WASHINGTON — Cellphone records helped convict a man this week in a 7-year-old homicide that happened in Old Town, Alexandria.
Neither the victim nor the killer lived in Alexandria. That’s just where Michael Horton of Butler, Pennsylvania, was fatally stabbed by 49-year-old Willie Smith of Oxon Hill, Maryland.
“After the offense occurred, that’s where they actually located him. They found him driving the victim’s car over in Maryland a couple of weeks after the murder,” said Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter.
Smith was convicted of second-degree murder Friday for killing Horton on North Payne Street about a block from the Braddock Road Metro Station on June 18, 2009. Porter said cellphone records helped solve the cold case.
“Cellphone records showed Mr. Smith and the victim together in Maryland on the date of the offense. Then you could see them traveling over the bridge into Alexandria and then you could see Mr. Smith’s cellphone in Alexandria and then you could see his cellphone traveling back to Maryland alone after the murder,” Porter said.
When Smith was first charged with the fatal stabbing, he was serving time in Virginia for a Fairfax County robbery.
When Horton was killed, the Alexandria Times reports he was on the run from the U.S. Marshals Service for violation of probation for burglary and cocaine possession convictions.
“Maybe the acquaintance with Smith had something to do with drugs, but obviously every murder is a horrible situation and every victim deserves to have their memory vindicated in the end,” Porter said. “The simple fact of it was, he didn’t deserve to die.”
The jury that convicted Smith recommended he serve the maximum penalty allowed of 40 years in prison. His sentencing is set for May.
