An Arizona man who fatally shot a couple in their home after a failed sports car purchase will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Alexander Lee Smith, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced on Friday. Smith was convicted in the November 2023 shooting deaths of Walter Mitchell, 52, and Susie Ephrem, 42, from whom Smith had attempted to buy a sports car before the transaction was canceled.
The couple’s 8-year-old grandson was in the house during the fatal shooting, but he was unharmed.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Smith and Mitchell had been texting about the older man potentially selling a Ford Shelby GT500 to the younger man. But when Smith’s wire transfer payment did not go through, Mitchell canceled the transaction and sold the car to a dealership instead.
Smith shot Mitchell and Ephram the next day, killing both of them.
According to the Peoria Police Department, officers responded to Mitchell and Ephram’s home at 4:12 a.m. on November 11, 2023, after Ephram called 911 to report that she and her husband had been shot. When police arrived, Mitchell had already died, and Ephram was given lifesaving measures. She died from her injuries in the hospital.
Police reported at the time that there were signs of forced entry into the house.
The attorney’s office stated that Smith returned to the home the following day while detectives were investigating the double homicide. Smith informed them that he was a car collector who had purchased a Ford Shelby GT500 from Mitchell and was there to pick it up. He walked away empty-handed.
Two weeks later, he returned to the Peoria Police Department to try to reclaim the car. However, the attorney’s office stated that “[h]is story did not match what he told detectives at the crime scene the day after the shooting.” Authorities discovered that while Smith texted Mitchell about purchasing the car, he was also “posing as the car’s owner” with the intention of selling it to a third party.
After Mitchell called off the sale, Smith continued to promise the car to a third party. His proposed delivery date was the day following the double murder.
Smith was arrested exactly a year after the murders, on November 11, 2024.
In a press release, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell stated, “This was an act driven by greed; even after taking two lives, this defendant continued to lie to police to try to get the car.”
On Friday, Smith was sentenced to two life sentences plus 21 years “for murdering a couple during a home invasion.”
