March 22nd 1991 – Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.
On May 1, 1990, Gregory Smart was shot and killed at his home in Derry, New Hampshire. It was found out after only a short investigation that a high school; student name William Flynn was having an affair with Pamela Smart, wife of the victim. The result was the most covered and most sensational trial in NH history.
Testimony at the trial reported that Flynn and Smart were lovers, and Smart used Flynn as a hit man, threatening to terminate their relationship if he didn’t follow through. Smart met Flynn at Winnacunnet High in Hampton, NH where she was the director of media services.
It had drama such as William Flynn’s tearful account of how he killed Gregg Smart. It had a young, stoic widow unemotionally hearing claims of her masterminding the murder of her husband of less than a year, and listening to a conversation with a friend about the case where the friend was wearing a tape recorder set up by the prosecution. It had parents of both sides upset at the other, and spun off books, movies and a lawsuit against the National Enquirer when a Prison Guard sold pictures of Pam Smart behind bars to them.
William Flynn’s was originally charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors dropped it to second degree, which allows him to be eventually paroled, in exchange for his testimony against Pam Smart. Pam Smart, who is serving a life sentence, does not deny the affair, but maintains she had nothing to do with the murder .Flynn, was sentenced to 28 years for second degree murder. Since entering prison, Flynn has earned a GED, taken college computer courses and earned an electrician’s helper license. He also got married to a former executive assistant to the superintendent of schools in Wiscasset, Maine, and has a stepdaughter.
Pam Smart who was sentenced to life without parole started serving her sentence in a NH prison. Within a couple years later she was transferred to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York. A beating by two other inmates in 1996 gave her a fractured eye socket and other injuries that caused permanent damage. The eye socket damage left her with no sensation on that side of her face and plastic surgery required installing a metal plate.
Both Pam Smart and Linda Wojas, her mother, have steadfastly proclaimed Smart’s innocence and have been trying to get an appeal heard ever since the trial ended. So far, all requests have been denied.
