A San Jose man was charged with the brutal and gruesome murder of an elderly man last week, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.
On September 6, San Jose Police responded to a call from a woman worried about her 72-year-old father. Officers entered his apartment on East Santa Clara St. and found his deceased body in a bathtub with multiple stab wounds and a rope tied around his torso.
Authorities determined he had clearly been the victim of an "extremely violent and bloody crime," according to the DA’s office. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner observed three stab wounds and concluded that those alone were not fatal.
Investigators believe that the suspect, 25-year-old Sherman Smith, tied the victim to a chair, and repeatedly stabbed him before drowning him in the bathtub.
Witnesses and surveillance video showed Smith entering the victim’s apartment and staying there for thirty hours, during which he threw away items after the crime. He left the apartment "laden with shopping bags."
"This horrific crime and the defendant who did it has no place in our society," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. "Our hearts go out to the victim’s family and friends."
Smith was arraigned on Wednesday and remanded without bail.
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