Two decades before Keith Smith and his daughter stabbed his wife Jacquelyn Smith to death last year, police say he robbed the same bank three times.
Smith, 52, and his daughter, Valeria Smith, 28, were arrested in Texas while trying to flee to Mexico on Sunday. They are being held without bail.
Back in December 1999, Smith fell on hard times, according to The Baltimore Sun. He’d just found out he was HIV-positive and he had lost his job as a FedEx driver because he had too many points on his license.
The single father was desperate for money to feed his young daughter, Valeria, who he was raising alone.
“He stated that his bills were past due so he needed the money,” police wrote, according to The Sun. So the 33-year-old devised a plan to rob a bank.
Police say Smith chose a First Union Bank in Timonium because it was close to the interstate highway.
Smith walked into the bank with a pellet gun and wearing a ski mask. He told everyone inside the bank to get down on the floor. He jumped over the counter and emptied the drawers of $15,000 in cash before making his getaway, police wrote.
Smith later told police he used the money to pay bills.
He lay low for three months before hitting the same bank again. This time, he told police, he made off with about $16,000.
He waited another five months before hitting the same bank a third time.
But this time his luck ran out. Police spotted his gold Nissan Maxima – the same car that he drove to commit the previous robberies – the one that police were on the lookout for.
The cops gave chase and the Maxima crashed in West Baltimore. Smith was arrested at the scene. Police searched his home and recovered about $20,000 in cash.
Smith pleaded guilty to bank robbery and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was paroled in 2007 after serving only six years for good behavior. Keith and his daughter were together again, and he appeared to turn his life around.
Keith married Jacquelyn Smith in 2014. Between them they had five children including his now grown daughter, Valeria.
Keith hit the jackpot. Jacquelyn was a well-respected – and well-paid – electrical engineer with Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. They lived a comfortable lifestyle, but Keith wanted more.
So Keith and Valeria hatched a plan to murder Jacquelyn for insurance money. They decided to blame a panhandler for killing Jacquelyn during a botched robbery after midnight in a rundown area of East Baltimore.
Now Keith and his daughter are together again in a Cameron County, Texas jail awaiting extradition.
They are each charged with conspiracy to commit murder, assault, and conspiracy to commit assault, as well as a dangerous weapon charge.
Like his earlier bank robbery attempts, investigators have the evidence they need to convict him.
“There are still other pieces of evidence to collect and perhaps other witnesses that we have to speak with,” acting Police Commissioner Michael Harrison told The Baltimore Sun.
He said the timing of the arrests was affected by the Smiths’ proximity to the Mexico border, but that the case wasn’t rushed.
The deadline to extradite the Smiths to Maryland has been extended five days, to March 20.
