Larger text Larger text Smaller text Smaller text Print E-mail

Jury gets case in Proviano slaying

By Reid Frazier, FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio -- The details might have dimmed, but the "core of the truth" of Anthony Proviano's death is that Marlene "Slim" Smith killed him in a drug-starved rage eight years ago near an Ohio motel, a prosecutor argued in closing statements Monday.

The five men and seven women on the Belmont County, Ohio, jury began deliberations in the afternoon after hearing two lawyers provide different versions of the December 1997 death and investigation.

The jury failed to reach a verdict and will resume deliberations this morning.

Smith, 50, formerly of Washington, Washington County, is accused of killing Proviano, a 29-year-old medical student, near a St. Clairsville motel.

Proviano was reported missing by his parents after he failed to show for dinner at their Baldwin Borough home on Dec. 24, 1997, from Cincinnati, where he was in medical school.

He was found dead Dec. 28 on an abandoned road below a Days Inn motel with a bullet wound from his own .25-caliber handgun in his torso.

Smith's attorney, John Vavra, portrayed the investigation as a witch-hunt bent on proving Proviano was killed, while important clues pointed to suicide.

Dr. Manuel Villaverde, then the Belmont County coroner, initially ruled the death a suicide but changed it to undetermined after months of lobbying from Proviano's family and law enforcement.

"They wanted this to be a homicide. It's got to be a homicide because they cannot live with the fact that this is a suicide," Vavra said. "You're the only ones that can put a stop to this, at least as far as Marlene Smith is concerned."

Vavra told the jury that the prosecution's case was built on testimony from convicted felons seeking lighter sentences and that an exhaustive search had turned up no physical evidence linking Smith to the crime scene.

Special prosecutor Thomas Hampton said investigators relied heavily on the testimony of criminals because they were the people closest to Smith, an admitted heroin user and prostitute.

"These are the people she spent her life with. These are the people she confided in," Hampton said.

He said Smith's many confessions to associates about the crime supported the conclusion that she killed Proviano when he backed off a plan to give her drugs and money in exchange for sex.

"This is something that happens in a matter of moments, in anger," Hampton said.


More Pittsburgh, Allegheny headlines

Subscribe to the Tribune-Review today



Advertising Information | Advertiser List | About our ads