2 days Ago
NORTH CHARLESTON — Curtis Alan Smith's attorneys aren't denying that he hoisted his girlfriend's body into a blue recycling bin, wheeled it across Spruill Avenue and disposed of it under a pile of trash on the nearby railroad tracks. But while the state will seek to prove during a trial this week that he murdered the 36-year-old in cold blood, the defense hopes to convince a jury he acted in self-defense. Longtime Union Heights residents Smith, 69, and Jennifer Monique Grant knew each other for years before beginning to date around 2012 or 2013, according to April 1 testimony on the opening day of Smith's murder trial.
The pair had an on-again, off-again relationship for years, but were together again in the fall of 2020. Grant invited her cousin and cousin's boyfriend over to Smith's house, where she had been living, on Nov. 19, 2020.
As the men lounged in the living room and watched Thursday Night Football, the women were in the bedroom planning a hairstyle for an upcoming wedding Grant was excited to attend. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when the two left later that night. But it was the last time any of Grant's family members saw her alive.
Smith and Grant later got into an argument, "and things went horribly wrong," defense attorney Mary Ford said during her opening statement. She alleged that Grant threatened to kill Smith and his then-wife before attacking him with a trophy and biting his hand. He then stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife in self-defense and panicked, rushing to cover up her death, Ford said.
The narrative that Grant was the aggressor is just a story Smith concocted, Chief Deputy Solicitor Jennifer Shealey said during her opening statement. "Ask yourself, 'Is that possible? Is there any way that happened?' Absolutely not," Shealey said, adding, "(Grant) was violently killed by the defendant." Grant talked to her mother, Eva Grant, daily, and her family quickly became concerned when they didn't hear from her on Nov.
20. They hung flyers across Union Heights promising a $3,000 reward for anyone who had seen Grant, her mother testified. Each day, the flyers that had been hung near Smith's home on Arbutus Avenue off Spruill Avenue were taken down, Shealey said.
Meanwhile, he stayed silent and did not reach out to Grant's family, she added. Fear had taken hold of Smith, Ford told the jury. Antolene Smith, who was separated from Curtis Smith in 2020 and is now divorced from him, visited his home on Nov.
25. He "broke down, cried," and told her that Grant's lifeless body was buried in his backyard, according to Ford. Antolene Smith later confessed to police that she helped pull Grant's body from the ground with a garden hose attached to a Nissan Infiniti, court records show.
They couldn't fit her in the car's trunk, so they dumped her in the recycling bin and disposed of the body on the nearby train tracks. Ford said this was a "ticking time bomb" for both of the Smiths, and Antolene Smith went to police about a week later. Curtis Smith was arrested on Dec.
2, 2020, and charged with murder , possession of a weapon and desecration or removal of human remains. Antolene Smith is a co-defendant in the case and facing charges of accessory after the fact to felony and desecration or removal of human remains. She is expected to testify against her ex-husband this week.
The case went to trial after Curtis Smith in September rejected a negotiated plea deal of 30 years in prison . At 69-years-old, it would have been a functional life sentence, Ford said. She implored the jury to think of his actions before and after Grant's death in two separate parts.
"Smith made some absolutely horrible decisions. He lied, he covered up, he acted foolishly and cowardly, but he did not murder Grant," Ford said, adding "even though his actions afterward were very wrong, that doesn't mean he wasn't justified leading up to her death." It will be up to the jury to determine if Smith acted in self-defense or is guilty of the charges.
The state expects its case to take four days, records show..
