Man Gets Life Without Parole for Killing UCLA Grad Student at Furniture Store

Flowers placed outside Croft House furniture store in memory of graduate student Brianna Kupfer are seen in Los Angeles on Jan. 18, 2022. Alice Sun/The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—A transient convicted of murdering a UCLA graduate student—who was stabbed 46 times inside a Hancock Park furniture store in an attack captured in a chilling audio recording—was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a judge found that he was sane at the time of the crime.

Shawn Laval Smith, 34, was convicted Sept. 10 of first-degree murder for the Jan. 13, 2022, killing of Brianna Kupfer, 24.