Prosecutors: Woman recorded sound of own murder on phone

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A woman killed by a shotgun blast in a domestic dispute last week recorded the sound of her own killing on her phone, authorities said.

Just before Wesley Webb was killed on May 2, prosecutors said, she activated an audio recording program on her phone, capturing events from the shooting to the arrival of police officers at the home she shared with her killer. On the recording, they said, the sound of the gunshot can be heard and then Webb's killer's voice uttering an expletive followed by, "How's that? That's where we just went."

Prosecutors announced murder charges Wednesday against Keith Robert Smith in connection with Webb's slaying at their home in Phoenixville, near Philadelphia, where three children were present.

"This was a savage, selfish and cowardly murder," Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said in a statement.

Smith and Webb had gotten into a fight, and Webb had decided to leave and take two of the children, authorities said. While Webb was sitting on a living room couch, Smith grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and shot her in the chest, killing her, and then tried unsuccessfully to kill himself, they said.

Smith, who was hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday, is charged with murder, criminal homicide, child endangerment, reckless endangerment and a weapons crime. He couldn't be reached for comment while hospitalized, and court documents don't list an attorney for him. A message left at a phone number listed in his name wasn't immediately returned.

The audio recording Webb made of her killing would have been inadmissible in court until very recently under the commonwealth's wiretap act, but the law was changed in 2012, Hogan said.