Dad’s Daughter Watches as He Kills Girlfriend: Cops

This Florida man portrayed himself as the all-American girl dad but police say he is responsible for a nightmare. Christopher Smith allegedly killed his girlfriend. Police say he shot her and then ran her over as he sped off with his five-year-old daughter in his car. And just wait until I tell you who this alleged monster called as he was trying to outrun police. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. Was right there to witness what he allegedly did in the parking lot of a bar in Safety Harbor, Florida. All of this is just so hard to comprehend. And now Christopher Dodge Smith is facing a real possibility that he is never going to see a person outside of a prison cell ever again. Here's Smith being taken into custody around 9 30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13th. This was less than a half hour after police say he shot his girlfriend in the face. And you can hear in the body cam video the sound of a crying child. That girl, just five years old, allegedly witnessed something no child should ever see. I have a really hard time watching this body cam video. And, you know, this five-year-old girl and you think of like what she went through just in that moment. There are so many details to talk about that just make this case so much worse that we will get into. But I also want to make sure that the focus is not just on Christopher Dodge Smith and what he's accused of doing, but the focus also needs to be on the name Jessica Antolini. That was Smith's girlfriend, the woman who he allegedly killed. Now, Jessica's family says that she was a beloved child, a cherished sister. She was a treasured friend to so many people. She's someone who loved animals. And the community of Safety Harbor is in mourning right now because she lost her life. Now, this is what police say happened on October 13th, starting around nine o'clock that night. Police say that Jessica was at a bar in her town of Safety Harbor, Florida, real close-knit community on the water north of St. Pete on Florida's Gulf Coast. And according to court documents, just before nine o'clock, Christopher Dodge Smith busts into this bar. Looking for his girlfriend, Jessica. According to the police records that we have, witnesses say that he looked, quote, possessed. Deputies say that the defendant, quote, appeared as if he was hunting down Antolini and was acting very aggressively. Now, to make matters even worse, deputies write that Smith's five-year-old daughter was by his side as he entered the bar, looking possessed, allegedly hunting down his girlfriend. Dodge Smith found Jessica. The two of them, according to police, then got into an argument in the bar's parking lot. And Smith's daughter reportedly watches all of this as it happens. Police say Smith then walked over to his car. Jessica allegedly followed him. And police say Smith then pulled out a gun and allegedly shot Jessica in the face. Smith then put his daughter in his car, and he allegedly backed up over Jessica's body before speeding off. It was around 9.20 that night that Pinellas County deputies tracked Christopher Dodge Smith down. That's the dash cam video that the sheriff's office posted on social media. And court documents state, that Smith's daughter told law enforcement multiple times, quote, Daddy shot Jess. Deputies also say that after he fled, Smith called his mom. He allegedly told his mom that he was bringing his daughter to her and that he, quote, messed up and that he, quote, shot Jess. Now, when police were able to take Christopher Dodge Smith into custody, his five-year-old daughter and her dog, who was also in the car, they were taken by police, brought to family members. Physically, that girl is okay. Considering everything that she witnessed, you just think of the lifetime of trauma that a story like this can have. As for Jessica, she was rushed to the hospital. On Friday, her mom wrote on Facebook that her daughter had passed away on Thursday night. Quote, our family is beyond heartbroken, she said. Now, initially, Christopher Dodge Smith was charged with first-degree attempted murder. That was when Jessica was fighting for her life in the hospital. But in the wake of her death, the charges were upgraded to first-degree murder. He had no contact with the child in this case due to his actions. Unfortunately, he made his child a witness to an attempted murder that is likely going to be a murder as detailed in the affidavit. So you and I will probably see each other again in the next couple of days, unfortunately. That is Smith's first court appearance per 10 Tampa Bay News. This is when he was facing the attempted murder charges. Now, we also looked Smith up on social media. And not only did he, make his daughter witness a murder. In April, Smith posted that his daughter had been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer. Here's a picture that he posted talking about his daughter and her treatment in May. Now, as for Jessica, one of her friends posted on Facebook as the news of her death spread, quote, society must stop letting abusers off the hook. The reality that anyone could feel entitled to take another human being's life is horrifying. Jess's story is more than a headline to circulate on social media. It's a story that's been going on for a long time. It is a clear call to action showing how urgently our systems need to change. True justice requires holding all abusers accountable for their actions, both men and women. Now, before we talk a little bit more about this investigation and what could happen next, I want to put this up on the screen. If you or someone you know needs help