Wesley Tobe Smith, Jr.
Facts of the Crime:
Smith sits on death row for the brutal murder of 18-year-old Margaret Leighann Martin, who he chased down and stabbed 60 times before cutting her throat in her eastern Rowan County home in 2001. He was sentenced to death on May 29, 2002.
Smith confessed to killing Martin. His defense attorneys contended, however, that he didn’t plan the murder but became enraged, grabbed a knife and attacked after Martin told him she didn’t want him hanging around her fiance because she thought Smith was a bad influence.
Wesley Tobe Smith had murdered 18-year-old Margaret Martin by stabbing her 53 times as she fled through the house and cutting her throat. It was September 12, 2001, the day after 9/11, though there was no evidence that terrorist attacks influenced the killer. Smith was a friend of the young man Martin was living with, a friend who "gave her the creeps," she had said.
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