While Donald Smith sat in jail, charged with the rape, kidnapping, and murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in June 2013, prosecutors secretly recorded him in his cell.
The existence of the audio recordings is not new; prosecutors revealed that they had 72 hours of audio as part of the discovery process.
But Monday was the first time prosecutors revealed the specific -- and damning -- clips they want to play at trial.
Prosecutor Mark Caliel told Judge Mallory Cooper they have narrowed the 72 hours to less than four minutes of conversation and four individual clips.
He says the first clip introduces the two inmates “looking out of their cell, and they are commenting on young juvenile girls.”
The second clip includes comments by Smith in that same context, saying, “That’s my target area -- that’s what I go after.”
The third clip specifically references Walmart. The Lem Turner Walmart is the last location Cherish Perrywinkle was seen alive, and the spot where surveillance footage appears to show her leaving with Donald Smith. Her body was found the following morning in a creek of Broward Road.
Caliel told the judge, “Mr. Smith is talking with this other inmate, while they are engaged in this conversation about these young girls that they are looking at and says, quote, 'I’d like to run into her at Walmart,’ … so that’s an admission relating back to this particular case.”
Prosecutors said that in the fourth clip the inmates discuss the physical attributes of the victim. Caliel said it features “the other inmate asking whether or not the victim in this case had a butt.”
Caliel says Smith responded, “She had a lot of butt for a white girl.”
Judge Cooper now must decide whether the recorded clips have evidentiary value or, as Smith’s attorney argued, are unnecessarily inflammatory and prejudicial. Attorney Julie Schlax noted the prosecution has plenty of evidence in the case – which includes DNA evidence surveillance footage, and eyewitness accounts – and that the recordings would simply add an outrage factor to the case.
Cooper said today she will decide before trial, but did not give a firm deadline.
Smith is due back in court Wednesday for several more hours of pretrial hearings.
