Minnie Smith was looking forward to Christmas when she met a grisly demise.
On Dec. 15, 2005, the doting matriarch was found dead on the bedroom floor of her California home. The 66-year-old had been beaten repeatedly with a metal fireplace tool, which fractured her face and skull.
Her hands were tied tightly behind her back with a coat-hanger wire, and duct tape was wrapped around her ankles. She had a defensive wound on her forearm, indicating she had been trying to block a blow. She also suffered burns to her toes.
"I saw what happened to her," Susan Kang, who was the Public Affairs Council for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, told Fox News Digital. "I saw the crime scene photos. And I remember very distinctly the wrapped Christmas presents. It was only 10 days before Christmas."
Smith’s death is being examined on Oxygen’s true-crime docuseries "The Real Murders of Orange County." The show, which explores some of the most shocking slayings to rock the wealthy Southern California community, features interviews with investigators connected to the cases, as well as loved ones and legal experts. Smith’s son, Bennie Thomas, was among those who participated in the upcoming episode.
Kang said she connected to Smith and wanted to shine a spotlight on her story.
"This is somebody that should have never faced the fate that she met," said Kang. "I thought that Minnie Smith was somebody that should not be forgotten."
On the surface, it appeared that Smith was the victim of a botched robbery. The killer had ransacked the home, found a floor safe in the closet and emptied it. A diamond-encrusted Cadillac emblem, a gold medallion, a diamond ring and a liquor bottle were missing. But investigators were scratching their heads. Many other valuables were still intact, including the gifts.
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The firearms in Smith’s home were also present. The special revealed that guns are prized possessions for thieves who can score big bucks on the black market.
"The crime scene did not check out," Kang explained. "If a burglar had come through a kitchen window, they would’ve stepped on some plants. There would have been evidence that they came from the outside. . . . And finding a cache of guns and ammunition would have been . . . Christmas for the burglars. Illicit weapons could be used to commit other crimes."
There was also Smith’s husband of 28 years. He just didn’t seem distressed after his wife had been brutally murdered in their bedroom.
Marvin Vernis Smith had returned home from work that evening and called the police to report a burglary. He claimed to law enforcement that he had run out of the house without looking for his wife upstairs, because he had thought someone was still inside. The voices Marvin claimed he had heard had been coming from a TV that Smith had left on.
"Marvin’s demeanor didn’t come across as a loving husband," Kang explained. "If a man comes to his home and feels like it’s being burglarized, the first thing he would be doing is looking for his wife to make sure she’s OK. He wouldn’t just go outside, call 911 and then wait for the police. His story just didn’t add up."
The crime was also unusual for Cypress, where the couple resided.
"I would say Cypress is a hidden gem, even within Orange County," said Kang. "It’s very safe and a great place to live. That probably explains why it has one of the highest per capita income. It’s like a hidden pocket. . . . And where [the couple] lived, it was a little cul-de-sac within this beautiful, safe pocket of Orange County. It’s an older city, but it’s a very small city as well.
The couple first met in the 1970s and married in 1977, OC Weekly reported. They both had children from previous marriages. According to the outlet, they built a fortune worth more than $5 million. Their home was worth $1.3 million, and they owned two vacation time-share units. During their marriage, Smith worked as a security executive at Raytheon Corp., an international defense contractor. Smith, eager to devote more time to her grandchildren and church, retired in 2003.
"This woman did not have an enemy to her name," said Kang. "By all reports, she was a kind church lady who doted on her family. She was described as a great mother and a really successful woman. . . . This was a woman who should have lived the rest of her life in a beautiful suburban cul-de-sac. She was living in her dream home. And then she met this terrible fate. . . . I just had so much compassion for this woman."
But life behind closed doors wasn’t idyllic for the couple. Marvin had multiple affairs with women and kept a "love nest," Kang said. He was depicted as a financially generous lover and was even nicknamed "Big Daddy."
"Minnie turned a blind eye to the fact that he was having affairs," Kang explained. "We know of at least two women, but there’s probably several more. . . . He had a love nest. Marvin kept another place where he would have sex with his various mistresses. . . . I’m not sure if [Minnie] knew specifically which woman he was having an affair with. But according to her son, she knew about the affairs."
Marvin also had a history of violence. According to OC Weekly, he pistol-whipped Smith in 1991.
"He hit her so violently that she suffered a black eye and a gash on the head," said Kang. "She had to go to the hospital and get a dozen stitches."
A year later in 1992, Marvin approached a man at the parking lot of his business, Pee Wee’s Market and Liquors. Marvin asked the man to leave, but he didn’t move quickly enough. According to court records, he pulled a silver revolver from his waistband and struck the man in the back of the head. In 2003, he also clubbed one of his apartment tenants in the head with a baseball bat during a rent dispute.
Marvin also made a startling revelation. The episode revealed how Marvin told former employee Sam Matthews that the "only way" he or his wife would get out of their marriage was "to die."
"Marvin Smith claimed that he fired [Sam]," said Kang. "So he would have the motive to lie about him. . . . But [Sam] came forward to the police saying, ‘Minnie Smith was a nice lady. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did.’ And that’s when he recalled their conversation."
The missing jewelry was eventually discovered by investigators – in the trunk of Marvin’s car. The duct tape found on the jewelry box came from the same roll that was used to bind Smith’s ankles. The items were retrieved when police searched one of Marvin’s Los Angeles properties while he wasn’t present.
According to investigators, Smith was in bed when Marvin attacked her repeatedly. He then staged the crime scene to make it appear as if their home had been burglarized. DNA evidence also connected Marvin to the slaying, the episode shared.
On December 23, 2005 – two days before Christmas – Marvin was arrested outside his love nest for murdering his wife. On December 17, 2007, Marvin was convicted of first-degree murder.
"The driving force at the end of the day was greed," said Kang. "There was a lot at stake."
In 2013, the state's appellate court reversed Marvin’s conviction, stating that the jury’s instructions had violated his right to a fair trial. One year later, the Supreme Court upheld the original conviction. Marvin is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Today, Kang hopes that Smith’s tragedy will serve as a warning to women.
"I know she was a woman of faith, and perhaps it could have been one of her reasons to not get out of the marriage," said Kang. "We don’t know. But I hope this will give women the strength to get out of violent marriages before they’re murdered."
"Frankly, and hauntingly, I think Minnie should be remembered the way Marvin Smith described her," Kang reflected, "He said she did not have a single enemy, and she wouldn’t even know how to get anyone mad. She was a woman of faith, she was a great mother and a wonderful human being whose life was cut short unnecessarily by a man who was supposed to protect her."
