The manager’s phone buzzed with a text from Briana. *Can you call me? There’s a customer here, and I’m getting a weird feeling. * She didn’t see it right away.
By the time she called back, there was no answer. The store line went straight to voicemail. A couple walked into the high-end furniture store minutes later. It was too quiet.
No one at the front. They stepped further in and saw a person lying behind a sofa, covered in blood. They ran out and called police. Briana was already dead.
She’d been stabbed dozens of times. Her phone was on the floor near her hand. Nothing had been stolen—not even the cash in the register. But the killer had left something behind.
A small voice recorder sat on the counter where she’d been working. It was still running. The tape captured everything. The bell jingling as a man walked in.
Briana’s cheerful greeting. He said he and his girlfriend were looking for a couch. He asked a few questions, then stepped outside to call her. He came back and asked for Briana’s social media.
She politely declined. Then he asked if she followed Biden’s politics. She said no. He muttered that the government had gone crazy.
Then: “Put your phone down. ” A few seconds later: “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you. ” Detectives heard the sound of a blade being drawn.
Briana’s voice turned terrified. She told him to leave. She said she’d already called the police. He lunged anyway.
The stabbing went on for minutes. Briana pleaded, begged, said she could help him. He didn’t stop. Eventually, her voice went silent.
The man walked out. Then her phone rang—her manager calling back. Then the couple walked in and found her. The recorder held other audio too.
Months earlier, the same man had recorded a rant about how much he hated women. Surveillance cameras caught a man in a hoodie, sunglasses, and a medical mask approaching her counter. He was average height, medium build. Thirty minutes after the murder, he walked into a grocery store.
Minutes before it, he’d stopped at a chiropractic clinic. Detectives canvassed the street. He’d gone into six businesses that day, leaving each one almost immediately. He’d been looking for someone alone.
Briana’s store was the only place where she was by herself. The medical examiner found she’d been stabbed 46 times. The murder weapon—a seven-inch blade—was recovered, bent from the force. A bloody shoe print was found on a couch.
DNA on the knife matched a 31-year-old man named Shawn Smith. Shawn had no fixed address. His record was long: drug possession, theft, trespassing. He’d bitten a police officer’s finger.
He’d fired a flare gun into a car with a child inside. He’d been released early from a short sentence just before the murder and had immediately violated his release terms. Instead of being sent back, he vanished. The city was furious.
Briana had been working alone. The systems meant to protect people had let him slip through again and again. A $250,000 reward was posted, mostly funded by her employer. On January 19th, a driver called police.
He’d spotted a man who looked exactly like the suspect, carrying the same backpack from the footage. Officers found him. He gave a fake name, but a portable fingerprint scanner confirmed it was Shawn. He was arrested on the spot.
He refused to confess. A psychiatric evaluation showed he was fully aware of his actions. He asked to represent himself, then insulted the judge at his first hearing and lost that right. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity anyway.
The trial began in late August 2024. The prosecution had surveillance footage, fingerprints, DNA, and the recorder. The defense called no witnesses and presented no evidence. They argued it was a spontaneous act.
They even suggested the case got attention because Briana was white and Shawn was Black. The court played the tape for the jury. The judge let Briana’s family leave the room first. He later ordered the recording never released to the public.
The jury also heard Shawn’s earlier rants about women. They deliberated for barely an hour. Guilty. Before sentencing, psychiatrists evaluated him again.
All concluded he had no serious mental condition. Then the judge played recordings from jail. In three separate phone calls, Shawn told friends and family that all he had to do was play crazy. He’d get five years in a hospital and walk free.
He seemed to forget every call was recorded. The judge ruled him competent and sentenced him to life without parole. Under California law, he can still technically apply for parole later. The judge said he hoped every petition would be denied.
His motive was never clear. He hated women and wanted to hurt them. He didn’t care who it was, as long as it was a woman. Hundreds of people gathered outside the store where Briana died.
They built a memorial of flowers and photos, signs demanding action. But nothing meaningful has changed. The system that let Shawn slip through is still in place.
