“I wasn’t surprised.” Mother reacts to arrest in daughter’s killing

Jacquelyn Smith grew up in Providence. Her mother, Anna Trisvane, remembers her unwavering faith.

“We are gonna miss her. She had a lot of faith in God.”

Smith was living in Baltimore. She was stabbed to death in December. Her husband, Keith Smith, told police it was a panhandler who killed her while she was trying to give money. Trisvane never bought it.

“It was too phony. It wasn’t real.”

Keith Smith and his daughter were arrested near the Mexico border over the weekend, now charged with first degree murder.

“I wasn’t surprised. I was expecting it,” she says.

Jacquelyn, or Jacqui as her family called her, was married to Smith for about 3.5 years. Trisvane thinks Smith saw dollar signs when he met her.

“He figured she had money. He thought she had something, he wanted to have something too,” she says.

Trisvane says her daughter visited home over Thanksgiving a week before her death. She never suspected anything was wrong between her and her husband.

“She kept things to herself. She was smart. She was fun too. And she loved to sing.”

As for Smith’s arrest, Trisvane says she’d be happy to see him behind bars.

“I wish I could go to where he goes to jail, and just laugh at him.”

©WLNE-TV 2019