regarding an issue of domestic violence, if they're in a bad situation, help is available. You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also text BEGIN, B-E-G-I-N, to 88788. Those numbers are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Joining me now to talk more about this is Lisa Miller, retired detective, former chief investigator. And I mean, this case is awful on so many levels. And like what's, you know, even, you know, to an extent, I probably shouldn't be shocked because I see it a lot, is when you look at Christopher Dodge Smith's, at least in Pinellas County, from what I can see, it's a lot of people. And it's a lot of people. There's not really a ton of criminal history. Like there's, you know, a couple red light camera violations. He had one of those in 2019. There was a case for criminal mischief back in like 2011. And like, that's really it. And it's just to go from, you know, that to then being in a situation of what he's accused of now, of not just shooting his girlfriend, but running her over. And not just that, doing it with a five-year-old girl by his side. It just seems like, it just, again, I shouldn't be surprised because we see it often, but just what's your reaction knowing that this was a guy who like didn't have a ton, at least from what we can see, like a major history with the law? You know, sadly, I have to say over my 30-year career, some of the worst cases I've seen have come from individuals with really no acts of violence in their backgrounds. So I can't say I'm surprised. And, you know, humans are unpredictable. We can't, that's why, that's why we as detectives have to dig deeper and take a look at so much, but predicting behavior, boy, that's hit or miss, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It is. And I mean, it's all the time, right? Like it's all the time that we see, you know, cases where it's like somebody who doesn't have a criminal history. We don't know with this relationship, whether it was one that had any sort of accusation of domestic violence in the past, just wasn't something that was, that was prosecuted. We'll see if that comes out. But like, clearly something was going on that night in the mind, allegedly of Christopher Dodge Smith, where he shows up possessed at this bar, looking for Jessica, his girlfriend, and like the fact he would do it with his daughter, like for investigators on this case, like where does, is it seems from at least the narrative we have from law enforcement seems pretty solid about like what happened here. But at the same time, like where, where do you start looking today, knowing that he is now facing a murder charge? Well, Chris, we really don't want to say any cases solid because we have to prepare a case. Like it's going to go in front of a jury and juries can be unpredictable, right? We just don't know what might come up. Now we are dealing with an individual here who seemingly just did not care about consequences at that point. His lethality risk was through the roof. He brought that gun or had that gun with him. He, he went into a public location. He had a child and he did these horrible acts in front of witnesses. What I'm going to be doing if I'm the detective is I want to start piecing together this relationship. I want to take a look. What led him to go to that bar and confront her that night? My understanding from some reporting, they had been actually together at another location earlier. And if that reporting is accurate, I'm going to go back to that location and see if there's witnesses there that saw any kind of problems between the two. If they were arguing, if things appeared tense, I'm going to be going to surveillance cameras all over the place. That first location they may have been at, the second location where they were, anything that's out on the street that may have got this act itself. We are assuming that he ran her over intentionally. The defense is probably going to raise he, that was an accident. He did that while he's fleeing. I want to take a look at what the pathologist is telling me about those injuries from that car strike. And hopefully surveillance could help us out. If we can see if that was an intentional act also, which, you know, just goes. And I'm going to be building things towards premeditation. In Florida, premeditation says you have to take the time and you want time for a reflection. Case law in Florida, from my understanding, doesn't set a time limit. It can be a moment for that reflection. But I'm digging into everything. I'm going to friends, seeing what they knew, when they knew it, what she may have disclosed about the relationship. All the things, Chris. Yeah, and it's, there's just a lot there and, you know, to, to watch and I watch a lot of body cam video, but like, I don't know if like emotionally it's hard to like compare, I mean, so much of it's terrible, but it's like just that little girl with her dog, you know, in the car, you know, when, when law enforcement is, you know, has her dad in custody and then they're taking her in, like, it's just, whether you're a parent or not, it's just like terrible to watch. And then now, you know, sadly, this girl who's only five years old, you know, is a woman. You know, is a witness to an extent, but also like, she's very young. Like, how, how do you handle that as law enforcement? And certainly for a prosecutor, that'd be a question of like, even if this gets to like a trial setting of like, does this girl have to go on the stand? You know, you know, how does that get handled? But like when you are dealing with someone who is so young, how, how do you go about speaking to that individual and figuring out what they