{"id":274592,"date":"2026-08-29T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274592\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T10:22:11","slug":"justin-smith-found-guilty-of-murdering-his-pregnant-girlfriend-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274592\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Smith found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Justin Smith was sentenced to life in prison on Friday after a jury found him guilty of murdering his girlfriend<\/a> and her unborn child in March 2021.<\/p>\n

Dianna Brice<\/a>, 21, was 14 weeks pregnant with a boy when prosecutors said Smith shot and killed her, and then hid her body with help. The medical examiner told jurors she was shot 11 times in the left side of her head.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week<\/a>, a homicide detective showed the jury surveillance video of Smith and another woman, Tylydia Garnett, parking a white Hyundai near a garage in Kensington. The video then showed Garnett carrying trash bags toward the garage before both suspects put something that appeared heavy in the trunk. The car was shown driving toward Cobbs Creek, where prosecutors said it was set on fire.<\/p>\n

Garnett pleaded guilty<\/a> to her involvement in 2023 and served two years in prison.<\/p>\n

In their closing statements on Friday, the defense leaned on the last text messages Brice sent to her friend, saying she wanted to \u201coff herself.\u201d Smith told jurors that Brice pulled out a gun with her left hand and pointed it at him before pointing it at herself, resulting in a struggle with the gun. Brice was right-handed.<\/p>\n

The prosecution pushed back at their closing, saying she had a then 4-year-old she loved and was excited for her new child. Prosecutors told the jury it was no accident, and Smith’s actions following her death, including setting his car on fire, prove his guilt. Prosecutors also referred to Garnett\u2019s testimony, where she told the court Smith purchased a gun off the street for about $950.<\/p>\n

Just before 4:30 p.m. on Friday, a jury of six men and six women found 28-year-old Smith guilty of first-degree murder of Brice and third-degree murder in the death of their unborn child. <\/p>\n

Sean Miller, Dianna\u2019s uncle, said he is grateful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s such a horrific, difficult time that we prevailed. Justice prevailed in a situation like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller joined Brice\u2019s mother and sister on the stand to deliver victim impact statements.<\/p>\n

Brice\u2019s mother, Betty Cellini, told the court she would never forgive Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The judge added more years to prevent Smith from being a danger to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Justin Smith was sentenced to life in prison on Friday after a jury found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[791,31,115389,4829,457,13474,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-274592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-abuse-of-corpse","tag-crime","tag-dianna-brice","tag-fatal-shooting","tag-homicide","tag-murder-trial","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}