KIMBERLY SMITH Part 4 of 5: The Motel Room

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1:25Except in 2010, it was exactly that kind of place. Arthur Sheldon and Goldie Robinson were both found deceased outside of Kim Smith's trailer. The initial police investigation had one goal, find Goldie Robinson. Well, Goldie had been found, and so had Arthur. And now there was a new goal. Here's Detective McCracken. We want to know how they died. We want to know what happened. And we'd love to prosecute somebody for that. It might be tempting to think of this as an open and shut case. Two people, both under Kim Smith's care, were found dead in her yard. And there was ample evidence that she'd been taking advantage of them both financially.

2:13That's pretty damning. It's not a huge leap to think that she had something to do with their deaths. But thinking that and building a case that stands up in court, those are two different things. There was also the not so minor fact that Kim Smith likely did not act alone. If we only had one suspect or one person that we knew could have possibly done it, then it may make it a little less of a hurdle. But we have several people involved. We don't know to the extent of how involved they were. It's not just a matter of proving how they were killed. It's a matter of proving which one of those people did it.

2:55We have her, her boyfriend, her son, her daughter-in-law. Were they involved from the beginning? Did some of them get involved after the fact? Were they accessories? Did they commit a murder? Did they not commit a murder? You know, that's all big in the court of law. On September 2nd, 2011, detectives brought Adam Smith to the South Daytona Police Department. They had a subpoena to gather handwriting samples from him. Adam admitted to having used both Goldie's and Arthur's credit cards. But he said that it was his mother, Kim, who told him to use the cards. I want to believe you, but you've got to look at it from our point of view.

3:36Yes. We have a job to do. We've got two dead people. Yes. Okay? They were in the care and custody of your mother. I'm terribly upset about that. But you, Crystal, and David also gained from this by using their credit cards and living in their facilities and things like that. What you're telling me is you were duped by your mother. And I didn't know that these things were being taken from them, especially using the gas cards and those type of things. Because Goldie had been with me and I'd used them before. And the same way mom acted then, right in front of Goldie handing these things, it being okay was the same way she acted every time I used it.

4:13So I never thought anything was off about it.

4:19While the fraud case had a robust paper trail, the homicide case did not. The biggest hurdle for detectives in determining if there was foul play in the deaths of Goldie and Arthur was that there was no physical evidence that showed how they died. Their autopsies were inconclusive. How can you say for sure that someone was murdered when you don't actually know how they died? Did these people die of natural causes in her care and custody? Or were they murdered? I don't have the answer to that. But I do know this. They were found on her property. They didn't get there by a magic wand. And your mom didn't do that by herself.

5:03Kim Smith was the primary person of interest in the homicide case, but she wasn't the only one. Detectives had ruled out that Kim would have been able to pull this off on her own. She is tall, 5 '8", but she weighed significantly less than both Arthur and Goldie, and detectives just didn't believe that she could have moved their bodies on her own. But who could have helped her? Whether knowingly or not, Adam, Crystal, and David had all participated in the financial fraud with Kim. But how much deeper were each of them involved? What did they actually know?

5:45From Cast Media, this is The Opportunist. This is Season 8, Episode 4. Kimberly Smith, The Motel Room. I'm Hannah Smith.

6:06By the fall of 2011, the evidence of financial fraud was stacking up quickly against Kimberly Smith. The detectives had recovered ATM photos of Kim Smith withdrawing money from both Arthur and Goldie's bank accounts as recently as August of 2010, which, to be clear, is after both of them had died. There are at least a dozen of these photos in the police report. Kim Smith with her dyed blonde hair, bangs, and glasses, leaning out of her car at a bank drive-thru ATM. But it wasn't just Kim. Her son Adam, daughter-in-law Crystal, and boyfriend David Enos had also benefited financially from both Goldie Robinson and Arthur Sheldon.

