“THE GUN WENT OFF BY ACCIDENT”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, PROSECUTORS SAY JUSTIN SMITH SHOT HIS PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND 11 TIMES IN THE HEAD IN PHILADELPHIA BEFORE FLEEING TO ATLANTA… AND HE HAS NOW BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE.
Justin Smith will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The 28-year-old Pennsylvania man was sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
On Friday, August 28, Smith was convicted of first- and third-degree murder.
The convictions were for the deaths of his girlfriend, 21-year-old Dianna Brice, and their unborn child, Krasner said.
Krasner noted that Brice was “someone he claimed to love.”
Prosecutors said Smith shot Brice 11 times in the head in 2021, killing both her and their unborn baby.
Krasner announced the conviction and the sentence during a news conference on Monday, August 31.
On March 30, 2021, Brice had been reported missing from Upper Darby Township.
She was three months pregnant at the time she vanished.
Six days later, her body was found, Krasner said at the press conference.
Brice’s body was ultimately discovered in the woods near Eastwick Avenue in Philadelphia, according to CBS News.
Smith went on the run after he allegedly killed Brice in Philadelphia and disposed of her body, CBS News reported.
In March 2025, Smith was apprehended in Atlanta.
Brice was already a mother to a son named AJ, according to her obituary.
She had been pregnant with her second child.
Her obituary described her son AJ as “her greatest gift of all.”
AJ had accurately guessed that his mother was carrying a baby boy.
Prior to her death, Brice had planned to hold a gender reveal party for the unborn child.
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“She couldn’t wait to find out the gender,” her obituary read.
“She ordered a kit [through] the mail. The gender reveal was scheduled for April 29th. AJ was right, he was having a little brother.”
At Monday’s news conference, Brice’s mother, Betty Cellini, spoke out about the loss of her daughter and grandchild.
“I will never, ever forgive this man for what he did to my daughter, my unborn grandson and her son [who] is now 9 years old,” Cellini said, referring to Smith.
During Smith’s jury trial, the defendant testified that Brice’s death was accidental, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Smith claimed that an argument took place with Brice while they were in his car.
He testified that he tried to “pull” a gun away from her during the dispute, per the newspaper.
Smith claimed that the weapon then “went off.”
But Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Lauren Crump refuted the defendant’s claims at trial.
Crump detailed how Smith had allegedly burned his car following the shooting.
The prosecutor also described how Smith discarded Brice’s remains in trash bags and then went on the run, according to the report.
“That is not panic,” Crump said.
“That is premeditation.”
Tylydia Garnett, a woman who allegedly helped Smith following Brice’s murder, testified during the trial, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Garnett testified that Smith had confessed to shooting Brice.
And Garnett was previously sentenced to 11 and a half to 23 months in prison in connection with Brice’s death, according to the newspaper.
Her sentence followed a guilty plea to charges including arson and abuse of a corpse.
Smith now begins a life sentence.
He will serve it without the possibility of parole.
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