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Man charged in death of homeless woman

A 33-year-old registered sex offender killed the woman with a hammer before asking for help finding her, authorities say.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published September 21, 2006

RUSKIN - A 33-year-old registered sex offender has been accused of beating a 46-year-old homeless woman to death with a claw hammer on July 26.

Deputies say Oscar Wesley Smith, 3006 14th Ave. SE Lot 22 in Ruskin, waved down a motorist, pretending to ask for help finding Victoria Lynn Poelvoorde-Smith, when he had actually just killed her.

The two are not related.

According to Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter, Smith owned the broken claw hammer that was found near Poelvoorde-Smith's head after she was found dead in a fetal position on the side of a road.

Witnesses told deputies Poelvoorde-Smith was walking between 33rd and 36th streets in Ruskin between 10 and 11:30 p.m. July 26.

A passer-by told deputies that about 11 p.m. Smith had been standing in front of a dark pickup pulled partially off the side of the road.

As another vehicle approached, Smith waved it down and asked the person to call 911 to help him look for Poelvoorde-Smith.

When her body was found, deputies said Poelvoorde-Smith was lying in a fetal position fully clothed just west of 33rd Street, with her back to the road.

Her head had five to seven wounds, and there was a claw hammer with a missing claw near her head, with what later proved to be her hair and blood on it.

Smith told detectives he owned a similar hammer but had thrown it away two months earlier. But deputies said one of Smith's co-workers told them she recalled retrieving the broken hammer from Smith's truck and bringing it to him the day before the murder.

Poelvoorde-Smith died of skull fractures and brain lacerations due to blunt impact to the head, Carter said.

Smith, who listed his occupation as self-employed home builder, has been jailed on other charges since July 27. A first-degree murder charge was added Wednesday. He is being held without bail.

He was convicted in 2003 of sexually battering a child younger than 12, for which he was sentenced to two years and seven months of community supervision.

There is no indication Poelvoorde-Smith was sexually battered before her death, Carter said.

[Last modified September 21, 2006, 01:33:55]