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Kids are taken after slaying

Investigators are appalled by crime scene's squalor.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE and S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published June 1, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Kathleen Flynn] Amy Peak and her husband Jason, both 28, talk to a reporter a day after Amy lost her brother-in-law to a stabbing. Now she may lose her kids. Deputies found the killer hiding in a Moose Lodge. But they also found Peak's messy house and called DCF. DCF took Amy's kids Thursday night.

GIBSONTON - The four children were watching cartoons when the man came into their home, a filet knife in his pocket.

"I'll be honest with you," he told the children's mom. "I'm here to kill Jimmy."

By the night's end, the man with the knife was in jail, the children's uncle dead, the children in state custody.

Michael E. Smith, 29, of Apollo Beach admitted killing Jimmy Peak on Monday evening at the Pinewood Mobile Home Park, according to the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.

Smith told deputies he believed that Peak, 32, of Gibsonton was messing around with Smith's ex-girlfriend.

He grabbed a fishing knife and two of his own children and headed for the mobile home Peak shared with his brother, Jason Peak, 28; his brother's wife, Amy Peak, 28; and the couple's four children, ages 3 to 8.

Smith arrived in the late afternoon, when Amy Peak was at home alone with the kids. Jason Peak and his brother were out doing construction work.

At first, Smith seemed normal, chatting away, Amy Peak recalled. He asked for something to drink, and she went into the kitchen to make tea.

He followed.

He pulled out a knife with a brown handle and a blade that looked suited for gutting fish.

He grabbed another knife from the sink and stuck both into her counter, as if to see which was sharper, she said.

Smith told her he was waiting for the brothers to get home.

"If you try to warn them, I'll kill you and the kids," she recalled him saying.

So she waited. She tried to keep the kids busy, distracted.

When Jimmy Peak walked in the door of 11311 Cujoe Lane, Amy Peak screamed.

"Run, Jimmy, run!" she said.

Smith stabbed Peak in front of the six children, said Amy Peak. She's not sure if they all realized what was happening.

Timothy, 8, saw Peak stagger toward him and then drop to the ground, the front of his shirt dark with blood.

Smith chased Peak through the mobile home park and stabbed him several more times, Amy Peak said.

He died in front of the mobile home where his children lived, his body lying next to their BBQ grill. The home was empty because his ex was out celebrating his daughter's birthday.

Smith ran out of the mobile home park. Deputies found him hiding at a Moose Lodge.

He was taken to the Hillsborough County jail, where he is being held without bail on charges of first-degree murder and false imprisonment, jail records show.

Back at the mobile home park, deputies' inquiries turned to the Peaks and their children.

Investigators worried the conditions inside weren't good enough. Just before midnight, the Peak's four kids were taken by child custody workers, the Peaks said.

All four children were placed in foster care Thursday. The couple attended a hearing that day.

Authorities showed Circuit Judge Tracy Sheehan photos of the Peak household. The refrigerator had no food and only beer inside. The beds didn't have sheets. The sink was dirty.

Authorities found drug paraphernalia inside and said the parents had admitted using drugs within the past week.

Investigators said criminal neglect charges against the parents were likely.

The judge scolded the parents for using their money to buy drugs instead of food for their children, who had begged from neighbors for something to eat.

That afternoon, Amy Peak and her husband stood in front of a relative's mobile home. Amy Peak was crying as she looked at photos of her kids. Her husband's hand shook with emotion as he spoke.

Jason Peak said he had used marijuana but not in the home or in front of the kids. Amy Peak said her only drug use was painkillers.

They're struggling financially, and the electricity was turned off not long ago. But Amy Peak said there was food in the house, that she was cooking dinner when Smith arrived.

Both said their children never lacked love, and both feared what effect this would have on their kids.

"Just from what they witnessed yesterday," Amy Peak said. "And now they're away from their mom and dad."

Jason Peak knows the terrible effects of violence. Neither he nor his wife has a criminal record, according to state records, but he said he has had more than his share of brushes with death.

Two of Peak's other siblings also died violently. In 1994, 17-year-old Joseph Peak was stabbed to death at Whiskey Stump, a beach surrounded by thick woods south of Gibsonton. And in 2002, 19-year-old Crystal Stith was shot and killed by a man armed with an assault rifle when she was mistaken for a robber.

The Peaks say they want a fresh start, maybe a small piece of land where they can raise the kids in peace.

"Maybe the whole family needs to get out of Florida," Amy Peak said.

News researcher John Martin and staff writer Colleen Jenkins contributed to this report. Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 1, 2007, 00:28:03]