Lemuel Smith

Case overview

Lemuel Warren Smith was a convicted serial killer and rapist from Upstate New York. He was described as the first convict ever to kill an on-duty female prison officer.

Timeline

• 1958-01-21 — Dorothy Waterstreet was robbed and beaten to death near Lemuel Smith's neighborhood in Amsterdam.
• 1959-04-12 — Lemuel Smith was sentenced to twenty years in prison for assault.
• 1968 (May) — Lemuel Smith was paroled.
• 1969-05-20 — Lemuel Smith kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman who managed to escape; he also kidnapped and raped a 46-year-old friend of his mother's.
• 1976-10-05 — A New York Legislature law made Lemuel Smith a free man.
• 1976-11-24 — Robert Hedderman, 48, and Hedderman's secretary, Margaret Byron, 59, were found brutally murdered in the back of Hedderman's religious store in Albany.
• 1976-12-23 — Joan Richburg, 24, was raped, murdered and mutilated in her car at Colonie Center mall in Colonie.
• 1977-01-10 — A large black man tried to lure a 22-year-old woman out of a gift shop in Albany; he took the woman's 60-year-old grandmother hostage and threatened to kill her.
• 1977-02-02 — Lemuel Smith was found guilty of the Hedderman store double-murder.
• 1977-05-15 — Donna Payant was killed at the Green Haven Correctional Facility.
• 1977-07-22 — Maralie Wilson, 30, was found strangled and mutilated near train tracks in downtown Schenectady.
• 1977-08-19 — Marianne Maggio, 18, was kidnapped and raped by Lemuel Smith; police stopped the car and arrested Smith without incident.
• 1977 — Lemuel Smith was arrested for the abduction of 18-year-old Marianne Maggio at Schenectady; he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment at the maximum security prison in Dutchess County.
• 1978-03-05 — With the pressure from the dog experiment and the bite mark match, Lemuel Smith confessed to five murders.
• 1978-03-09 — Lemuel Smith was sentenced to ten-to-twenty years in prison after being found guilty of rape in Saratoga County.
• 1978-07-21 — A four-day bench trial in Schenectady ended with Smith found guilty of kidnapping; he was sentenced to another twenty-five years-to-life.
• 1979-02-02 — Lemuel Smith was convicted for the Hedderman store double-murder and sentenced to another fifty years-to-life.
• 1981-06-01 — Lemuel Smith was charged with Donna Payant's murder under a state law requiring the death penalty for lifers who kill an on-duty policeman or jailer.
• 1981 (May 15) — Donna Payant disappeared at the maximum-security prison in Stormville; her mutilated body was found in a landfill dump in Amenia the next day.
• 1983-01-20 — The capital murder trial began.
• 1983-04-21 — Lemuel Smith was found guilty of Donna Payant's murder.
• 1983-06-06 — Lemuel Smith pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
• 1983-06-10 — Lemuel Smith was formally sentenced to death.
• 1984-07-02 — An appeal by Smith commuted his death sentence to another term of life.

Background

Lemuel Warren Smith was born July 23, 1941.

The narrative described childhood claims of mental problems and religious context, including a statement that his first attempted murder occurred when he was just twelve years old when he nearly smothered a nine-year-old girl to death, but that claim was described as not substantiated.

The narrative described evidence pointing toward Smith in the 1958-01-21 robbery and beating to death of Dorothy Waterstreet near his neighborhood in Amsterdam. It also described that the case fell apart when the district attorney was too hasty in trying to extract a confession and Smith was not arrested.

The narrative described that he was relocated to Baltimore, Maryland under pressure from Amsterdam police, where he took a 25-year-old woman prisoner and beat her nearly to death; a witness interrupted the crime and he left a living victim. Smith was quickly arrested and sentenced to twenty years in prison for assault on 1959-04-12.

After nearly ten years in custody, he was paroled in May 1968 and moved back to the Capital District.

