9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
Smith: Mother will serve a minimum of 40 years in prison
after a suicide attempt in jail
in March and an inconclusive
report from a court-appointed
psychologist.
After a monthlong stay at the
Oregon State Hospital, Smith
was found mentally competent.
Marquis described Smith as
a narcissist.
The district attorney, a pro-
ponent of the death penalty, said
he was willing to forgo capital
punishment in this case in order
to get a resolution that spares the
surviving daughter from having
to testify at trial.
In addition, Marquis said,
death penalty cases often go on
for decades with appeals.
Smith waived her right to
appeal the conviction as part of
her sentence.
Continued from Page 1A
Jessica Smith, 42, who could
have faced the death penalty,
will serve a minimum of 40
years in prison, according to a
plea agreement reached during
settlement talks.
The Vancouver, Washing-
ton, woman entered Alford
pleas last week to aggravated
murder and attempted aggra-
vated murder. An Alford plea is
a guilty plea from a defendant
who proclaims their innocence,
but admits the prosecution has
enough evidence to prove they
are guilty.
A trial next summer was can-
celed after Smith pleaded to her
crimes.
“Our life stories diverge
from this point forward, and
I’m looking forward to joy and
peace,” Gregory Smith said.
Gregory Smith was joined
in the courtroom Thursday by
Alana Smith. Before speaking,
he played a video montage of
2-year-old Isabella Smith. The
montage included pictures and
short videos of Isabella playing
on the beach and sitting with a
coloring book.
“I think of Isabella every day,
and when the image of her sweet
face hits me I’m inspired,”
Gregory Smith said.
Jessica Smith did not speak
at her sentencing. While being
led out of the courtroom, she
nodded to the judge and quietly
left.
Earlier this month, Judge
Cindee Matyas allowed a video
confession to be played at trial.
In the recording, Smith admits
to drowning her 2-year-old
daughter. “The intention was to
drown her and end her misery,”
she said.
Isabella Smith died of
asphyxiation by drowning,
according to the state medical
examiner. A high level of over-
the-counter antihistamine seda-
tives were found in the toddler’s
system.
Judge Julie E. Frantz, who
presided over the settlement
conference and sentencing,
told Smith the horriic crimes
seemed inconsistent with her
past as a loving friend, sibling
and caregiver.
“You will spend the rest
of your life with the knowl-
edge that the inconceivable has
Wake the World
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
A video of the victim, Isabella, is played for the court while Jessica Smith turns away, never looking at the screen. Jessi-
ca Smith was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years for aggravated murder and a consecutive
10 years for attempted aggravated murder. Her ex-husband, Gregory Smith, spoke at the sentencing in Clatsop County
Circuit Court. Their surviving daughter, Alana Smith, 15, was also present.
occurred and you are responsi-
ble for unimaginable tragedy,”
Frantz said.
Crime scene
After murdering her toddler
and wounding her teenager on
July 31, 2014, Smith abandoned
the hotel room the next morning.
Notes left by Smith give
some idea of the reasons behind
her actions.
“Alana and I wanted to opt
out of life, and also spare Isa’s
little life from being bullied and
abused, and Alana chose open-
ing her veins,” Smith wrote.
Smith indicated that she
planned to kill herself, but
she wrote she did not have the
“time or strength after assisting
Alana.” She also wrote, “baby
didn’t suffer as she fell asleep in
the water.”
Smith gave Alana a double
dose of sleeping medication and
put over-the-counter dental gel
on her neck before cutting her.
“This wasn’t a spontaneous
act,” District Attorney Josh Mar-
quis said. “She bought the razor
blades in advance. She bought
the over-the-counter gel.”
Housekeeping staff could
hear Alana slipping and falling,
and called 911 the morning of
Aug. 1, 2014, to report a disori-
ented female.
Cannon Beach Police Chief
Jason Schermerhorn and Can-
non Beach Assistant Fire Chief
Frank Swedenborg were the irst
to respond to room 3302 in the
Surfsand Resort.
They found Alana on the bed
next to her dead sister. Alana had
been bleeding profusely from
cuts on her neck and wrists.
Alana, who was lown to a
Portland hospital, told medical
staff she believed her mother
was going to the forest to kill
herself.
