A 25-year-old San Jose man who is accused in the "brutal" killing of a 72-year-old man earlier this month has been charged with murder, officials said Thursday.
Sherman Smith is suspected of tying the victim to a chair, repeatedly stabbing him and drowning him in a bathtub, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said.
Smith was arrested last Saturday after detectives determined he was the primary suspect in the death of the man, who was found Sept. 6 suffering from a traumatic injury in the 200 block of East Santa Clara Street, police said.
Earlier in the day, the man's daughter called police and asked them to go to an apartment on East Santa Clara Street and check on him. Police entered the apartment and found the man's body in a bathtub, the district attorney's office said. He had been stabbed at least three times and there was a rope around his torso.
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Bleach had been used to clean the crime scene, but officers "found evidence that clearly showed an extremely violent and bloody crime," the district attorney's office said.
Surveillance footage allegedly showed Smith enter the apartment, stay for roughly 30 hours and then leave with shopping bags, according to the district attorney's office.
"This horrific crime and the defendant who did it has no place in our society," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the victim’s family and friends."
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Smith was arraigned Wednesday. He was remanded without bail, the district attorney's office said.
The identity of the victim was not provided and will be released by the Santa Clara County coroner pending family notification.
It was the 25th homicide in the Bay Area's largest city this year, police said.