The offences

Albany store murders (religious items)

Robert Hedderman, 48, and Hedderman's secretary, Margaret Byron, 59, were found brutally murdered in the back of Hedderman's religious store in Albany on 1976-11-24, the day before Thanksgiving. Human feces was found on evidence nearby which later proved valuable.

The narrative described Lemuel Smith as free and employed nearby and as a main suspect because of hair and blood evidence.

Rape, murder and mutilation in Colonie

Joan Richburg, 24, was raped, murdered and mutilated in her car at Colonie Center mall in Colonie on 1976-12-23.

Additional assaults and killings described

The narrative described a sequence that included an incident on 1977-01-10 in which a 22-year-old woman was attacked and her 60-year-old grandmother was held hostage and threatened with death, as well as an incident involving Maralie Wilson, 30, found strangled and mutilated near train tracks in downtown Schenectady on 1977-07-22. It described witness accounts of Wilson being accosted by a large black man and described Smith as a prime suspect in her murder.

Abduction and rape of Marianne Maggio

On 1977-08-19, Marianne Maggio, 18, who worked in the same area as Maralie Wilson, was kidnapped and raped by Lemuel Smith. The narrative described that when he forced her to drive towards Albany afterwards, police stopped the car and arrested Smith without incident.

Prison murder of Donna Payant

Green Haven Correctional Facility staff reported that Donna Payant was on duty when she received a phone call and was told she needed to take care of a problem. After she missed roll-call, hundreds of corrections officers combed the prison grounds throughout the night and into the following morning. Trash dumpsters were emptied into a truck which police escorted to a dumpsite twenty miles away, and officers finally found Payant's mutilated body when the garbage was spread out.

Donna Payant was described as a corrections officer, a mother of three, and as having been a correction officer for one month. The narrative described her disappearance at the maximum-security prison in Stormville and said that her mutilated body, wrapped in a plastic bag, was found the next day in a landfill dump in Amenia, N.Y., 10 miles from the prison.

The narrative described tooth marks on Payant's chest as a major piece of evidence, and it described that the tooth marks matched impressions of Smith's teeth.

The narrative also described that investigators believed Smith, pretending to be a correction officer, called Payant on the prison telephone and asked her to go to the chaplain's office. After the murder, it described that Smith placed Payant's body in a large trash container inside the prison and that the receptacle was later taken to the dump.

It also described sexual abuse and binding.

Investigation

The narrative described that investigators made Smith a suspect largely because of forensic evidence and similarities between the murder of Payant and other crimes for which Smith had been indicted or convicted.

It described that an examiner observed bite marks on Maralie Wilson and later examined bite marks on Payant's body, and quickly recognized the bite marks as Smith's.

In the description of evidence in the case, it described:

• a forensic dentist, Dr. Lowell J. Levine, of Huntington Station, L.I., said tooth marks matched impressions of Smith's teeth;
• Dr. Michael M. Baden, deputy chief medical examiner in New York City, was said to have noticed the tooth marks and to have indicated that some evidence was similar to that in the 1977 slaying of Maralie Wilson.

The narrative also described an identification method:

• An investigator examining photographs of Maralie Wilson noticed that a mark on her nose might be a bite mark.
• The body was exhumed and the bite mark was positively matched to an imprint of Lemuel Smith's bite pattern.

Arrest and pretrial

Smith was arrested in 1977 for the abduction of 18-year-old Marianne Maggio at Schenectady.

For the Donna Payant case, the narrative described that Smith became a suspect and that he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on June 6, 1983. His chief counsel was described as C. Vernon Mason.

Verbatim statements

C. Vernon Mason, chief counsel, asserted that Smith was framed:

"a victim of racial prejudice."

Mason also accused the state police and the Dutchess County District Attorney's office of ignoring evidence that he said implicated a correction officer in the slaying.

Mason urged calling witnesses before the grand jury and said:

"Justice demands it."

