Sunday, Sept. 2, 2007
By Marcie YoungCharlotte Observer Staff Writer
After enduring threats and abuse from her estranged husband and living in fear for months, Catherine Smith was finally starting to heal.
She had returned from a family vacation less than two weeks ago, hopeful about the new life she was starting to build.
She was working at her brother-in-law's company and had moved into a new Hickory apartment about a mile from her sister's home. In early April, she separated from her husband and filed a domestic violence protection order against him.
But more importantly, said her mother, Marian Gabriel Stearns, Smith's bubbly personality was starting to show again.
On Aug. 24, two days after getting home, while her 6-year-old son, mother and sister were still at the beach, Catherine Smith, 31, was shot and killed by her husband outside the office where she worked, Hickory police said.
Hours later, after a chase and shootout with police, her husband, 37-year-old Christopher George "Charles" Smith, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Smith sought protection from the legal system, but it didn't keep her safe and failed to help her husband overcome his problems, her family says. Now they want to know why she had to die and are learning that there is no single answer. But they say it's clear that victims of domestic abuse deserve better.
"The system was just not there to help him, to help them, to keep her alive," Stearns said. "I want people to know that abusive situations are not normal and that there is help for both parties."
Experts say an effective domestic violence structure requires dedication from all parties, from the courts to law enforcement and the victim to outreach groups.
"There's a lot of good legal tools out there, and when used properly, (the system) can work," said Deborah Weissman, a UNC School of Law professor and expert in domestic violence. "A good number of studies show that when the law works, women are safer, and domestic violence is reduced."
Catherine Stearns, a Newton-Conover High School graduate who would have turned 32 last Thursday, met Charles Smith, a Catawba County native, not long after he finished serving a nine-year prison sentence in 1999.
Smith's record included convictions for robbery with a dangerous weapon and escape from a state prison.
The couple married shortly before their first son was born in January 2001. "She was always drawn to people who were hurting," said her sister, Amy McGhinnis. "(And) he was a tortured, tortured soul."
They seemed to be a happy couple at first, and their arguments seemed no different than any other married couple, McGhinnis said.
But as the years went on, McGhinnis saw a change in their relationship. Five months ago, on April 4, Smith went to the Catawba County Clerk of Court and obtained a domestic violence protection order -- a civil court document prohibiting any interaction with the victim -- against Charles Smith, saying he would force her "at gunpoint to perform sexual acts," according to court documents.
Charles Smith, who worked as an electrician for EAS Electric Co., was in the Catawba County jail on unrelated charges when his wife filed the domestic violence order.
Within a week of posting bond on those charges, he attacked her again, violating the protective order, she said in court documents. He was arrested and charged with breaking and entering, kidnapping, assaulting his wife and violating the protective order.
He had broken into her home, according to court documents, forced her into a bedroom, stuffed a towel in her mouth to stifle her screams and held a knife over her as he threatened to kill her and then himself.
"For some people, domestic violence protection orders are just a piece of paper," said Ann Peele, executive director of the Family Guidance Center in a Hickory, an agency that offers support to victims of domestic violence and provides help for the abusers. "Those people who have no regard for authority or the law, that piece of paper means nothing to them."
On July 9, three months after he violated Catherine Smith's protective order, a grand jury indicted Charles Smith on eight charges that included kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, speeding, resisting an officer and carrying a concealed weapon.
Deputies tried at least a dozen times to serve the indictment and arrest him, said Maj. Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office, but found he had moved. His brother and father said they didn't know where he was living or why authorities could not find him, Reid said.
That's something Catherine Smith's family can't fathom.
"Why were we never called? Why was she never called?" Stearns said. "She knew where he was, so don't tell me they could not find him."
Reid said he was not sure if anyone at the Sheriff's Office had tried contacting Catherine Smith to find out if she knew where her estranged husband was. In situations like that, he said, investigators often assume the husband and wife aren't in touch.
Those holes in the law enforcement and legal systems, Catherine Smith's family said, need to be repaired. Better communication between police, courts and victims, Stearns said, should be paramount.
But Weissman said there's no single weakness in the system, and that's part of the challenge. A viable domestic violence program, she said, requires incorporating cooperation between enforcement and the courts and constant reassessment.
When it doesn't work, she said, courts and law enforcement need to re-examine how they respond to domestic violence.
"It's complicated," she said, "but we always have to be re-evaluating where the weak spots are. People always have to be looking for different practices."
Court documents show that Smith, after violating the protective order, spent the rest of the month in jail without bond until, on April 30, the district attorney's office dismissed the charges against him so a grand jury could indict him on Superior Court charges.
Within days of his release, Catherine Smith was calling counseling centers to set up appointments for her husband, said McGhinnis. And, McGhinnis said, her husband, Mike, would accompany Charles Smith to a drug rehabilitation facility in the days after he got out of jail.
"She was on his side and tried to find help for him," she said, "and we tried to be there, to understand and try to help him."
Peele, who sees about 1,400 abused women come through the center each year, said a woman in an abusive relationship often has a hard time identifying the dangers because of the emotions, especially when children are involved.
"You have love and hate, and there's that mixture that goes back and forth," she said. "There's that emotional element in domestic violence that you just don't have in other crimes."
But Catherine Smith was trying to help herself, too. She wanted to make sure her boys, 6-year-old Gabe and 2-year-old Aiden, knew their father, family said, but she tried to distance herself from him.
In the months after Catherine Smith separated from her husband, her mother said, the cheerfulness and spark began coming back to her personality. She knew that she had made the right decision in getting out of the relationship, her family said.
"Last week she said, `I've been in the dark for eight years,' " Stearns recalled. " `But I'm alive now, Momma, I'm alive.' "
Events Leading Up to Catherine Smith's Death
April 2, 2007 Catherine Smith and Charles Smith separate, according to court documents.
Charles Smith is by the Conover Police Department with speeding, failing to heed a light or siren, two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, and resisting a public officer.
Catherine Smith posts bond, and Charles Smith is released from jail.
April 4 Catherine Smith asks the court to revoke the bond she posted for her husband two days earlier and takes out a domestic violence protective order against her husband.
Charles Smith returns to the Catawba County jail on the Conover charges.
Smith is released from jail on bond.
April 8 Charles Smith is charged with violating the protective order, breaking and entering, kidnapping his wife, assaulting her with a knife and stuffing a towel in her mouth to stifle her screams. he is held at the jail without bond.
April 30 The district attorney's office dismisses the District Court charges against Smith so a grand jury can indict him on the Conover charges and for violating the protective order and the related charges. He is released from the Catawba County jail.
July 9 The grand jury indicts Smith on eight charges in Superior Court and orders for his arrest are issued.
July 13 Conover police receive the indictment for speeding, failing to heed light or siren, two counts of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting a public office.
July 23 The Catawba County Sheriff's Office receives the indictment for the protective order violation, kidnapping, assault and breaking and entering and tries serving Smith the warrant. Three deputies tried at least a dozen times to find Smith, Maj. Coy Reid said, but could not locate him.
Aug. 24 Catherine Smith is killed by her husband.
Where to Find Help
So far this year, 40 people have died from domestic violence in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Last year, 79 people died.
First Step, a domestic violence program through the Family Guidance Center in Hickory, offers support and counseling, court advocates, victim support groups, a safe shelter for battered women and treatment groups for abusers.
For more information: 828-322-1400
24-hour crisis assistance: 828-228-1787
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