Smith Family Murder in Georgia: Suspect’s Lawyers to Demand Jury
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, November 14
The lawyers of 19-year-old shepherd Malkhaz Kobauri, who is accused of the murder of Ryan and Caleb Smiths and rape and murder of Lora Smith, will demand a jury to discuss the case, as the suspect faces a life sentence.
The lawyers claim that the Prosecutor’s Office aggravated Kobauri’s charge last week without providing “any additional evidence.”
“Initially the Prosecutor’s Office stated that the murder was motivated by a verbal confrontation between Kobauri and Ryan Smith about a rifle that Kobauri had with him. Now the office says that Kobauri committed the crime as he was attracted to Lora Smith,” lawyer Lekso Kobaidze said.
Kobaidze previously stated that the suspect would not have raped Lora Smith as he is a virgin and demanded an expertise for Kobauri.
The Prosecutor’s Office reported last week that the results of the autopsy have been revealed which said that Lora Smith was raped and then killed.
Mtskheta court in eastern Georgia sent Kobauri to pre-trial detention on July 11 for the murder of the Smith Family on July 4.
During the first interrogation, Kobauri pleaded guilty but later changed the testimony, saying "foreigners” killed the family and threatened him to conceal the truth.
He himself showed the police the site where he buried the body of 4-year-old Caleb, the Interior Ministry reported.
The Prosecutor’s Office initially stated that the verbal dispute between Kobauri and Ryan Smith led to the murder, as Smith gave a remark to Kobauri to be cautious with the rifle during the presence of a child.
The law enforcers said that Ryan Smith had two gunshots and Caleb was also shot dead.
The Smith Family had dual Georgian and US citizenship and lived in the Marneuli region of eastern Georgia, having a business of Azerbaijani rugs [as Marneuli is mainly resided by ethnic Azeri population].
