Lawyer says Smith family murder suspect is mentally fit

Lawyer Aleksandre Kobaidze, who represents the accused, 19-year-old Malkhaz Kobauri, says that his client is mentally fit.

“Experts say that Kobauri’s mental state is healthy and he is capable of thinking logicly,” Kobaidze says.

“The Tbilisi Forensic Bureau will write this in the official document,” the lawyer said, and claims that the shepherd did not kill Ryan and Lora Smith and their 4-year-old son Caleb in the mountains of Georgia earlier in July.

The lawyer repeated that Kobauri’s biological presence was found on Lora Smith’s body, “however, it does not confirm Lora Smith was raped.”

“No trace of violence was found on Lora Smith’s body,” the lawyer says.

Kobauri says that “several foreigners” killed the family, not his client. 

The bodies of Ryan and Lora Smith were found on July 7 in the Khada Gorge of  Dusheti region, in eastern Georgia.

Kobauri was detained on July 11 and he himself showed the site to law enforcers where Caleb’s body was buried.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that initially Kobauri admitted to the crime, but later he said that “two foreigners” killed the Smiths.

The case prosecutor says that the dispute between Kobauri and Ryan Smith emerged because of a riffle the shepherd carried with him.

The prosecutor says that Ryan Smith told the shepherd to be cautious with the weapon, especially at the presence of a kid.

Ryan Smith was shot two times, while Lora Smith’s body was found next to a waterfall. The prosecutor says she allegedly ran and fell down from a cliff.

Ryan and Lora Smith had dual Georgia and American citizenship and had been living in Georgia’s eastern Marneuli region for more than 10 years, where they had a business producing Azerbaijani rugs.