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Willie Smith convicted of kidnap and rape; sentenced to two life terms plus 20 years Before he attacked and raped a beloved 86-year-old retired teacher, Willie Smith told his sister, "I want to hurt somebody, maybe kill somebody." He did hurt somebody, and for that he will be imprisoned for two life sentences plus 20 years. Judge Hal Hinesley sentenced Smith in Superior Court late Wednesday afternoon. Willie Smith, 25, of Lincoln County, found guilty in the October, 2004, attack that Senior Assistant District Attorney Bill Doupé called "pure meanness." Smith was found guilty on six of seven counts: kidnapping with bodily injury, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, and theft by taking. Judge Hinesley handed down a mandatory sentence of life for the kidnapping with bodily harm, and a second life sentence for rape. The life sentences will not even begin for three years until Smith finishes a sentence for a probation violation. In addition, Smith was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault, to be served consecutive to - following - the life sentences. Judge Hinesley also sentenced Smith to 20 years each on the charges of robbery and burglary, to be served concurrently with the aggravated assault sentence. He was also given 10 years on the theft by taking charge, also to run concurrently. Although Smith is theoretically eligible to be considered for parole after 20 years, Doupé said, it was unlikely he would be paroled that soon. "I have a hard time believing he'll ever be let out, period. He's a violent sexual offender." Although the victim was unable to testify - she died in February 2006, unrelated to the attack - Doupé presented to the jury a convincing body of evidence, most notably Smith's taped confession. Just three days after the crime, Smith told Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Jimmy Talkington that he had entered the back door of the victim's Tignall home, grabbed her from behind, beat her, and dragged her from room to room, tied her up and tied a plastic bag over her head. He stole $11 and her car, he confessed, making his escape. The jury listened intently as the tape was played Tuesday afternoon in the courtroom, and at one point in their deliberation Wednesday afternoon, requested to hear the taped confession again. Smith's confession was chilling in its simplicity. "I called my sister and I said I wanted to hurt somebody, maybe kill somebody," Smith had started out. He said he went to his sister's house, which was near the victim's home on Jones Street in Tignall. He walked past the home, he said, and noticing that there was no car there, he slipped into the house by the back door. "After about 15 minutes, this lady came in. I was standing behind the door, so that's when I grab her and took her to her room. I took off her clothes, tied her hands behind her back with the lamp cord." The lamp cord broke, he said, so he looked for another rope. "In the process of doing that," he said, "I fount me a gun, and I got some money out of her pocketbook. Eleven dollars." He did not confess to raping the 86-year-old woman, but Doupé introduced witnesses and evidence from medical examinations that clearly showed not only bruises and abrasions, but physical evidence of rape. In hours of detailed testimony, Doupé led GBI forensic experts from the state crime lab through their findings that hairs found on the home's carpet were pubic hairs with DNA matching Smith's. At times, Chip Wallace, Smith's court-appointed public defender, tried to assert that Smith was retarded and unable to understand to what he was confessing, but Wallace introduced no evidence or witnesses to corroborate the assertion. Smith declined to testify in his own defense. The Wilkes County jury deliberated for several hours, at one point requesting to hear the taped confession again, before returning with guilty verdicts on all but one count.
Without the testimony of the late victim, the ADA said, the convictions were made possible by good police work from the first call. "From Jonathan Crookham, the first Tignall officer on the scene, to all the Wilkes County deputies, the GBI investigators, Oglethorpe County deputies, probation officers, to the GBI crime scene technicians," he said, "they did a solid job of investigation that the people of Wilkes County can be proud of."
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