Man is indicted in 1988 killing of high school friend
A Long Beach man linked to the 1988 killing of a high school friend was indicted today for allegedly torturing and murdering the victim and then setting the body on fire to destroy the evidence, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.
Paul Gentile Smith, 49, was indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury on one felony count of special-circumstance murder with torture and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon, prosecutors said.
If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is being held in custody without bail.
Prosecutors allege that Smith killed his longtime friend and marijuana dealer, Robert Haugen, 29, in the victim's apartment in Sunset Beach on Oct. 24, 1988. Smith is accused of stabbing the victim 18 times, nearly decapitating him and then setting the victim's body and apartment on fire.
The crime went unsolved until 2007, when Smith was arrested on an unrelated charge in Nevada and a DNA test linked him to blood samples recovered at the Sunset Beach crime scene.
Smith was charged with the murder and extradited to Orange County in March. Today's grand jury action was a superseding indictment.
—Monte Morin
