ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of two Alaska Native women, including the violent killing of one woman that was recorded on his cellphone.
Brian Steven Smith, 52, from South Africa, was found guilty by a unanimous jury that deliberated for less than two hours. The horrific footage of the woman’s death in 2019 was discovered after a woman stole his cellphone, copied the footage to a memory card, and turned it over to police.
During the trial in Anchorage, Smith confessed to killing another Alaska Native woman, whose body had been previously misidentified. He was found guilty of all 14 charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, and multiple counts of sexual assault.
The videos shown to the jury during the three-week trial were graphic, with audio capturing the victim’s last moments. Prosecutors revealed that the man drove around with the victim’s body in the back of his pickup for two days before dumping her on a rural road south of Anchorage.
The two victims, Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, came from small villages in western Alaska and had both experienced homelessness. The footage showed Smith’s distinctive accent narrating and urging the victim to die as she was repeatedly beaten and strangled in a hotel room in Anchorage.
After the woman who stole Smith’s cellphone turned over the evidence to police, it was revealed that the last images on the memory card showed the victim’s body in the back of a black pickup truck. Smith was registered to stay at a hotel in midtown Anchorage, where the disturbing images were captured.
Valerie Casler, the woman who provided the images to police, had initially changed her story about how she obtained the SD memory card, but eventually admitted to stealing it from Smith’s truck. During an eight-hour police interrogation at the Anchorage airport, Smith also confessed to killing Abouchuk, whom he had picked up in Anchorage.
The guilty verdict was a result of the harrowing evidence presented during the trial, as the man’s chilling narration and violent actions were captured on video. Smith’s conviction brings a sense of closure and justice to the families of the victims, as they seek to heal from the tragic loss of their loved ones.