‘Shoe Lady’ killer to be sentenced

A probationer who killed his girlfriend — a world- renowned footwear collector — in anger over her decision to kick him out of her Menifee home is scheduled to be sentenced Friday following his conviction earlier this year of second-degree murder.

A Riverside jury deliberated about four hours before finding 32-year-old Justin Charles Smith guilty on May 11 of the July 2013 beating death of 58- year-old Darlene Flynn.

Smith is expected to be sentenced by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Michael Donner Friday to 17 years to life in prison . Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction, but Smith maintained that he did not intend to kill Flynn and was not in control of himself when he pummeled her with a Louisville slugger baseball bat on the afternoon of July 22, 2013.

Among the evidence submitted by his attorneys was a tape-recorded conversation between the defendant and a deputy who arrested him a short time after the attack.

“I don’t remember what happened,” Smith told the lawman. “I just lost it. It was like anger and rage. When it was all done and over with, I just didn’t realize what I did.”

The recording revealed that Smith and Flynn had gotten into an argument the day before about his failure to repay her $50 for fueling his pickup truck to help a friend move.

“She totally lost it (when the money wasn’t returned),” Smith says on the tape. “She started pounding me in the chest with her fists. She threw Tupperware at me from the kitchen. I asked her to calm down, and we went to bed.”

The two slept separately, and the next day, Flynn’s emotions flared again as he slept in, according to the defendant.

“She started shoving me down the hallway, saying `you’re an idiot, you’re garbage, get out,”’ Smith said. “She was making me feel like a bad guy. She always was saying I was stupid and didn’t learn. I have a learning disability from a head injury.”

The defendant had a 2012 misdemeanor conviction for grand theft, which prosecutors said was the result of him selling Flynn’s car without her permission.

Smith told deputies that he was preparing to leave the single-story ranch home at 28875 Stone Lane when he was overcome with rage. According to the prosecution, as Flynn sat down to relax in her backyard swimming pool, the defendant grabbed the bat, which he said had been left in
a corner of the living room for self-defense. He then confronted the victim, sparking another argument that culminated with him striking her four to six times in the head and face, according to trial testimony.

Neighbors heard the commotion and called 911. Deputies arrived a few minutes later and spotted a shirtless Smith standing near the pool. When he saw the law enforcement officers, the defendant bolted. He was located that afternoon wandering along Highway 74, where he was arrested without incident.

A medical examiner testified that Flynn had received “blunt force injuries (with) enough power … to break her skull.”

Flynn’s vast collection of shoes and related products landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006. Dubbed “The Shoe Lady” and the “Queen of Sole,” she had amassed more than 16,000 shoes and related products.

The possessions, including heels, sneakers, boots, stockings — even pillows shaped as shoes — had an estimated value in excess of $500,000, according to published reports. Flynn and Smith had been profiled together months before the fatal attack in a television show segment on her collection.

He’s been held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.