Testimony is slated to get underway today in the trial of a Menifee man accused of fatally beating his 58-year-old girlfriend, a world-renowned footwear collector found dead in her backyard swimming pool.
Justin Charles Smith, 32, could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted of the 2013 killing of Darlene Flynn, whose vast collection of shoes and related products landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006.
Smith is charged with murder and a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon — a baseball bat — during the commission of a felony.
Riverside County Superior Court Michael Donner seated a jury on Wednesday at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The trial is expected to last more than a week.
Smith is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.
Deputies went to Flynn’s residence in the 28800 block of Stone Lane around 2 p.m. on July 22, 2013, after receiving calls about a domestic disturbance involving a man and woman screaming at each other.
Deputies knocked on the front door of the house repeatedly but received no response, said sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Torrenti.
“While attempting to make entry, deputies noticed a shirtless male running from the rear of the residence,” Torrenti said. “A perimeter was established, and the male was located (hours later) near the intersection of Briggs Road and Highway 74.”
Smith was arrested without incident.
Back at the house, deputies pulled Flynn’s body out of her pool. According to sheriff’s homicide Investigator Robert Stites, the victim had been struck at least five times with a baseball bat.
Flynn, dubbed “The Shoe Lady” and the “Queen of Sole,” had amassed more than 16,000 shoes and shoe-related products. The possessions, including heels, sneakers, boots, stockings — even pillows shaped as shoes — had an estimated value in excess of $500,000, according to published reports.
Smith was living with Flynn at the time of the fatal assault. The two had been profiled together months earlier in a television show about her collection.
The defendant has a prior misdemeanor conviction for grand theft from September 2012, which the District Attorney’s Office said was the result of the defendant selling Flynn’s car without her permission.
Smith was sentenced to three years probation in that case.
The post MENIFEE: ‘Shoe Lady’ murder trial set to begin today appeared first on Valley News.