The Division of Public Safety issued a UPennAlert Tuesday morning informing the community of a series of power outages. | DP File Photo
Jason Smith, the alleged killer of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pediatrician and Perelman School of Medicine graduate student Melissa Ketunuti, was found guilty of first-degree murder, arson and related offenses by a unanimous jury vote on Wednesday.
Smith, a 37-year-old exterminator at the time who is from Levittown, Pa., was arrested and charged two days after Ketunuti was murdered on Jan. 21, 2013, and has been in jail ever since. He was originally charged with five counts, including murder, arson and abuse of a corpse.
According to a statement that Smith gave on the night he was arrested, Smith and Ketunuti had argued about Ketunuti’s dog bothering Smith and criticisms Ketunuti made about Smith’s repairs. Then, Smith admitted to choking her until she was dead, tying her up and lighting her on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.
The murder prompted the Philadelphia Police Department to launch a special task force of homicide detectives. Smith was arrested after investigating footage from nearby security cameras.
Ketunuti was 35 and had been at CHOP since 2008. She was also pursuing her Master of Science degree in clinical epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine.
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