Man Convicted for Stabbing Death of UCLA Grad Student at Furniture Store

LOS ANGELES—After just over an hour of deliberations, a downtown Los Angeles jury Tuesday convicted a transient of first-degree murder for stabbing a female UCLA graduate student 46 times in an audio-recorded attack at a Hancock Park boutique furniture store. Shawn Laval Smith, now 34, was found guilty of the Jan. 13, 2022, attack on Brianna Kupfer, who was working alone inside the Croft House in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue, near Beverly Boulevard. Jurors also found true a special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait, along with an allegation that the defendant used a knife during the commission of the crime....