Jury Delivers Guilty Verdict Against the Man Accused of Brutal Murder of Smith family
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, March 27
After a four-hour discussion, the Jury in the Gori district court in Eastern Georgia stated that 19-year-old shepherd Malkhaz Kobauri brutally murdered Ryan and four-year-old Caleb Smith and raped and killed Lora Smith in the Khada Gorge of eastern Georgia in the summer of the last year.
The jury court will make an announcement regarding the prison term today.
The prosecution is demanding life imprisonment.
Kobauri does not admit to the crime and says that several foreigners committed the crime.
Kobauri’s mother claims that the jury was influenced by the prosecution to deliver the “very unfair” verdict.
She says that the verdict is “in the interest of Americans.”
The Smith family went missing in early July 2018.
The bodies of Ryan and Lora Smith were found on 7 July in the Khada Gorge of Dusheti region, in eastern Georgia.
Initially, police said that Ryan and Lora Smith had no signs of violence on their bodies. However, later the Interior Ministry stated that Ryan Smith was shot dead and as he was found in the river in a very poor condition the shots were invisible at first glance.
Ryan Smith was shot twice, while Lora Smith’s body was found next to a waterfall.
Kobauri was detained on 11 July and he himself showed the site to law enforcers where a four-year-old Caleb’s body was buried.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that initially Kobauri admitted to the crime, but later he said that “two foreigners” killed the Smiths. A bit later he mentioned “several foreigners.”
The case prosecutor stated in the beginning that the dispute between Kobauri and Ryan Smith emerged because of a rifle the shepherd carried with him. The prosecutor claimed that Ryan Smith told the shepherd to be cautious with the weapon, especially at the presence of a child.
At first, the Prosecutor’s Office stated that Lora Smith was likely to fall down from the cliff when she tried to escape. However, on 9 November 2018 Kobauri was charged with rape and murder of the woman. Kobauri is mentally fit, he has been psychologically checked.
Ryan and Lora Smith had dual Georgia and American citizenship and had been living in Georgia’s eastern Marneuli region for more than 10 years, where they had a business producing Azerbaijani rugs.