saw and what happened? Well, if I was the lead detective on this case. I'd be pleased that I had this spontaneous utterance that she made when she got out of that vehicle, right, about daddy shooting her. So we have that, but here's what we would need to do. This child has been traumatized. We're talking about a trauma that many adults can't write, wrap their adult minds around, and we're asking a five-year-old to try to process that. If I'm the detective, I'm also a trained child forensic interviewer. I'm taking that child to a child advocacy center, arranging with the best child forensic interviewer I know on staff to do an age-appropriate, developmentally suitable interview of this child. Everything you're doing with this child should be trauma-informed because, you know, as horrible as what he did to our victim here, we have two. We have two victims because this child's been traumatized and we just don't know exactly how this will affect her going on. So all the trauma-informed care, but a trauma-informed interview is an absolute must, but I'm going to be building the case. I'm going to be building the case in such a manner that I may not need the child to testify. We're going to have all of these witnesses. I'm going to be digging into all the things that I told you about earlier. And maybe I can build a case where we don't have to have the child get on a stand and testify. Because a five-year-old on the stand, it's tough for an adult to testify in front of a jury. It will be really hard for a little one to do the same. Yeah, and, you know, I also just think of, like, witnesses in this case. And he allegedly calls his mom after all of this happens because he was telling her that he was going to bring their daughter to her. But also, I realized, because in the affidavit, there are quotes from the mom of what Christopher Dodge Smith allegedly said to, you know, on the phone, which, you know, makes you believe that they had a conversation with the mom. And she was pretty upfront with, like, what that phone call was about. And on that call, he allegedly said that he messed up. And then he also admitted to shooting his girlfriend, Jess. How does that factor into the case you're building? Because it seems like, you know, there is, you know, a very solid witness who would be able to go up on the stand and be able to say, like, yes, my son called me and he told me what he did. Ray, I got to commend her for saying the hard things. Can you imagine having to say that about a child? And she knows what she's putting him in right now. She's putting him in a really bad place. Well, actually, he put himself in that really bad place. But it would be really hard for her to testify. But she's got to be a great witness. He said things that the state can and will use against him. And should be used against him, frankly. And with this going from attempted murder to now a murder case, unfortunately, because, you know, Jess passes away, how does that, from, like, the investigative standpoint, what type of impact does that have on the detectives on it? It does seem, at least from, like, what I saw in court, that, unfortunately, this seemed like it was headed in the direction of being a murder case, and it was kind of only a matter of time. But as far as, you know, from a detective standpoint, how does that impact anything going on on the ground? You know, the case should be put together solid, whether or not it's an attempted murder or a first-degree murder. But when you're looking at a first-degree murder, and especially in a state like Florida, you're going to want to take a look and be very conscientious about any mitigators. The defense is going to raise these mitigators if this case, you know, being a first-degree or if they seek death in a case like this, in a death case. You want to look at those, report those to your prosecutor, be aware, so they're going to know in advance of what the defense may raise. Just like in any case, a good detective is going to be looking at what is the defense going to raise here? What are there possible avenues to secure either a lesser sentence or a not guilty verdict for their client? So you want to be aware of everything. That's why you dig in tight and do all the things early on. I haven't seen anything about the death penalty. As of yet, but it's like you just look at some of the factors in this case and, you know, you have potentially the premeditation of him showing up at the bar because of something we don't know why his daughter is with him. You have the gunshot, but then you also have allegedly running her over with the vehicle. It seems like there's a lot there. As far as death penalty cases that you've seen, and I know you're out of Colorado, a very different situation than Florida, but like, what about this case? Would factor into what a prosecutor is thinking about when determining whether or not to go for a death penalty and something like this. Prosecutors I know are taking a look at the fact that he didn't care about consequences anymore. He did that shooting in front of witnesses in front of the child. And if detectives can prove that he intentionally ran her over with that automobile after he had already shot her in the face. I mean, the cold hardness cruelty of that. And then what he's what has he done to this child? I mean, this is this has a potential if they can prove the allegations in this affidavit and more. There's a cold bloodedness to this case that he deserves. He deserves. One of the harshest punishments that he can get. I'm not advocating death here, but I am advocating a strong sentence if he's found guilty. A hundred percent. How do you prove and you know, this might