Woman charged with manslaughter claims it was an accident
A woman accused of stabbing another woman to death can be heard insisting it was an accident in police body camera footage played for jurors in her manslaughter trial.
“I didn’t mean to. It was an accident,” Kimberly Smart can be heard telling Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Jorge Francisco Ariza in the footage presented Tuesday during the first day of her trial.
Smart, 34, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the Dec. 19, 2021, stabbing death of 34-year-old Kristal Reno.
In Ariza’s bodycam footage, the jurors — who are permitted to ask witnesses questions during the trial — were able to see a still-alive Reno on the floor holding a towel to her neck after the deputy arrived at the home in the 9000 block of Bill Reed Road in Ooltewah.
Reno and Smart were having an argument when Smart picked up a knife and approached Reno, according to a witness statement cited in the affidavit.
The witness, David Kite, told deputies Smart then tripped over something “and the next thing Kite saw was Smart holding Reno’s neck on the floor asking for help,” the affidavit stated.
“I tripped over the trash can,” Smart told Ariza through tears in the bodycam footage. “I did everything to try to help her. She threw a knife at me. I don’t hate her.”
Reno was taken by ambulance to Erlanger hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the sworn affidavit from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office seeking Smarts’ arrest.
The footage also showed emergency medical responders enter the residence and head toward Reno. Ariza then exited the home and began to question those who were outside when a woman could be heard saying, “Kim did it.”
Smart, who was in the backyard smoking a cigarette, approached Ariza when he called to her.
“This is not an accident, this is not self-defense,” Executive Assistant District Attorney Kevin Loper told the jury during opening statements. “In less than one hour, Reno dies, she had no chance.”
The trial is expected to last three days.