After a three-day search,
a U.S. Coast Guard helicop-
ter crew spotted Smith near her
gold 2007 Chevy Suburban on
a heavily forested logging road
about 15 miles east of Cannon
Beach.
A Clatsop County Sheriff’s
Ofice detective and FBI spe-
cial agent drove an SUV down
forest roads to arrest Smith,
who appeared unharmed and in
remarkably good shape.
“She was frankly more con-
cerned about her makeup than
September 10, 2016
what had happened to her chil-
dren,” Marquis said.
Custody battle
Alana Smith, now 15 and
living with family in Washing-
ton state, told medical staff her
mother helped her cut her own
throat and drowned her sister
because they did not want to live
with her father, and they “just
wanted to get out of it.”
Smith convinced Alana that
she somehow participated in the
crimes, which is absolutely not
true, Marquis said.
Jessica and Gregory Smith
separated in April 2014. After
the separation, Smith and her
daughters moved from Golden-
dale, Washington, to Vancouver,
Washington.
The girls’ father iled for
divorce in June 2014 and sought
a custody evaluation less than
two weeks before the murder.
Smith iled a restrain-
ing order and challenged her
ex-husband’s custody rights.
She had full custody at the time
because Gregory Smith was
working two jobs as a radiology
supervisor. She was supposed to
return the children to her ex-hus-
band the day they were discov-
ered in the hotel room.
“She was supposed to give
one day of visitation and that
was apparently too much,” Mar-
quis said.
Mentally competent
In the video confession,
Smith said she and Alana were
terriied of her ex-husband.
Rather than bring the children
back, Smith made the speciic
plans to drug her daughters and
used razor blades to cut Alana’s
throat and wrists. She described
her ex-husband as a passive-ag-
gressive bully. She researched
if he was a sociopath or a psy-
chopath. “I needed to ind out
what he — what it was he was
doing to my mind because I was
just going to this insanity circle
where I couldn’t reach him,” she
said in the video.
Smith’s defense lawyers
William Falls and Lynne Mor-
gan previously described her
as having a mental breakdown.
The lawyers claimed Smith was
unable to aid and assist in her
own defense.
Judge Matyas found reason
to doubt Smith’s mental itness
M ore than just paints, stains
and janitorial supplies!
Pool, Spa &
Fountain
www.racetothebar.com
Who:
Tami Oppliger, Gregory
Smith’s cousin, had temporary
custody of Alana Smith imme-
diately following the incident.
Oppliger, and her husband,
Gerry Oppliger, are avid boat-
ers and would take Alana on the
Columbia River near their home
in Camas, Washington.
“Having Alana temporarily
with us, boating was a big part
of our healing,” Tami Oppliger
said.
The Oppligers decided to
create their own boating event
through Wake the World, a non-
proit that provides water sports
to foster families.
On Isabella Smith’s birth-
day in July, boaters gather on
the Columbia River to take fos-
ter children and their families on
the water. This year, about 25
boats and 350 people came to
the event.
“When we talked about
memorializing Alana’s sister,
Isabella, we tried to igure out
something positive to move on
with, and that’s why we came
up with Wake the World,” Tami
Oppliger said.
Alana Smith and her father
attend the Wake the World
events. Alana plays on the dock,
helps serve food and has fun like
a typical 15-year-old girl. “I’m
very proud to witness Alana’s
discovery of a world that has
the potential for love, friendship
and possibility,” Gregory Smith
said. “She is the best thing in
my life. I’m excited for what the
future holds for us.”
Packing
Materials
Grill Cleaners,
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners
and MORE!
You (walker or runner)
What: 5K walk/run or 10K run, followed by a bonire on
the beach
When: 5:00 p.m., Sept. 10, 2016
Where: Peter Iredale Shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park,
Warrenton, Oregon
How:
Cost:
Paints, Stains & Supplies
Register online at www.RaceToheBar.com.
$40 before Aug. 26, includes a shirt. $45 on Aug.
26 or later, shirt not guaranteed after Sept. 5.
Help to provide hospice care for those in need.
2111 Exchange Street, Astoria, Oregon • (503) 325-4321
www.columbiamemorial.org • A Planetree Designated ® Hospital
2240 Commercial Street, Astoria
503.325.6362
www.WalterENelson.com
Monday-Friday 8 am to 5 pm