Brittany Smith who shot Alabama man dead after he allegedly raped and assaulted her pleads guilty to murder
STEVENSON, ALABAMA: An Alabama woman, Brittany Smith, who was indicted in March 2018 for the murder of Joshua "Todd" Smith, has pleaded guilty to the crime. She shot and killed Todd in January 2018, after he allegedly raped her twice, beat her and also threatened to kill her family if she informed anyone about his actions.
Brittany reportedly told investigators that Smith became violent after she expressed disinterest in building a relationship with him. Apparently, she allowed him to stay in her house and sleep on the couch for the night as she feared for her life. She also noted that she secretly sent messages to her mother during the night alerting her about the alleged attack.
One of Brittany’s texts to her mother read, "Todd has tried to kill me literally. Don’t act like anything is wrong…he will kill me if he knows." Ramona McCallie, Brittany's mother told CrimeOnline that her daughter let Todd into her home after he messaged her saying he was "stranded in the cold". However, Brittany wasn't aware of Todd's violent behavior at the time.
"That evening, Todd texted her and said he was stranded, cold and played on her sympathies for her to come pick him up, said he had nowhere to go. That’s when she told him he could sleep on her couch, but had to be gone by morning," she explained. "Todd was asked to leave, told to leave numerous times. He held her captive in her OWN home for around 4 & 1/2 hours that night and told her he would kill her if she told anyone."
"HE had her phone and wouldn’t let her call anyone until he ran out of cigarettes.” she added. Soon after Brittany texted her mother, her 26-year-old brother Christopher McCallie arrived at her resistance and brought a gun along. He reportedly placed it on the table before Todd and told him to leave. A fight eventually broke between Todd and Christopher, when the former put Brittany's brother in a headlock.
"When her brother returned, he [Todd] told him to leave and he attacked him. They were fighting between a block full of knives and the gun on the counter. My daughter was terrified but gave him several warnings before she fired the gun… She wasn’t even sure she had shot him because he kept on fighting," Ramona told in a statement to Jackson County Sheriff’s Department
Brittany’s lawyer Ron Smith, according to reports, has worked out a plea deal with the prosecution, which requires the accused to plead guilty to murder in exchange for 20 years of sentence. Though Brittany argued using the Stand Your Ground defense, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jenifer Holt ruled that as void as her brother was the one who brought the gun to her home.
The judge even noted that Brittany's story "changed numerous times, tried to alter evidence and she didn't provide enough information to show that the shooting was justified."
While the medical examination determined that Brittany had been physically assaulted, Holt wrote that "the physical evidence is inconsistent with the defendant's statements about a sexual assault." Trauma nurse Jeanine Suermann, who treated Brittany, said that it was difficult to tell certainly if the victim was raped but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
According to Daily Mail, Todd had a number of criminal records against him, including 71 arrests in 1999. He was arrested five times when he was married to his ex-wife and was also charged with assault in 2012, 2015, and 2016,. His case was dismissed when the defendant failed to appear at the court.
According to AI.com, Brittany's plea deal includes the time she has already served in the prison and the rest of the sentence split into 18 months in the Jackson County Jail and 18 months on house arrest.