Brittany Smith entered into a plea deal over the murder of Todd Smith. Photos / Facebook
Brittany Smith entered into a plea deal over the murder of Todd Smith. Photos / Facebook
Warning: Graphic details
A US woman will spend time behind bars for shooting and killing her rapist – despite arguing self-defence using a controversial law.
Brittany Smith,32, of Alabama, entered a plea deal in the murder of Todd Smith, who she admitted killing after he strangled and raped her in her own home.
The terms of the agreement saw Brittany Smith sentenced to 20 years, but with 18 months in county jail, 18 years on house arrest and 18.5 years free on probation
"My baby girl doesn't deserve this," her mother, Ramona McCallie, told the New York Post after the sentence was announced.
Brittany Smith, 32, is now facing prison time. Photo / Facebook
Smith had originally sought to have herself declared immune from prosecution under the state's Stand Your Ground law.
Stand Your Ground laws are common around the US and allow defendants to argue that they were forced to take action to defend themselves against threats or perceived threats.
The case was set to go to trial in November, and Smith faced life behind bars if convicted.
"In any case, you've got to weigh what you know and can control with what you can't," her lawyer Ron Smith told the New York Post. "We have no control over a jury or a judge that would sentence her."
'Just had a gut feeling'
Smith, a mother-of-four, earlier revealed the details of her horrifying ordeal in an interview with the New Yorker, detailing the chain of events that saw her appearing in court charged with murder.
The incident occurred on a snowy day in January 2018 in the town of Stevenson, Alabama.
Smith was with her brother Chris McCallie when she received a call from an old acquaintance who bred pit bulls. Smith had visited him the day before and taken home a puppy.
That man, 38-year-old Todd Smith, said he was stranded and freezing and asked the pair for a ride.
Brittany had recently rejected Smith after he expressed romantic feelings for her, and McCallie warned his sister against it.
"I just had a gut feeling that something was going to happen," he told the New Yorker.
Despite the concern, the pair picked Todd up, telling him he could sleep on the couch.
After McCallie dropped the pair off at Brittany's home, they gave the puppy a bath and discussed their journey in recovering from meth addiction.
Brittany was now clean and was advising Todd on how to beat his own demons when he snapped, calling her a bitch and head-butting her.
Brittany with her brother Chris McCallie. Photo / Facebook
She ran and sought refuge in her bedroom, where an enraged Todd, who had a long history of violence, smashed through the door, threw her on the bed and choked her until she passed out.
When she came to, she was naked and Todd was raping her, his hands gripped around her throat.
She told him: "We're friends" - but he mockingly repeated the phrase back to her before saying: "Don't say a f***ing word or I'll kill you."
She struggled and Todd responded by twisting her head so far she feared her neck would break.
"Then I woke back up, and let him finish what he was doing," Brittany told The New Yorker. "And his whole face changed, he was normal."
Todd then threatened to kill Brittany's family if she spoke out about the rape.
Todd Smith had a long history of violence. Photo / Facebook
He then told Brittany that he wanted cigarettes and Brittany offered to call them a ride, since neither had a car.
She used the opportunity to call her mother, Ramona McCallie, trying to get the message through to her mother that something was wrong, speaking as her rapist held the phone.
Her mother thought it sounded as if her daughter had been crying and sent her son, Chris McCallie, around.
The trio headed for a local petrol station, where Brittany, in hushed tones, bravely revealed to the cashier what had happened while the two men sat in the car.
Brittany told the New Yorker that she made the cashier promise not to call the police but told her that if she was dead in the morning, it was Todd Smith who killed her.
When her brother dropped them back at her place, Brittany put her plan in action, telling him to go back to the petrol station and speak with the cashier.
Brittany is a mother-of-four. Photo / Facebook
When told what happened, McCallie says he went "blank" and headed straight back to the house with a .22-calibre revolver that he kept in the vehicle.
McCallie confronted Todd Smith, telling him to leave. When Smith, who was high on meth and other drugs, refused to leave the house McCallie put his gun down and tried to remove him.
Smith got McCallie in a headlock and began to choke him, saying he would kill him and Brittany.
