PITTSBURGH - A man convicted of having set a house fire that killed a young child and two women in Pittsburgh 4 1/2 years ago now faces a life prison sentence without possibility of parole.Jurors in Allegheny County deliberated for about six hours over two days before convicting Martell Smith of three counts of second-degree murder in the December 2017 fire, the Tribune-Review reported.
He was also convicted of multiple counts of arson but acquitted of one attempted homicide count.Prosecutors had been seeking a first-degree murder conviction and planned to pursue capital punishment if jurors convicted Smith on that charge, citing the multiple felonies, the child victim and the defendant's criminal record.
But Smith, 45, continued to assert his innocence and said "Life in prison is the death penalty. It’s just slower.""I understand they need somebody to pay for the crime, and everything lined up for me to be that person," he told Common Pleas Judge Jill Rangos. "I’m just another in a long line of Black men sent to the correctional system to die there."Pittsburgh authorities allege Smith set the early morning fire after getting into a bar fight.
Police say surveillance images show him buying a gas can and filling it at a gas station, and they allege he then drove to the Homewood neighborhood home, doused the three-story brick structure with the gasoline, lit it and drove away.Killed were 21-year-old Shamira Staten, her 4-year-old daughter, Ch’yenne Manning, and 58-year-old Sandra Carter Douglas.