6:49There were receipts showing that all of them at different times had used Goldie's or Arthur's money. Among the purchases were two vehicles, multiple electronics, including a television, a mattress, gas, groceries, and so much more. Here's reporter Nicole Luca. Other people were definitely benefiting from the deaths of both Goldie and Arthur besides Kimberly Smith. Right before Arthur Sheldon went missing, I guess she like was able to get$90 ,000 in a CD that she had cashed out right before he went missing. And then they were able to see that this guy was missing, but his account was very active and there was money coming out of it constantly.

7:32And when they went back to see who's pulling money out of his account, you know, at the bank cameras, all showed one person in each shot and it was Kimberly Smith on those cameras. And so it went right back to her every time. The trailer that Kim and David had been living in at Twin Oaks was purchased with Arthur Sheldon's money. In December of 2008, Arthur Sheldon cashed a$90 ,000 certificate of deposit and gave Kim and David a check for over$43 ,000, which they used toward the purchase of a double-wide mobile home. Detectives interviewed Kim Smith in November of 2010 and asked her about Arthur's finances.

8:15The recording is a little echoey.

8:43Kim's story was that she and Arthur were in love. Yes, she used his money. But she said he wanted her to have it. She said they had plans to get married before he died. But she wouldn't answer any questions about his death or what happened to his body afterwards. Kimberly, I'm sitting here. We've been talking for a while. If you look at these people's finances, gold's finances, as well as Arthur's finances, before they met you, before you came into their lives, They had normal expenditures, normal finances. They lived within their means. They didn't over-expend themselves. Okay? The minute they leave you and David and Adam and Crystal, okay, it's like someone turns on a white switch and their finances start disappearing.

9:38The detective points out that by looking at bank records, Arthur Sheldon had always received his monthly Social Security by direct deposit until May of 2009, when it was switched to Direct Express, which is a prepaid debit card. And Kim Smith had been using that card. And since then, as soon as the monthly amount of$1 ,400 was deposited, the entire amount would be quickly withdrawn via ATM by Kim Smith. But Kim insisted again. Arthur wanted her to have that money. It was the same with Goldie Robinson. detectives could see that Goldie had a modest, responsible financial record. She saved much more than she spent.

10:20That is, until she met Kim. But at this point, the detectives had spent hours with Kim, and they were no closer to understanding what happened to Goldie or Arthur.

10:43Well, David says, okay, the park managers are coming down today asking questions. The landlord, where's Goldie? And you said, all you need to tell them is that Goldie is away and she won't be back until November. We don't have her cell phone number. We can't get a hold of her. She calls us. And you say the same thing to Adam. I know. So when you sit here and you say, I really don't know what happened to Goldie, that's a lie. Because you do know, because even from here in the Orange County Jail, you're telling everybody what to do and how to act and how to respond to questions that are put together.

11:27How did two dead people that were being exploited show up, one in a garbage pail, one in a shallow grave, not 20 feet from your front door? Okay. How did that happen? Let me explain this to you. I never exploited Orange County Jail. Arthur Shelley gave me free anything that I wanted. Anytime Kim is asked how or when Goldie or Arthur died, she doesn't answer. Sometimes she changes the topic. Other times she's just quiet or starts crying. Sometimes she launches into a story that in the end has nothing to do with the question. And sometimes she flat out says she shouldn't answer without a lawyer present.

12:09And to that, the detectives tell her that she is free to bring in a lawyer or to leave the interview at any time. But she doesn't. Because the biggest question that needed answering, the question that would inform everything else, was how did Arthur and Goldie die? Let's start with Arthur Sheldon. surprisingly both adam smith his wife crystal and david enos all said the same thing when interviewed they knew that arthur was dead they'd known that for a long time they said he died in a motel room in 2009 here's detectives speaking with crystal i think he died in a hotel in our city

12:58Crystal said that she saw Arthur in a hotel room in Orange City, which is about 25 miles from South Daytona, in January of 2009. And she said she did not see him die, but Kim told her he died. And here's the detective's interview with Adam.

13:23Adam said that it all started in early 2008 when his mother met Arthur Sheldon. He said his mom told him she had two jobs at the time.

