Trial set to start for man accused in killings of 2 Alaska Native women

The trial of an Anchorage man charged with killing two Alaska Native women is set to begin Monday after years of delays.

Brian Steven Smith, now 52, is charged in the death of Kathleen Henry, who was beaten to death in an Anchorage hotel room in September 2019, and Veronica R. Abouchuk, who authorities believe died in 2017 or 2018.

The circumstances around the deaths — and that Smith is alleged to have preyed on vulnerable Alaska Native women — vaulted the case into national headlines and true crime podcasts.

Henry was a 30-year-old from the Western Alaska village of Eek. Prosecutors have said Smith lured her into a hotel room in Midtown Anchorage in September 2019 and filmed her torture and murder. Her body was later discovered along the Seward Highway.

In a bizarre development that has never been fully explained, a computer SD card containing videos and photos of the killing was found, apparently discarded, on a sidewalk in the Fairview neighborhood, starting a police investigation that led to Smith’s arrest on Oct. 9, 2019.

As police interviewed Smith after his arrest, he allegedly admitted shooting another woman sometime in 2017 or 2018. The second victim was identified as 52-year-old Abouchuk, who had been reported missing. Abouchuk’s remains had been found along the Old Glenn Highway earlier that year. She had been homeless in Anchorage at the time of her disappearance, her family said at the time, but was a much-loved family member.

At the time, activists said it appeared Smith had targeted vulnerable Alaska Native women for brutality. They wondered if he had other victims.

In recent months, Smith tried to fire his lawyer and also alleged that his confidential attorney-client mail and meetings may have been recorded by the Department of Corrections, which the department denied. Smith asked to delay the trial.

In a motion filed in January, prosecutors said more than 30 people are expected to testify in the trial and said further delay would hurt the case. Delays have already affected the case, prosecutors wrote in a motion.

“In 2018 the defendant confessed numerous murders in both South Africa and in Alaska” to his then-girlfriend. The woman told police in 2018, prosecutors wrote, and “the 2018 investigation was critical in identifying Smith as a suspect in the pending homicides.”

The woman died by suicide in 2021, as the trial was pending, prosecutor Brittany Dunlop said in court Wednesday.

In the leadup to the trial, prosecutors floated the idea of closing the courtroom to the public while key evidence — videos purportedly showing the hotel room killing — is introduced because of the disturbing content.

On Wednesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby said he would not close the courtroom, but told attorneys he would likely shield the graphic video from being viewed by anyone other than the jury.

Jury selection is expected to start Monday with a larger-than-usual pool of jurors for the high-profile trial.

The trial is expected to last roughly four weeks.