State Rests in Smith Trial; Defense Opens

The prosecution rested Thursday in the double murder trial of Susan Smith, and the defense case began with a state investigator who testified that the woman charged with drowning her two young sons was racked with guilt.

Smith felt abused, troubled about her love affairs and “obviously distraught” and sorrowful about drowning her sons, investigator Pete Logan said.

Asked if Smith showed remorse during her Nov. 3 confession, Logan said: “Probably the greatest I’ve seen in 35 years.” He described Smith’s heaving sobs after she told of letting her car roll into John D. Long Lake with her sons strapped inside.

“She said she wanted to commit suicide and that she wanted to go down in the car herself,” the defense witness said. “She told me she couldn’t understand why she didn’t.”

Smith could be executed if convicted of murdering the boys, 3-year-old Michael Smith and 14-month-old Alex.

When the defense called Logan, he said he tried to win Smith’s confidence by showing compassion, and she gradually revealed many problems and concerns, including her belief, later determined to be unfounded, that her then-husband had tapped her phone.

Logan recited many of the troubles Smith told him about: her father’s suicide when she was 6, her parents’ separation when she was 3 and the molestation by her stepfather when she was a teen-ager.

“There were problems, and she felt abused,” Logan testified.