An 11-page handwritten letter — and police reports — from accused killer Brian Smith that was delivered to Alaska’s News Source from the Anchorage Correction Complex states complaints about evidence being presented in the case against him.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An 11-page handwritten letter — and police reports — from accused killer Brian Smith that was delivered to Alaska’s News Source from the Anchorage Correction Complex states complaints about evidence being presented in the case against him.
Asked to verify if Smith did in fact write the letter, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections wrote that they “have confirmed the letter you received was written, and sent, by Mr. Smith.”Smith faces 14 counts, including first- and second-degree murder, assault and tampering with evidence for the deaths of two Alaska Native women. He’s charged with killing and sexually assaulting Kathleen Jo Henry in 2019 as well as the death of Veronica Abouchuk sometime between 2017 and 2018. Smith was arrested on homicide charges in October 2019, after police were given an SD card with footage of the horrific death of a woman inside an Anchorage hotel room. The card had been labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriott.” Prosecutors say it’s Henry in the video, but the woman who found the images, Valerie Casler, said the person in the video was so brutally beaten that she didn’t realize it was her friend, Henry, in the footage. In the letter to Alaska’s News Source, Smith lists several grievances including accusations that the Department of Corrections is reading his mail.today. I can’t talk about the case. All I need to say is that this latest news of questionable source of the SD card is something I suspected and pointed out 4 years ago already. No one believed me. It is a very serious issue. I will let you find out for yourself. I can simply nudge you in the right direction,” Smith wrote. The SD card has been a key piece of evidence and the most argued-over issue by the attorneys in the case. Casler initially told police she had found a memory card containing the gruesome images on a street in Anchorage. She later changed her story, and Wednesday, testified that she stole Smith’s phone from his truck and that she then transferred the pictures to an SD card that she labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriott.” Casler said she had initially lied about it because she did not want to be arrested for theft or attempted prostitution and that she was “scared.”For most of the letter, Smith lays out his case against the prison system, and starting on page 9, writes about Alicia Youngblood. In testimony presented this week, the prosecution said Youngblood, a former girlfriend of Smith, provided police with numerous tips about Smith before his arrest. The prosecutor, Anchorage District Attorney Brittany Dunlop, says Youngblood has since died by suicide.“...on 7/4/21 she allegedly committed suicide. The Anc. DA office is famous for threatening witnesses,” Smith wrote. He goes on to write: “I also reported it to Det. Lee. I got no reply because Alicia is Native so no-one cares.” Detective Brendan Lee is the lead detective in the murder trial. A spokesperson for the Department of Law wrote in an email: “The Department of Law is aware of the communications and accusations. However, the Department of Law cannot comment further on an ongoing prosecution. It is inappropriate for us to do so at this time.”Henry was from Eek and Abouchuck from Stebbins.Viral photo of frozen moose explained by man who snapped itMat-Su students learn about side of healthcare often overlooked, especially here in Alaska
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