Ann Marie Smith, 41, was shot and killed at Dee Anne’s House of Beauty in Los Angeles on May 20, 1980. She had left home that morning and driven to the South Pasadena Police Department seeking protection from her husband, Art Smith, because she believed he was threatening her; the detective she wanted was unavailable, so she left a message and went to work. Shortly after she arrived at the salon, a man led her into a storage area and shot her; she died at the scene.

Investigators quickly treated Art Smith as the prime suspect, concluding the slaying was not a robbery since valuables in plain view were ignored and the attacker appeared to target Ann Marie. Witness descriptions of the gunman were vague and inconsistent, and no concrete evidence tied Art Smith to the killing. In early 1981 police arrested Charles Persico after an anonymous tip; Persico was convicted of manslaughter and later paroled in 1984. Years after that conviction, a different man, Dennis France, confessed and implicated Los Angeles police officer William E. Leasure as having hired him at Art Smith’s request, leading to Persico’s exoneration.