13:47Just as Kim was not a nurse, she also never worked at the Red Cross. But Adam said he didn't know that at the time. He just saw her get up every day, put on scrubs, and leave the house. And it is true that she was spending a lot of time with Arthur Sheldon. Kim met Arthur through a mutual friend and quickly became his self-appointed caretaker. Arthur was only 65 years old in 2008, but he had a lot of health problems. He was diabetic, and he had a club foot, which made it hard for him to get around. He used a wheelchair, and he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I should clarify, unlike the lie that Kim told about Goldie Robinson having dementia, these health conditions of Arthur's, they were real.

14:38I know this because detectives subpoenaed his medical records. He was sick, and by January of 2009, his condition was worsening. Leading up to this incident in the motel room, Adam said his mother was spending every day with Arthur. Sometimes she didn't get home until like 1 a.m. And there seems to be a bit of a blurred line with Kim and Arthur's relationship. Kim told detectives that their relationship was never sexual, but they were in love. At the same time, she was still in a relationship with David Enos. What did he think of the relationship between Arthur and Andrew? He ain't care. I don't think he cares.

15:19He gets free shit. According to Adam, David didn't mind that Kim was spending all of this time with Arthur because Kim was bringing in money, and David didn't have a job at the time. So whatever money he was getting, their rent, water, food, cigarettes, all their bills, mom was paying. Kim drove Arthur around in a big blue van that had a wheelchair lift. It was Arthur's van. But Adam said, as time went on, Kim started to treat the vehicle like it was hers, using it all the time, even when Arthur wasn't with her. I just remember that all of a sudden one day it was, oh, the van's mine now. Arthur's giving me the van.

16:00Because he had a Jeep and a car and he had like three or four vehicles at one time. Who's saying that? My mother. Then, in January of 2009, Adam got a call from his mother. She said, I need your help in Orange City. At the time, I imagine that Adam had no idea that this trip to Orange City would come back to haunt him.

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17:54In January of 2009, Adam Smith did not have a car and he needed to meet his mother, Kim, in Orange City. so he asked his friend Cody to drive him. Crystal came, too, along with their kids. Kim had booked them a room at the motel right next door to Arthur, and Adam said that he and Cody were tasked with moving Arthur around. Me and Cody walked into the room, and he's kind of like on the bed, but kind of off the bed, and he looks real sad. He's just laying there, and he's kind of talking, but he can't move himself at all. Me and Cody had to help pick him up and put him up onto the bed. According to Adam, Arthur looked really sick that day in the motel room in Orange City.

18:35Crystal said the same thing. He looked sick, like he couldn't move himself. She also estimated that Arthur weighed around 300 pounds at the time. Adam described how he and his friend Cody, using Arthur's wheelchair, would help get him from the bed to the shower and back again. She's spraying him off, washing him down. A couple minutes goes by. We help lift him there, wheel him around, back over to the bed. put clothes on and put them back into bed. She says, all right, it was already getting late. It was already getting to be dark. Or it might have already been dark, I'm not sure. She's like, all right, guys, just go over to the room.

19:09If I need something, I'll call you. I was like, all right. It was clear why Kim asked her son Adam to come help her. Arthur could no longer move himself around, and Kim wasn't strong enough to move him on her own. But Adam said he didn't know why Arthur and Kim were there in the first place. Why had she brought him to a motel in Orange City? There was a hospital next door. But after looking at hospital records, it was clear that Arthur was never checked into that hospital. Detectives decided to go talk with Adam's friend, the one who was also there in the hotel room, Cody Cantu. Cody Cantu and Adam Smith had been friends since high school.

19:52In 2009, Cody signed up to join the military and was scheduled to ship out to boot camp in late April after getting married to his wife, Melinda, who was also in the interview with him. Cody was trying to save money, and he said that in January of 2009, Adam offered to let him move in with him for a few weeks rent-free. I was stressing out about how I was going to pay my rent. And so he said, hey, don't worry about rent. Just come live with me. And so you go in the military. You said Crystal was there too? Yes, sir, she was. Less than a week after Cody moved in, he drove to Orange City with Adam.

