OLEAN, N.Y. — The Cattaraugus County 911 center received a call at 6:42 a.m. Saturday. When a dispatcher asked what the caller’s emergency was, the caller replied, “I murdered my wife.”
The recording was played Tuesday in Olean City Court as part of a preliminary hearing for Edward J. Smith Jr., 50, who faces a charge of second-degree murder, a class A-1 felony, after Olean police discovered the body of his wife, Kathy Smith, Saturday morning in the Olean House apartment they shared together. He also faces charges of first-degree assault, a class B felony, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a class A misdemeanor.
After hearing testimony from the dispatcher and several Olean police officers, as well as arguments from Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman and Assistant Public Defender Ben Smith, Olean City Court Judge Daniel Palumbo ruled there was reasonable cause that Edward Smith should face a murder charge.
The defendant, who sat silently through the proceedings, will remain held in Cattaraugus County Jail without bail. Within 45 days the case will be presented to a Cattaraugus County grand jury, which will decide whether to indict him.
Rieman said Tuesday’s ruling is crucial because it keeps Smith incarcerated while also validating prosecutors have credible evidence.
Ben Smith, no relation to his client, declined to go into details of the case, but asked that the public keep an open mind.
“Things are not always what they appear,” he said. “We’re a long way from any ending or resolution in this case.”
The major testimony Tuesday was the playing of the 911 tape. Sean Wedge, the dispatcher who took the call, testified the call came from a landline in the city of Olean registered to Kathy Smith.
On the tape, a calm, male-sounding voice repeats, “I murdered my wife,” each of the three times a clearly taken aback Wedge asks the caller to clarify. When Wedge asks, “How do you mean?” the caller replies, “I murdered my wife, that’s what I mean.”
The caller then says he murdered his wife with a knife and that his address is Apt. 331 of Olean House, which is the Smiths’ apartment.
However, when Wedge asks for the caller’s name, the caller hangs up the phone.
“It’s certainly important because it is what it is,” Rieman said of the tape. “A 911 call is a 911 call.”
Officers responded to the apartment at the North Union Street federally subsidized apartment building and were met at the door by Smith, who told them he stabbed his wife in the bedroom, according to testimony from Olean Police Sgt. Lance Edwards.
Officers then found Kathy Smith dead, on her back on a bed with a knife still in her chest,
Sgt. Tim Cashimere testified.
According to an autopsy report completed Monday at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo and read aloud in court Tuesday, Kathy Smith’s manner of death was a homicide and she died of a stab wound to the chest.
Residents of Olean House who spoke with the Times Herald said they saw the couple socializing outside the building as recently as Friday. They described the couple as friendly, and said they had not noticed any indications of a troubled or violent relationship.
Edward and Kathy Smith’s adult daughter was present in the courtroom Tuesday. Rieman called the case “tragic.”
“It’s … tragic because it involves a husband accused of killing his wife,” Rieman said. “I think that’s very difficult on their family members to have to deal with that.”
