Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508210100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
A Florida appeals court this month reversed Thomas Smolka's first-degree murder conviction, ruling evidence was insufficient.
``There is no doubt that the state's case against Smolka creates a strong suspicion that he murdered his wife,'' the court wrote. ``The number of suspicious circumstances is especially troubling. But suspicions cannot be the basis of a criminal conviction.''
Now Betty Anne Smolka's family and friends are going door to door and writing letters to drum up support for a rehearing or a Florida Supreme Court review of the case.
The attorney general's office has until Thursday to file notice asking the district court to have the full appeals panel hear the case or to certify it to the state Supreme Court. The defense then has 10 days to reply.
The attorney general also could petition the state Supreme Court directly.
Thomas Smolka, a former Virginia Beach lawyer and real estate developer, is being held in a maximum-security prison in Raiford, Fla. He has declined to be interviewed.
Smolka was part-owner of the Ocala Radisson Inn when his wife disappeared July 10, 1991.
Betty Anne Smolka's rented van was found parked across the street the next day, its interior spattered with blood. Three days after that, her body was found near a dirt road in an abandoned, half-completed subdivision west of the city. She had been shot twice in the chest.
No direct physical evidence ever was found to link Smolka to his wife's killing. Instead, prosecutors focused on Smolka's desperate financial situation and on the fact that he had insured his wife's life for $500,000.
by CNB