Dr. Levine said:

''In certain cases, teeth marks can be as good as fingerprints,' Dr. Levine said in an interview."

Trial

Rape and kidnapping trials

The narrative described that Smith was found guilty of rape in Saratoga County and was sentenced on 1978-03-09 to ten-to-twenty years in prison.

On 1978-07-21, a four-day bench trial in Schenectady ended with Smith found guilty of kidnapping and he was sentenced to another twenty-five years-to-life.

Soon after, the narrative described that Smith unsuccessfully attempted suicide.

Hedderman store double-murder trial

In Albany, Smith was indicted for the Hedderman store double-murder. He was found guilty on 1979-02-02 and sentenced to another fifty years-to-life.

Donna Payant capital murder trial

The capital murder trial began on 1983-01-20, more than eighteen months after Smith's arrest for the case.

The narrative described that the defense impugned testimony of inmates and other corrections officers and proposed conspiracy theories, but that with no answer to the bite mark evidence, Smith was found guilty on 1983-04-21.

Sentencing

1977 sentencing for Marianne Maggio abduction

The narrative described that after conviction on all counts for the 1977 abduction case, Smith was sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment at the maximum security prison in Dutchess County.

1983 death sentence for Payant murder

The narrative described that a New York law at the time mandated that Smith automatically be sentenced to death because he was serving life sentences. It described that he was formally sentenced to death on June 10, 1983.

Appeals

On 1984-07-02, an appeal by Smith called that law's constitutionality into question and was successful in commuting his death sentence to another term of life.

Outcome

Smith's death sentence was commuted to another term of life on 1984-07-02.

Aftermath and conditions of confinement

After the commutation, the narrative described that Smith spent the next twenty years of his life in near-isolation, described as the longest such span in the nation at the time.

Other details

Mental illness and insanity-related claims

The narrative described that during insanity claims, Smith stated he suffered from multiple personality disorder and described being controlled by the spirit of his deceased brother, John Jr., who had died from encephalitis as an infant before Smith was born. It described that a counsellor described that other personalities besides John Jr. might exist inside Smith.

It also described that multiple head injuries as a child and teenager were determined, and it described that he suffered further mental abuse as a result of overzealous religious convictions, especially from his father.

It described that originally Smith's lawyers and doctors feared he might not be fit to stand trial, but that when it was determined to go ahead with the initial rape and kidnapping trials, two doctors testified to his delusions but stopped short of saying he was criminally insane.

Confessions and investigations

On 1978-03-05, with pressure from the dog experiment and the bite mark match, Smith confessed to five murders, including the murder of Dorothy Waterstreet nearly twenty years earlier.

Expert witnesses and evidence procedures

The narrative described:

• Mr. Mason questioned the use of photographs to compare bite marks.
• Dr. Levine maintained that using photographs in forensic dental comparison was the usual procedure.
• Lieut. Thomas R. Neilen of the state police said Dr. Baden indicated some of the evidence was similar to that in the 1977 slaying of Maralie Wilson.
• Dr. Levine was said to have testified as a forensic dentist in more than 200 cases.

Defence team

The narrative described that high-profile lawyers William Kunstler and C. Vernon Mason led the defense. It also described that Mason was later a main player in the alleged Tawana Brawley hoax.

Charges dropped

The narrative described that after he was convicted in 1979 of the double murder in Albany and sentenced to a minimum of 50 years in prison, other homicide charges were dropped.

It also described that when indictments were presented after the bite mark evidence in the Maralie Wilson case and after confession to the murder of Joan Richburg, there was no chance of him ever leaving prison, so the indictments were dismissed.

Prison employment

The narrative described that at the Green Haven prison, Smith was a clerk in the Roman Catholic chaplain's office.

Governor statement

The narrative described that more than five thousand officers attended Payant's funeral and that New York governor Hugh Carey officially vowed:

"a swift response".