DA will seek capital charges in 1996 rape-murder

ANAHUAC — A charge against a suspect arraigned last month in the 1996 rape and strangulation death of a Texas City girl is expected to be upgraded to capital murder, authorities said Friday.

The case, 14 years in the making, against Kevin Edison Smith, 45, also is expected to be presented to a grand jury later this month, Chambers County Sheriff Joe LaRive said.

LaRive on Friday released the first image of Smith, who is charged with murder in the slaying of Krystal Jean Baker, 13, whose body was found March 5, 1996, beneath the Trinity River bridge on Interstate 10.

Smith was arrested on his birthday, Sept. 22, in Groves, where he worked at a refinery.

Smith, a contract welder, was shocked when arrested by Sgt. Bradley Moon, LaRive said. Smith spoke to Moon that day but hasn’t cooperated with investigators, LaRive said.

‘You’ve Got The Wrong Guy’

“I patted him down and handcuffed him, and when I told him what he was being arrested for, at that time he said, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy. I haven’t killed anybody,’” Moon said.

Chambers County District Attorney Cheryl Lieck anticipates the case will be presented to the grand jury as a capital murder by the end of the month, LaRive said.

LaRive said he didn’t know whether Lieck intends to seek the death penalty.

An initial DNA comparison led to a murder charge, but LaRive waited to release a suspect’s name and photograph until the conclusion of a second DNA test.

Smith graduated from Ball High School in Galveston and resided in Louisiana but was living in a hotel near Groves at the time of his arrest.

Krystal left her grandmother’s Texas City home on March 5, 1996, walking to the nearest phone to call friends or relatives for a ride to Bayou Vista.

Krystal’s mother, Monetta Jeanie Escamilla, met with LaRive on Friday and said she felt hopeless as Texas City police handled the case as a runaway.

About two weeks later, Escamilla learned of her daughter’s fate.

She is pushing for enhanced laws that would require people arrested for certain crimes in Texas to submit DNA samples to authorities.

DNA From Semen On Dress

Smith’s DNA was collected after a drug arrest in Livonia, La., LaRive said.

Chambers County deputy Sherry Willcox, while working on unsolved cold cases, resubmitted Krystal’s dress, which contained semen, to a Texas Department of Public Safety laboratory. She said she learned a suspect’s name Sept. 15.

A second DNA test by sheriff’s investigators was received Oct. 1, LaRive said.

“I felt inside my heart there’s no way she could have fought for her life and not had some DNA on her,” Escamilla said. “If you would have seen her, you could tell she fought for her life that day.”

Smith remains jailed on $1 million bond in Chambers County, where he’s held in a separate enclosure from other inmates, LaRive said.

“He has had an opportunity to visit with family,” LaRive said. “I believe he does have an attorney assigned to him.”

Tracing Suspect’s Whereabouts

Investigators are tracing Smith’s whereabouts during the last 20 years, LaRive said.

“He lived in the Fort Worth area and in Louisiana,” LaRive said. “We’re still trying to determine his timeline. At the time of her murder, he did live within a few miles of her house.”

Moon worked the case for the sheriff’s office in 1996, LaRive said.

“He was eager to get back on the case and bring closure, not just to Krystal’s family — but these cases eat on us also,” LaRive said. “When you see a child that ends up like this, it’s one of those (you) work a lifetime career and try to get it solved.”