bring some people back to Karen Reid. Very different. You know, this might bring some people back to Karen Reid. Very different. know type of case of course but um you know you do have i could see a defense attorney to your point saying you know he was you know moment you know he had you know adrenaline running through him you know all of this all of that and you know he puts the car in reverse deputy say and then runs over jess and then speeds off how do you prove like what is the process of figuring out whether that was intentional or that was a situation where he was just not that it makes it any better but you know that he was you know running on adrenaline and he did that by accident that's gonna be hard and that's where surveillance might help that's where some of the injuries might help you know did how hard was he backing away uh how hard did he take off but what were the things that he was saying before had he threatened her harm before had he told her if you do this i'll do that a lot of those things are gonna weigh into that decision about whether or not they can prove you that him running her over was an intentional act and not an act of him just fleeing the scene of the crime like what we can anticipate the defense will say well because i also when you look at the narrative of that night like it is about also him showing up at the bar and like i think police are very purposeful deputies and writing like he looked possessed people said like and and they say that it looked like he was trying to hunt her down that like like why would you because you know there might be enough evidence there to prove like what happened right like it proved that he had the gun that he fired it that the daughter was there that he ran her over and then he's arrested which in and of it that is murder that's it and like you don't need a motive as we've talked about a lot like you don't need a motive to get the conviction but like how important is, is that buildup part of it in trying to show that this was premeditated, that like, this wasn't a heat of passion thing. This was like him showing up, something made him mad to the point that he would bring his daughter with him into the bar. And then it goes to this level. Right. Well, that possessed comment can be a double-edged sword here, right? We, we can lock in from the investigative side, the prosecution side and say, well, he's possessed. He was hunting her down. She was his prey. So those are the arguments that a good prosecutor will make in trial, but a defense can come up and say, mental health's at play here. He was possessed. He wasn't in his right mind. And we always have to, um, weigh how a jury will look at this. You know, there's some argument you said you're never in your right mind when you can hurt, kill people that you love and care about. Right. Um, that, that can always come up, but we know that it happens all the time. That's one of the things the detectives really need to be looking at too. What was, what substances, uh, were consumed that night, whether it was an alcohol, whatever, has there been any mental health issues? Talk to his friends, talk to his family, ask those questions. But you know, is coercive control part of their relationship? Was he jealous of her? Was he jealous and angry that she went to another place without him and she was, um, by no wrongdoing, her going out, was that something that triggered him? So we want to know, like I said, everything about this relationship. What was, if any, any domestic violence history in this relationship? And you know, domestic violence isn't just bruises. It's this control that we talk about when we talk about coercive control. It's that jealousy. It's the threats. It's the emotional abuse. So we're not talking about, did she show bruises to someone? We're talking about what she might've said about how him and her worked together in their relationship. Well, and I think it also kind of just circling back to his criminal record or like that thereof, lack thereof, when it comes to like violent crimes, like, I mean, how many domestic cases, you know, have we heard after the fact, unfortunately, that there was abuse, but it's something that police were, they either never knew about it or they didn't have enough evidence to go with it. I don't know if that's going to be the case here. But, you know, unfortunately we see a lot of stories to an extent like this. But this one is certainly in kind of its own class, I think, with just a couple of the other details, especially the child, you know, being involved is terrible. Right. It's just another level of cruel to do something this horrible in front of a five-year-old child and put her through that. And the fear, you know, you see her coming out, clinging to her dog. Can you imagine the fear that she had after, witnessing that and then being in that vehicle as he's trying to elude police? Yeah. You know, you can forgive someone for losing a temper a little bit, but to cause that level of intentional harm to a child, it's hard for me to forgive. I'll be honest. Yeah. No, it's a tough story. Like, I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, every story that we cover here is tough. It's just the nature of covering crime. But this one just really, I think, it just makes you really emotional when you look at all the details, especially the body cam video. We'll see what happens in court next. Christopher Dodge-Smith, now facing a charge of first degree murder. Lisa Miller, always great to have you here on Law & Crime. Thanks for being with us. Thank you, Chris. That will do it for On the Case presented by Law & Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.