20:31According to Cody, Adam said he needed to go help his mom, Kimberly, with a sick elderly man she was taking care of. And Cody said he just offered to come along. And what prompted you to go out to help in Orange City? Well, because he wasn't going to charge me rent at all. He had already established that. He wasn't going to charge me any rent to stay with him. And that's a big deal to me. It was really a commendable thing for him to do. So I decided that I owed Adam to come help him. I owed it to him. Cody also told the detectives that it was his and Adam's job to move Arthur to and from the bathroom using the wheelchair.

21:14He said Arthur looked weak and sick and appeared to not be able to move himself around. And the detective asked Cody, did you ever hear him speak while you were there? And this is what Cody said. Yes, he attempted to. He attempted to speak. Very hard. He seemed very incoherent, sedated. That's even a better word. Yes. According to Cody, Arthur seemed incoherent, possibly even sedated. He went on to say that he did see pills in the motel room and he did see Kim administer pills to Arthur, but he didn't remember what the pills were. The detectives seem to be circling around this theory that maybe Kim was drugging Arthur, but also Arthur had a number of prescription drugs that he was taking, so it's not entirely clear.

22:09Cody said that he was in Orange City for about three days. He and Adam spent most of their time watching TV in their room until Kim would call them over to come help move Arthur. Cody said that it wasn't a pleasant job. Often Arthur smelled bad and he didn't seem to have control of his bowels. And then one day he said Kim came over to their room and told them that it was time to say goodbye. Arthur was dying. She knocked on the door. She came and said, hey, you guys might want to come next door and say goodbye to him because he's staying fast. I think he's about to go now. and we said, that's horrible.

22:50So then we went over there and, you know, gave him a hug and said, you know, a couple nice things. And then Adam, you know, gave him a hug and said a couple nice things to him. He wasn't even responsive, though, when we were speaking to him. He was, I don't even know if he was breathing at all. And at that point in time, the smell had gotten much worse. I mean, was he unconscious? His eyes were open, but I couldn't even tell if he was breathing. If he was breathing, it was very shallow because I don't remember seeing his chest rise or fall. He was unresponsive when I gave him a hug. Cody and Adam left the motel room, and then five minutes later, Kim came outside and told them Arthur was dead.

23:29She said she called an ambulance. It was on the way, and that Adam and Cody should pack up and drive home. Of course, Cody never saw the ambulance. According to Cody, Kim also told him that she had called Arthur's ex-wife to inform her that Arthur had died. But when I spoke with Robin, she said that her mother Alice was never informed that Arthur had died until over a year later when his remains were discovered in a trash can. So the only people present, you, Adam, Crystal, the little boy, Kimberly. Yes, sir. That's it. Yes, sir. So when you leave there, Kimberly's there alone with Arthur? Yes, sir.

24:08And the only person left there alone with him was Kimberly. And, you know, according to her, the ambulance were on their way. To use the word called the ambulance. Yes, the word ambulance. Okay. And I remember because Adam said, well, don't you need to stick around because he was a big man, you know. And she said, no, they're bringing guys. Why they were there at this motel room in Orange City never really becomes clear. Kim told investigators that she chose this motel because it was close to the hospital. But again, there's no record of them ever going to the hospital or calling the hospital.

24:45And when Cody was asked about it, he said they never took Arthur to the hospital and he never saw any hospital personnel visit them at the motel. He also said he thought it was unlikely that Adam or Kim could have taken Arthur to the hospital without his knowledge because they needed his help to move Arthur. So they were in Orange City for about three days. They were told that Arthur had died, and then they drove back to South Daytona, leaving Kim alone at the motel with Arthur's body. And parked outside was the van with the wheelchair ramp. Cody said something else that is interesting. He said that when he was in Orange City, before Arthur died, Arthur gave both Cody and Adam gifts.