Jurors left for the day with images of water rushing into the back seat of Ms. Smith's burgundy sedan, where Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, were suspended upside down while the car nose dived into the lake.
The jury convicted Ms. Smith, 23, of two counts of murder on Saturday and now it has the ominous duty of choosing her punishment - death or life imprisonment. They will hear more testimony about the simulation today, after which the prosecution is expected to rest its case.
Smith, who until Tuesday showed little emotion in the courtroom, did not watch the videos. However he cried uncontrollably and emptied a tissue box near the witness stand when he talked about the nine days he spent believing his beloved sons had been abducted by a black carjacker.
"I was scared. I really didn't have much of a feeling. It was just one focused mental state - to find out what had happened to the kids," he said. For the first couple days of the search, Smith said he and Susan were awkward around each other because of their pending divorce. But later in the week, they united as a couple. "At the end of the nine days we came close, as man and wife," he said.
Smith said he had to defend and protect his wife at times, especially as people started doubting her initial story.
In one instance, Smith recounted how Susan's mother, Linda Russell, shook her and told her to tell the truth.
Smith said he had to step between them and take Susan to another room. "I was there when she needed to cry. She was there for me. We stayed together most of the time, to help each other, support each other," he said.
Smith did say his wife made at least two inappropriate comments during the search.
Shortly after she reported the boys missing Susan told David, "I hope you don't mind if Tom Findlay comes to see me down the line."
Smith said he didn't care about Findlay then. "My main focus was the kids were missing and I had no idea where they were," he said.
Smith also said Susan kept saying they might be able to get back together if or when the children came back.
Regardless of their past indiscretions, Smith said he still loved his wife and wanted to reconcile until he heard Sheriff Howard Wells announce her confession on national television.
Smith, who turns 25 this week, said he and Susan were too young when she got pregnant and they decided to get married. "There were a lot of bad decisions on both parts," he said. "We were a young couple, making a lot of mistakes, doing the best we could at the time."
He said the marriage turned sour shortly after Michael was born in 1991. "Money became a big issue between me and Susan with doctor bills starting to come in," Smith said. He also said sex was a problem from the beginning. "She didn't desire it as much, of course, as I did."
Smith admitted, though said he regretted, having two physical fights with his wife.
During the first fight, Smith said he tackled his wife in the front yard after she hit him. He said he grabbed her another time and dragged her onto the front porch when she threatened to leave him.
Despite their marital strife, Smith said Michael and Alex never became an issue or battle between the two of them.
That made his wife's confession even more devastating.
"Because of what happened, I've had nightmares, I've had to go to a psychiatrist," he said tearfully. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do without my kids. It wasn't supposed to be like this."
Smith lamented all he could have done with the boys. He said he had looked forward to taking them fishing, teaching them to ride a bike, watching them go to school and watching them grow up.
"All that's been ripped from me and I don't know what I'm supposed to do," he said.
- Charles Webber, a State Law Enforcement Division agent, testified about Ms. Smith's demeanor when he served the murder warrants and transported her to the women's prison in Columbia. He said Ms. Smith thanked him for the good treatment and then asked him if he could pick up an absentee ballot for her so she could vote in the Nov. 8 election.
Because of an objection by the defense, the jury did not hear the part of his testimony in which Webber said Ms. Smith was calm until she was in the presence of media. The prosecution wanted to show that she was only acting upset. However, Bruck argued that SLED was worried about snipers and her distress could have been interpreted as fear.
- Sandra Conradi, a Charleston forensic pathologist who performed the autopsies on the boys, testified about how someone dies from drowning. She described the following steps: water covers the face; the person will stop breathing, holding his breath; after a while the person will gulp to breath and swallow water into the lungs; the body is then deprived of oxygen; and after five or six minutes the person dies.
- Steve Derrick, the SLED agent who processed the crime scene when Ms. Smith's car was pulled from the lake, was recalled by the prosecution to enter the automobile video-taped re-enactment into evidence. Defense lawyer Judy Clarke cross examined Derrick and called her own expert to say the re-enactment was not a scientific study and could not accurately represent what happened on Oct. 25.
Bruck continued the argument after Derrick admitted that some of the measurements had been eyeballed. "What is depicted on that video tape bears no resemblance to what Susan Smith would have seen if she looked back," Bruck told Judge William Howard while the jury waited outside the courtroom. "I submit, if the sun had been shining, she wouldn't have done it." The prosecution, however, said the video tapes show the chilling nature of the crime. "You don't take a horrible act with horrible circumstances and clean it up," Giese said before the ruling.
Howard, who listened to testimony and viewed the tapes, agreed and allowed them into evidence. After court, Bruck expressed his displeasure with the ruling. He said if Ms. Smith is sentenced to death, the video tapes would be an appellate issue.
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