two days of court hearings this week, Smith’s father found his daughter lying facedown, dead, just inside the ajar doorway of her studio apartment, with her own kitchen knife protruding from her back. She was later found by the Santa Cruz County Coroner’s Office to have suffered some 31 stab wounds, primarily concentrated in her upper torso, neck and head, and five of which were considered lethally significant within minutes if left untreated, according to testimony from county Forensic Pathologist Stephany Fiore.
Using a cell phone number that Smith had been texting in the days before her death, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office
tracked Smith’s missing car to San Bernadino County the next day. There, detectives arrested Caitlin Rose Crenshaw and Cody “Alex”
Brandon Huynh in connection with the case. Huynh, 23, already was in jail custody there on an unrelated alleged domestic dispute charge, while Crenshaw, now 24, was located inside Smith’s blue Acura SUV, detectives testified. They were later charged with murder, robbery and conspiracy, allegations they both denied during their April arraignments.
At one point during testimony, while a detective was describing what sales receipts were found inside the Acura, Crenshaw, wearing red jail-issued garb, laughed aloud twice. She laughed again while a detective described contents of a recovered journal-style notebook titled “Happy Thoughts” and the names Rose and Turtle
on it, with short entries in two different types of handwriting. Detective Erik Miyoshi said the entries were “fairly dark and violent.” The second outburst caused Judge Stephen Siegel to admonish Crenshaw to refrain from laughing.
“It’s not very becoming of someone who’s charged with murder,” Siegel said of the laughter.
On the morning of March 28, surveillance footage collected by detectives showed Smith, who lived alone, out shopping for groceries in Santa Cruz around 9 a.m. before returning and passing a park trailhead camera less than a mile from her home at 9:33 a.m., according to testimony. The trail camera reportedly then showed two different people in her same car, heading away from Smith’s home by 9:47 a.m. — a 14-minute gap.
After their arrest, Huynh and Crenshaw reportedly told detectives that they had met Smith around March 23 in downtown Santa Cruz, where they were living on the street. Smith had dropped off some food and supplies at a local church and struck up a conversation with the couple, offering her phone number in case they needed a place to sleep, according to testimony. They reportedly took Smith up on her offer and began staying at her Graham Hill Road home the next day.
According to testimony, Crenshaw and Huynh gave detectives several versions of their time with Smith, including that they felt their stay turned contentious and they were angered by her allegedly flaunting cash that she had on hand before they attacked Smith and left with her money and vehicle.
Detective Ethan Rumrill testified that he interpreted a stanza written in a notebook left in a green backpacking style pack at Graham Hill Road as “plans to kill somebody.” The notebook entry reportedly listed a series of actions, including going home with someone, gaining their trust, stabbing them in the jugular and heart, taking everything and ending up “happily ever after.”
The two later told detectives they debated who had taken the “kill shot” stabbing against Smith, according to testimony.
A trial date has not yet been set in the case.