Gruesome Footage on Stolen Memory Card Is Key to Alaska Murder Trial

Gruesome Footage on Stolen Memory Card Is Key to Alaska Murder Trial
Brian Steven Smith sits in a courtroom while waiting for his arraignment to start in Anchorage, Alaska, on Oct. 16, 2019. Mark Thiessen/AP Photo, File
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska—A woman with a lengthy criminal history including theft, assault, and prostitution got into a truck with a man who had picked her up for a “date” near downtown Anchorage. When he left her alone in the vehicle, she stole a digital memory card from the center console.

Now, more than four years later, what she found on that card is key to a double murder trial set to begin this week: gruesome photos and videos of a woman being beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel, her attacker speaking in a strong accent as he urged her to die, her blanket-covered body being snuck outside on a luggage cart.