Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York | Department of Justice
A federal inmate, Daniel V. Smith, has been convicted of first-degree murder following a jury trial in the Southern District of New York. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Jay Clayton. Smith’s sentencing is scheduled for December 4, 2025, and he faces a mandatory life sentence.
“Daniel V. Smith murdered a fellow inmate in cold blood at FCI Otisville by brutally beating him in the head with a lock tied to a belt,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Thanks to the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners, the defendant has been held accountable for his heinous crime.”
According to court documents and statements presented during the trial, on October 26, 2021, while incarcerated at FCI Otisville for an earlier assault conviction from 2013, Smith attacked another inmate without provocation. He used a lock tied to a belt as a weapon and struck the neighboring inmate repeatedly in the head. The victim suffered traumatic brain injury, entered a vegetative state, and later died from his injuries.
Smith, age 65 and formerly of Otisville, New York, was found guilty on one count of first-degree murder.
Jay Clayton expressed gratitude to the staff at FCI Otisville for their assistance in the case and commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force.
The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin L. Brooke, Shaun E. Werbelow, Benjamin D. Klein, Jeffrey C. Coffman from the White Plains Division with support from Paralegal Specialist Jackie Fleury.
