Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Woman Suspected in Kirkland Poison Murder Pleads Not Guilty
Janjira Smith, 56, is in the King County Jail after being extradited from Great Britain.
UPDATE: Janjira Smith pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of first-degree murder in the alleged poisoning death of her ex-boyfriend Roger Lewis in Kirkland in 2006. Smith also pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree assault for allegedly poisoning a woman who survived. Smith was arrested in London in 2008 and was extradited to King County from the United Kingdom last month. She is scheduled for a case-setting hearing on Sept. 7 the King County Courthouse. She remains in the King County Jail in Seattle on $5 million bail.
--King County prosecutor's office.
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Janjira Smith, a woman suspected of murdering her former boyfriend with poison at a Kirkland apartment five years ago, is in the King County Jail after being extradited from Great Britain.
Prosecutors say Smith in October of 2006 gave a bottle of insecticide-laced Jagermeister to her ex-boyfriend Roger Lewis, after she found out he planned to marry another woman. Lewis and another woman, Thanyarat "Nina" Sengpharaghanh, quickly became ill after drinking the concoction. He died at the scene, but she recovered.
Find out what's happening in Kirklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Smith, 56, fled to her native Thailand before ever being charged, said Kirkland Police Sgt. Rob Saloum.
She will be arraigned on July 5, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's office. She will be charged with first-degree murder and second-degree assault.
Smith arrived in Seattle late last week from Great Britain, said Jack Williams, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Seattle. She was booked into King County jail on Friday, with bail set at $5 million.
Smith was arrested by United Kingdom Customs in December of 2008 after arriving on a flight from Switzerland. The U.S. Marshals Service at the time said it had been close to capturing her in Thailand, from which she might have been fleeing.
"She fought it everywhere she could. It just took time," Saloum said of the lengthy extradition process.
Her last known local address was on NE 84th Way in Redmond.
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