Couple from California has pleaded guilty in the stabbing death of a woman who invited them in her home

According to the court documents, both suspects face 30 year sentences for stabbing the 55-year-old woman to death in her home. Police say they stabbed the woman in the head, neck, and torso a total of 31 times. In exchange for their guilty pleas, both defendants now have the possibility of parole. Both suspects were arrested last April on charges of murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit crime.

Witnesses testified earlier this year that the victim met the couple, Caitlin Rose Crenshaw and Cody Brandon Huynh, on March 23, 2020, while making donations at a local downtown church. She invited Crenshaw and Huynh into her home to shower and get cleaned up.

Surveillance footage also captured her taking the couple shopping days after taking them in, including on March 31, the day Kimberly Smith, was murdered. Crenshaw and Huynh stabbed the woman in the head, neck, and torso a total of 31 times. They then stole her car and drove hundreds of miles.

The father of the victim discovered his daughter’s body at her studio apartment. Police say she’d been stabbed with her own kitchen knife.Both suspects gave varying accounts as to why they killed Smith. At one point, they told detectives it was because Smith was flaunting cash.