Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

New death sentence in murder of family

For the second time, a Henderson man has been given the death penalty for the bizarre strangulation and hammer slayings of his two stepdaughters.

Joseph Weldon Smith, who also murdered his wife in the October 1990 incident in the family's Green Valley home, had been sentenced to death for the girls' murders after his 1991 trial, but the sentence was overturned.

The state Supreme Court ruled that there had been an improper instruction given to the jury about the law that applied to the case and a new penalty hearing was warranted.

The new jury in District Judge Jeff Sobel's courtroom deliberated less than four hours Thursday before again handing the 55-year-old defendant a death sentence.

Smith expressed remorse for the murders and asked for leniency, but the jury rejected the plea over the deaths of Wendy Jean Cox, 20, and Kristy Cox, 12.

Smith also is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for murdering his wife, Judith Smith, 47, and a 20-year sentence for beating his landlord, Frank Allen, 71, when he arrived at the house after the murders.

Smith fled Nevada after the slayings, although he told family members that Allen was the killer because he was angry that Smith owed him money.

On another occasion, Smith accused Colombian drug dealers of committing the slayings and said he attacked Allen because he believed he had to protect himself.

Trial testimony in 1991 indicated Smith went from room to room beating and then strangling his victims.

Allen testified that when he arrived at the home at 2205 Versailles Court to pick up two checks Smith had promised him as part of a deal to purchase the house, he found Smith crouching in a corner.

Allen said that Smith attacked him without speaking and he had to crash through a glass door to escape the blows.

Smith was on the run for six months before he was captured in California. Authorities indicated he was attempting to change his identity.

Smith said after his capture that he was on the run to prove his innocence.

Prosecutors contended that Smith committed the murders to escape family responsibilities.

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