As Smith murder trial begins, a new explanation of how digital card showing killing got to Anchorage police

When Brian Steven Smith was arrested on homicide charges in October of 2019, police pointed to a sickening video of the hotel room slaying of a woman as the impetus for their investigation.

The videos had come to police in a mystifying way: An unnamed person had supposedly found a computer SD card on an Anchorage sidewalk, bearing the label “Homicide at midtown Marriott.”

The story left questions: How did a digital card carrying evidence of a killing end up discarded on the street, labeled?

That’s not actually what happened, a new court ruling handed down on the eve of Smith’s trial reveals.

The trial of Brian Smith began in Anchorage on Monday. Smith, 52, is charged with the 2019 killing and sexual assault of Kathleen Henry and the killing of Veronica Abouchuk sometime between 2017 and 2018. Prosecutors allege he preyed on vulnerable women, at one point telling Henry she was being “serial killed.”

In the leadup to the trial, Smith’s defense attorney asked to suppress videos and evidence found on the digital card from jurors, arguing that the card’s provenance and chain of custody couldn’t be definitively established.

Filings and a ruling by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby on the issue described, for the first time publicly, the way the digital card allegedly containing graphic images of a murder actually made its way into police hands, upending the previous narrative included in charging documents.

The real story: A sex worker picked up by Smith rifled through the center console of his truck while he withdrew money from an ATM, taking the card, the motion filing said. Later, the woman watched at least some of the video and looked at some of the photos, the motion said. The card contained videos and images of the slaying of Henry, as well as attempts at disposing of her body afterward, prosecutors contend.

Disturbed by what she saw, the woman consulted a doctor or therapist and turned it over to the police on their advice, the ruling said.

The woman, according to the motion, initially lied to police about how she found the digital card, the motion said — possibly giving rise to the story that the digital card was plucked from a random Anchorage sidewalk. Later, she told police the truth, the court filings say.

The woman herself was homeless, giving her address as that of a mental health consumer nonprofit.

On Friday, Saxby ruled that the videos can be used as evidence. Saxby also ruled that conversations between Smith and his wife apparently recorded at the Anchorage Jail could also be considered evidence.

The trial got underway on Monday morning at Anchorage’s Nesbett Courthouse with jury selection.

In what may be a preview of what attorneys will focus on during the trial, the 26 people in the initial jury pool spent Monday being questioned by attorneys about their views on everything from homelessness in Anchorage to what prosecutor Brittany Dunlop described as “high-risk lifestyles” and about the difference between alcohol “excusing” or “explaining” a person’s behavior. Jurors were also asked if they’d heard of cases where people committed crimes “for notoriety.”

The attorneys also focused on whether jurors would be able to fairly decide a case in which prosecutors plan to show the jury graphic and gruesome video. The trial is expected to last for all of February.

Potential jurors were admonished not to read or view any media coverage about the trial and asked if they’d heard anything about the case. A few said they remembered it from when Smith was first arrested, back in 2019.

During jury selection Smith sat quietly between his attorneys, clad in a blue suit and tie, occasionally taking notes.

Jury selection is expected to continue Tuesday.