After stabbing her step-cousin to death, Olivia Smith wasn’t shy about what she’d done, according to testimony Thursday in a Cobb County courtroom.
Smith, 18, went to a neighbor's house after she stabbed Abbey Hebert with a kitchen knife on Nov. 14, according to investigators. Smith allegedly told the neighbor that Hebert, 17, made her smoke something and then she stabbed her because God told her to, a detective testified Thursday.
Smith’s attorney believes her bizarre violent behavior will be traced back to whatever the pair had smoked, Channel 2 Action News reported. But police have said no traces of drugs were found at the Hebert home, where Abbey was killed in the front yard. Toxicology tests are pending to determined what may have contributed to the slaying.
Smith and Hebert were cousins by marriage and good friends, making a possible motive in the case even harder to understand. Smith also can’t explain her actions, her attorney, Jimmy Berry, told the court.
“She’s just had a very difficult time,” Berry said. “I mean she loved her and trying to come to grips with something like that, especially for such a young person, it’s just been an awful thing for her to have to deal with.”
Hebert was a junior at Allatoona High School, where she played softball. A vigil was held for at the school’s football field after her death.
Smith, of Canton, was charged with murder and remained Thursday night in the Cobb County jail, where she was being held without bond. The case has been bound over to Superior Court, but a trial date has not yet been set.
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