BY JAY STAPLETON, STAFF WRITER
November 5, 2010 12:05 AM Posted in: East Volusia
Horvatt Summer Smith, who was shot to death in December 2008, was named Miss Motorsports in 1994. (N-J file)
DAYTONA BEACH -- A man who told authorities his fiancée had been killed "by a black man" during a robbery was found guilty Thursday of participating in the killing himself.
Clint G. Horvatt, 33, of Palatka was then given the mandatory sentence of life in prison by Circuit Judge Terry LaRue for the first-degree murder conviction.
"Summer Smith was killed solely because Clint Horvatt wanted her dead," prosecutor Jackie Roys told the Putnam County jury in her closing argument.
The jury deliberated for 59 minutes before finding Horvatt, 33, guilty in the Dec. 12, 2008, shooting death of Smith, a single mother of a toddler who lived in the Bermuda Estates apartments in Ormond Beach.
"This was very sad," Smith's godmother, Doris Allen said. "As far as I'm concerned, life in prison is too easy for him. He doesn't deserve to live that long."
Roys argued that Horvatt set up the killing to make the shooting look like a robbery on State Road 26 in Putnam County.
He and Smith, 36, had planned to go Christmas shopping, but word of the murder came in a 9-1-1 call to Putnam County sheriff's deputies. Horvatt, hysterical, was heard telling dispatchers that Smith thought she recognized a maroon Ford on the side of the road.
In Horvatt's initial story, Smith asked him to stop, so they did. They were soon approached by a man with a gun demanding valuables. In a struggle, Horvatt said, the man shot Smith.
Horvatt even gave a description: "A dark-skinned black male" wearing "black pants, a black shirt and a gray sweater" with hair braided "in corn rows."
He appeared on television, pleading for help from the public to find the killer. The investigation soon revealed inconsistencies in the story, and evidence was found leading to Horvatt's arrest.
During the trial, Horvatt's defense lawyers argued that Smith was killed during a drug deal gone bad. Prosecutors countered there was no evidence to back up that story.
To prosecutor Roys, the most troubling aspect of the case was how "persistent Horvatt was in having Summer killed."
"It was just so calculated," she said. "Someone who can do something that calculated and then play the victim. He's dangerous."
The motive of the killing was never revealed. The accused triggerman, William Foster, 53, is expected to go to trial next month.
Heading back to Ormond Beach from the trial, godmother Allen said she wished Horvatt was given "the electric chair."
"He just lied," she said. "He lied up and down about everything."
-- Staff Writer Audrey Parente contributed to this report.
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