NEWS

Murderer's girlfriend gets 10 years

Kimball Perry
kperry@enquirer.com

For her role in helping send her boyfriend, David Bell, to prison for life, prosecutors agreed Monday to allow Annisha Smith to spend 10 years in prison -- 38 years less than the maximum.

"She has been given a second chance," said Sandra Craddock, mother of Charles Martin, the man murdered by Bell with Smith's help.

"I don't have my child any more, but you do," Craddock said to Smith, "so I'm just begging you do the right thing by your son.'

Defense attorney Clyde Bennett II wipes away tears from Annisha Smith moments before she admitted to her role in a killing.

Smith, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, attempted murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and weapons charges. In exchange for her cooperation in convicting Bell two weeks ago -- she testified against him in his death-penalty murder case and turned over to prosecutors incriminating letters Bell sent Smith while both were in jail -- she was given the lenient sentence.

"She didn't think (Bell) would follow through on the threat to kill," Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Seth Tieger told Common Pleas Court Judge Ethna Cooper.

Bell, 25, narrowly escaped a potential death sentence two week ago when a jury found him guilty of the April 2011 murder of Charles Martin.

Bell used Smith to lure men into compromising situations so he could rob them. In one case, Smith went on a fake date with a Butler County man when Bell walked in and robbed the man of a gun.

That gun was later used when Bell and Smith connived to rob men in an East Price Hill house. Smith again was on a fake date when she had sex with one of the men in the house. She also was exchanging text messages with Bell during the date so Bell knew what was in the house to steal and who was in the house.

When she told Bell there were two other men in the house, Bell sent her text messages noting he would kill them. He shot and killed a sleeping Charles Martin and tried to shoot another man who was awakened by the shot and rolled out of bed just in time as Bell shot at but missed him.

Bell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 45 years.

Smith's Monday guilty plea meant the original murder charge against her, and its potential life sentence, were dropped.