Jurors Hear About Fatal Stabbing

After a night of heavy drinking, Charles Michael Smith stabbed his girlfriend with an 11-inch knife and left her in a pool of blood in the bathroom, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon used his opening statements to describe Smith as an abusive man with a history of domestic violence who killed Pamela Scott-Ostrem on the evening of Dec. 20, stabbed himself and then asked paramedics to let him die.

William Rutan, a deputy public defender, acknowledged that Smith stabbed his girlfriend in their Camarillo apartment but said Scott-Ostrem provoked Smith by taunting him about her sexual infidelity on the night of the killing.

“She caused him to fly into a jealous rage and the killing occurred,” Rutan said.

Rutan told jurors that Smith, 43, was not trying to escape responsibility, and that he should be charged with voluntary manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to 11 years.

After showing diagrams of the apartment where the killing occurred and an enlargement of a confession note Smith wrote while in jail, Simon said he would ask the jury to find Smith guilty of murder. If guilty, Smith could receive a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Both attorneys called the couple’s relationship dysfunctional and violent. “It was like they had a direct line to 911,” Simon said. Law enforcement officials frequently responded to calls from their home in the 700 block of Mobil Avenue, as well as their previous Camarillo residence.

“Neighbors would see her with a black eye . . . but don’t get me wrong, she would hit him back,” Simon said.

On the night of the stabbing, the couple had been drinking with a couple who lived next door, according to both attorneys. They stumbled back to their apartment about 10 p.m. and then started arguing about a condom, Rutan said.

He said Scott-Ostrem threw a prophylactic at Smith, taunting him by saying she had sex with another man several times while Smith was in jail.

Smith then ran to the kitchen, got a large kitchen knife and fatally stabbed her after a struggle, Simon said.

Ventura County Medical Examiner Ronald O’Halloran testified at a February preliminary hearing that she suffered a 10-inch stab wound to her right lung and right breast, cuts to the thigh and “defense-type wounds” to her arm and hand.

Smith then stabbed himself in the abdomen and called 911, saying to the dispatcher, “I’m dead. I love you. I love you,” over and over.

Police arriving at the apartment found Smith lying on his back in the kitchen, a cordless telephone at his ear.

Smith was conscious and asked paramedics to let him die, but he never asked about Scott-Ostrem, Simon said.

Scott-Ostrem, 40, had been a respiratory therapist until a 1992 car accident caused brain damage and she stopped working.

Smith served as a payee for a couple of Social Security recipients, including Scott-Ostrem, according to Rutan.

Thursday’s opening statements took less than an hour. Smith sat with his attorney, at one time heaving his shoulders in inaudible sobs. Scott-Ostrem’s mother, Helena Scott, watched the proceedings, crying throughout most of it.

The trial will continue today at 1:30 p.m.