The Plastic Roses

Gail Smith, a retired flight attendant, served on the town council in Berryville, Virginia, a small place in the Shenandoah Valley, and she was known around town for her vegetable garden. Her father’s will left roughly $750,000 to her and one dollar each to her brother, Timothy Smith Jr., and her sister, Deborah Smith. In April 2009 Timothy was charged with soliciting her murder. The charge was dropped that July.

On July 26, 2009, a man came to Gail’s door holding a bouquet of plastic roses and shot her once in the head in her entryway. Her aunt had not heard from her in days and asked for a welfare check; on July 30 police forced their way in. Investigators identified the gunman as Tony Sharpe, a young acquaintance of Timothy’s paid three thousand dollars, and tied the killing to the siblings through phone records and a throwaway phone. They also learned of an earlier, abandoned plan to kill Gail with snake venom.

Timothy and Sharpe were indicted in March 2013. Timothy pleaded guilty on February 12, 2015, and was sentenced on March 27 to twenty-three years. Deborah, who prosecutors called the planner, pleaded guilty in April 2014 to perjury and obstruction and was sentenced alongside Timothy in March 2015 to eight years. Sharpe received twenty-five years in April 2015.