Lawyers for a statehouse lobbyist accused of vandalizing his ex-wife’s house last year said Wednesday that she stuffed chicken parts into her own home-heating vents, poured bleach into her own grand piano and marred her own hardwood floors with mountain-bike-shoe cleats.
Opening arguments in the trial of Ronald Smith offered the first look at his strategy to beat felony burglary and criminal-mischief charges in Denver District Court.
Prosecutors say Smith, 58, broke into Michelle Young’s home in September 2010 as the couple’s divorce was being finalized, targeting objects of sentimental value.
Defense attorney Kathryn Stimson said Young wanted more money from Smith and wanted custody of the couple’s young daughter.
“Michelle Young tried and tried and tried to get what she wanted. She didn’t. So she took matters into her own hands,” Stimson said.
Young returned from a California vacation Sept. 28 and noticed the cleat marks on her newly varnished floors. It took weeks before the full extent of the damage was known, prosecutor Courtney Johnston told jurors.
Johnston described it as the culmination of months of harassment by Smith that started when the couple began a divorce in 2009.
In the meantime, Smith sent Young e-mails and text messages threatening to leave her penniless and suggesting he was watching her.
“If I have to ruin my life to ruin yours, I will do that,” Johnston said Smith wrote in one message.
And in August 2010, Young told police she awoke to her dog growling and saw Smith peering into the bedroom where she and her then-boyfriend — now husband — were sleeping.
There are no fingerprints in the case. No DNA. No witnesses putting Smith at the crime scene.
“Who would have such anger and animosity toward her? No one else but Ronald Smith,” Johnston said.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
