Posted on 02/14/2002 4:19:33 AM PST by GailA
Flaming death no accident, FBI says
Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner
By Bill Dries dries@gomemphis.com
The fiery death of a driver's license examiner at the center of a federal fraud investigation was not an accident, an FBI agent said here Wednesday in federal court.
Federal and state investigators found gasoline on the clothes Katherine Smith was wearing when she died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of U.S. 72 in Fayette County, FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash told U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen.
Nash also testified that investigators found evidence of some kind of accelerant in the burned-out interior of Smith's car.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more. She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death." - Karen Cicala
Her testimony came during a probable cause and bond hearing for three of Smith's five co-defendants in an alleged scheme to get Tennessee driver's licenses using false information for men with Middle Eastern ties who lived in New York City.
Breen found there was probable cause to charge Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. He also denied them bond.
Fares, Hammad and Abou-Shahin, wearing tan prison scrubs and blue windbreakers, listened to the proceedings through cell phones with an Arabic interpreter on the other end of the line in another city. The courtroom's sound system was piped through the phone line for the interpreter to hear.
After hearing the translation of Breen denying him bond, Fares, 19, set his cell phone on the table and put his head in his hands.
Smith and her co-defendants, including alleged ring leader Khaled Odtllah and Hammad's cousin, Sakhera Hammad, were charged Feb. 6 with conspiracy to fraud ulent ly obtain Tennessee driver's licenses.
While her five co-defendants have been imprisoned without bond since their Feb. 5 arrest, Smith was released on her own recognizance. She died one day before she was due to appear at a detention hearing before a federal magistrate judge.
"Was this death a result of an accident?" federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza asked Nash, who was the only witness to testify during Wednesday's two-hour hearing.
"No, it was not," Nash replied.
According to Nash, this is what FBI agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators have concluded about the car crash:
Six unnamed witnesses - all related to each other - saw Smith's 1992 Acura Legend veer off U.S. 72 around 12:45 a.m. Sunday. They said the interior of the car was on fire as the car drove across a ditch and hit a utility pole.
The fire was arson, Nash said.
"Every single thing inside the car is burnt," she said before noting that the trunk and gas tank were untouched by a blaze so intense that Smith's arms and legs were "burned off."
There was only "slight damage" to the front end of the car from hitting the utility pole, she added.
Nash said gasoline was found on Smith's clothing. She said investigators are still waiting on test results of traces of an unknown accelerant found in the car. A dog trained to sniff out such chemicals detected the accelerant.
Smith died from "inhaling the actual flames," Nash testified.
"Her airway system is actually singed."
Attorneys for the three defendants were quick to point out that their clients were all in prison at the time of Smith's death.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more," said Karen Cicala, who represents Fares. "She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death."
She also questioned whether Fares is being treated differently because of ties to the Middle-East.
Attorney Jake Erwin, representing Hammad, urged Breen to consider only the fraud conspiracy charge.
"You're not saying that Mr. Hammad had anything to do with Katherine Smith's death, are you?" Erwin asked Nash.
"No, not at this time," she replied.
"You're not saying he had anything to do with the World Trade Center attack, are you," he asked again.
"No, not at this time," she repeated.
DiScenza has said there are "connections" linking two of the accused to the World Trade Center in the days before it was destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those connections include a visitor's pass to the WTC dated Sept. 5 that belonged to Sakhera Hammad.
DiScenza focused on Smith's death as a factor that Breen should consider in denying bond.
"This court has to consider that Katherine Smith died under very suspicious circumstances, in a manner that was clearly not an accident," DiScenza told Breen. "Coincidence only goes so far."
- Bill Dries: 529-2643
Gasoline on her cloths but “some kind of accelerant” inside the car...
Might that accelerant have been gasoline, by chance?
Tennessee, where there’s more than just yeast that’s in bread.
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