Jury convicts man of strangling, stabbing 80-year-old woman in Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — A Sangamon County Jury convicted a man charged in the killing of an 80-year-old woman.

David D. Smith of Lindenwood, formerly of Springfield, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of Donna Bricker. Bricker was found dead in her home on West Elliot Street in January of 2019.

A jury found Smith guilty on all accounts in less than an hour on Wednesday. He will be held without bail, until his sentencing scheduled for August 29, 2023.

State's Attorney Dan Wright presented 22 pictures from Bricker's house, including four showing Bricker dead on her bed. Bricker was found face up on her bed with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck three times and double knotted. Her hands were bound behind her body. She also had a pair of scissors sticking out of her chest.

Those scissors and the electrical cord were presented in court and shown to the jury. The State's Attorney presented 30 pictures from the autopsy performed on Bricker. Dr. Nathaniel Patterson, the Forensic Pathologist who performed the autopsy said the cause of death was ligature strangulation with stabbing as a contributing factor. He said the strangulation caused hemorrhages in her brain and eye lids, with tears in the ligament and connective tissue in her first and second vertebrae. He said the strangulation happened with the same force of a body being hung with a noose.

Jennifer Aper, an Illlinois State Police Forensic Scientist and DNA expert testified that 96% of the DNA extracted from the scissors matched the DNA sample taken from Smith Aper also said Smith's DNA was on a white washcloth that was found in a trash can in the alley behind Bricker's home. Aper said it was unlikely that the DNA found on the scissors was transferred there from another object. She said this means the DNA couldn't have come from another item Smith touched.

Bricker was found with the contents of her purse laid on her bed in an organized fashion. Those items included a 20-dollar bill, multiple credit cards, and costume jewelry. A Springfield Police Detective said none of the DNA found on these items assisted in the case. The Detective said robbery was not the motivation for the murder.

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The DNA match between the scissors and Smith was found approximately two months after Bricker was killed. At that time, detectives from the Springfield Police Department located Smith in Lindenwood, Illinois and interviewed him there. Video segments of that interview were played in the courtroom. In the interview, Smith acknowledged that he used to live in the house next to Bricker and had seen Bricker on the day before, or day of Bricker's murder. He said he helped Bricker carry several items to the front porch, but did not enter the home.

One piece of evidence presented by the State's Attorney was the search history on Smith's cellphone Google Chrome browser. In that history, Smith had clicked on several articles related to Bricker's death and other murders in the Springfield area. Those searches occurred before Smith's interview with the Springfield Police Officers.

The State's Attorney called a Retired Detective from the Danville Police Department to the stand. He said in 1994, Smith was convicted of aggravated burglary and robbery for breaking into a 76-year-old woman's house and stealing from her. Another man also participated in that robbery, and hit the woman in the head several times with a candlestick.

Regarding the verdict, State’s Attorney Dan Wright stated:

“I am grateful to the jury for their service and dedication to reach a just verdict. Based upon the facts of the case, the defendant’s criminal history, and the jury’s finding that David Smith’s acts meet the statutory requirements to permit me to seek a sentence of natural life, I intend to request the maximum penalty allowed under Illinois law.”