On the morning of New Year's Day 2018, Kimberly Chambers looked out the back window of her mobile home, which overlooked a large trash container, and saw a body behind it. At least that's what she thought she saw.
Her 9-year-old son was next to her, also looking out the window.
Chambers, who had lived at the Sharonville mobile home park for about a decade, didn't want to believe what she was seeing: A naked body in the snow, in single-digit temperatures.
"I'm not seeing that," she told herself, according to her testimony Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. "It's not real."
She decided to ask her son what he was seeing.
"He said he saw a body," Chambers testified.
Before going outside, Chambers put on a coat, picked up her cell phone and told her son to lock the door behind her. Don't open it, she recalled telling him, "until I come back and you know it's me."
Chambers was the first witness called by prosecutors in the murder trial of 43-year-old Brian Smothers, which began Thursday with opening statements. Smothers faces charges including murder and abuse of a corpse in the Jan. 1, 2018 killing of his wife, Lea Ann Smothers. In opening statements, Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Clay Tharp said Brian Smothers strangled Lea Ann so violently, he "broke the interior of her neck."
Smothers' attorneys deferred giving an opening statement until they present their case.
Drag marks in snow led to the Smothers' home
Chambers said when she saw Lea Ann Smothers' body, which was face up, she noticed that blood went from under her nose to her chest. There were bruises on her abdomen. Her neck appeared "bluish," she testified.
Chambers called 911. She didn't know Brian or Lea Ann Smothers, and didn't believe they had lived at the mobile home park for long.
Prosecutors say Brian Smothers beat and strangled his wife sometime around 1:45 a.m. on New Year's Day. He then dragged her body through the snow to the area behind the trash container. Police found drag marks in the snow, from where the body was found to Lot No. 15, where the couple's home was.
According to court documents, Sharonville police had been called to the address a few months earlier, in October 2017, for a domestic dispute involving the couple. The night Lea Ann was killed, a neighbor heard "sounds of yelling and fighting" coming from Lot No. 15, the documents say.
Tharp said Facebook records showed there were conversations between Lee Ann and a male friend, which could have caused Brian Smothers to lose his temper. Tharp did not give specifics.
Lea Ann's blood was on Brian's jeans, shirt and jacket sleeve, Tharp told jurors. His face had been scratched, and his DNA was found under Lee Ann's fingernails − indicating she had tried to fight back, Tharp said.
Brian Smothers is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse. Jury selection concluded Wednesday in the case, which is before Judge Melba Marsh. Testimony will continue Friday.
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