"I wanted to kill him," Ms. Williams' aunt, Toni Allnutt, said outside the courthouse. "My brother wants to kill him. We all want to kill him. He needs to die. He killed my niece, and he left her child for dead."
Mr. Smith's family members were equally adamant, insisting on his innocence.
"I know my brother too well," said Mr. Smith's sister,
Cynthia Juett of Owen County. "He could not do this. . . . I know in my heart he's not capable of murder."
Ms. Juett said her brother told her he was at a friend's house in Monterey at the time of the crime. Before bursting into tears, she said she did not believe he confessed.
Mrs. Williams' mother, Jackie Murphy, dropped her head, held her hand over her mouth and cried as she watched a noon TV report about the arraignment from inside a trailer.
"She's had it hard," Mrs. Murphy said as she clutched a tissue. Ms. Williams was the second of 13 children, born two months premature when her mother was 15. The girl struggled for life then, her mother said. Because Mrs. Murphy did not have enough money to raise her, Ms. Williams spent most of her life with a grandmother.
Ms. Williams' estranged husband committed suicide in July, just a few months after the couple's baby boy died at birth.
"She was just getting her life back in order, trying to," her mother said.
Police released few details of the killing or the alleged confession. "He gave us enough details to assure us he knew what he was talking about," state police Detective Wayne Heightchew said.
Mr. Smith's prior adult record consists of several misdemeanors. In 1994, he spent seven weekends in the Owen County Jail for burglary, criminal mischief and criminal trespassing after breaking into the Elsmere Sportsmens Club. He paid restitution.
Detective Heightchew said Mr. Smith did not reveal a motive but said robbery was a possibility. Mr. Smith had been a family friend for several years, the detective said, and drugs were involved. Robbery could be the aggravating circumstance necessary to seek the death penalty, said County Attorney Charles Carter.
Ms. Williams' body was being tested for evidence of sexual assault. The crime occurred about 5 a.m. Sunday, police said. Police were called about 10 p.m. Sunday, when the victims were found by the parents of Ms. Williams' fiance, John Marcum.
Late Monday, Ms. Williams' daughter woke up in the hospital and identified Mr. Smith as her attacker by his first name and a description, police said. He was arrested early Tuesday.
At about 11:20 a.m., Mr. Smith was led into the courtroom, where he pleaded not guilty. He did not say much other than his name.
The judge denied bond, appointed Mr. Smith a public defender and set a preliminary hearing for Aug. 22.
If the judge finds that enough evidence exists to believe Mr. Smith committed the crime, the charges will be sent to a grand jury. That jury could indict him.
The girl, whose skull is held together by clamps where the attacker clubbed her with a poker, could be in the hospital for more than a year, family members said. Her stomach and bowel were wounded as well, they said.
During a visit Monday at the hospital, the girl pointed to her stomach and said: "Mammaw, it hurts," her grandmother recalled.
Mrs. Murphy said she hopes to get custody of her granddaughter. Because she is raising young children at her Dry Ridge house, Mrs. Murphy said, she hasn't seen her granddaughter often - mostly on holidays and birthdays.
"I'm gonna take care of my baby now," she said.
Mrs. Murphy said she thinks her daughter is looking out for her granddaughter from above. "I think that's how she survived," she said.
If Mr. Smith is convicted, Mrs. Murphy said, he should stay in jail until he dies, though she said she would not oppose the death penalty.
"Everybody's got their faults. But she didn't need this," she said. "Death's too good for that boy."
Jane Prendergast contributed to this report.
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DAUGHTER MAY HAVE SEEN MOTHER'S KILLER Aug. 12, 1997
