Spc. Patrick Byrne, left inset, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the beating death of Denise Smith, right inset, in Tacoma, Washington. (Smith: Obituary; Screenshot: KING/YouTube)
A U.S. Army Ranger will spend the next 20 years behind bars for the beating death of a security guard who tried to prevent him from entering a building in Tacoma, Washington. The vicious beating lasted for 10 minutes even as the victim repeatedly tried to flee, prosecutors said.
Spc. Patrick Philip Byrne, 29, pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder in the death of Denise Smith, 41, on July 18, 2021. Byrne was at the time stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma and Smith had just recently been hired to work security at an office building in downtown Tacoma. The building previously housed Russell Investments but is now the home to the Division II Court of Appeals and other businesses.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, Byrne was out drinking with friends at a bar when someone punched him in the face during an altercation between his pals and another group. Byrne apparently thought one of the people involved in the fight entered the building where Smith worked and tried to go inside. Smith opened the door, apparently to tell Byrne that the building was closed but he forced his way inside.
Surveillance video showed Smith grab Byrne by his shirt to stop him, but the Army Ranger slammed the security guard on the ground, the affidavit said. He repeatedly punched her in the face and “dragged her around like a rag doll,” cops said. He also took a set of keys and began stabbing her in an apparent attempt to gouge her eyes out. Byrne then punched her with the keys in between his fingers. Smith tried to get away but each time, Byrne pulled her back to continue the assault, cops said.
The beating lasted eight minutes, then for the next two minutes he choked her.
Byrne got up and ran toward a conference room where he shattered a window with a chair, the affidavit said. He then left the building and apparently jumped from a landing down about 14 feet to the ground, causing him to suffer a brain injury. He began screaming for help and someone called 911 around 2 a.m. Paramedics came and took him to the hospital where he told nurses he was stabbed and sexually assaulted, however there was no evidence he suffered either injury, the affidavit said.
Just after 6 a.m. one of Smith’s co-workers called 911 after finding her unconscious. Cops found Smith motionless on the ground in a pool of blood. Paramedics pronounced her dead. Her face was unrecognizable. It was only Smith’s third or fourth day on the job.
At his sentencing, Byrne apologized to Smith’s family.
“I wish I had never gone to that bar, that I had never gone out at all that night,” Byrne said, according to The News Tribune. “I wish I had never ever even been out here, then none of this would have happened. And Denise Smith, a great and wonderful woman, to be sure, she would still be alive and part of the world for much, much longer.”
Byrne’s attorney said his client was inspired to join the Army after 9/11 and has a history of head injuries including a “blast concussion” and a hard fall after his parachute didn’t open during a jump from a plane, the News Tribune reported. The head injuries may have played a role in a lack of judgment, his attorney said.
Smith’s father, identifying himself as a veteran, wrote in a letter to the judge that his daughter was simply doing her job and not bothering anyone.
“I, myself a U.S. Veteran, recognize that Patrick Philip Byrne is one of the Army’s highest trained killers: An ‘Army Ranger,”” Charles E. Reagins wrote. “The actions of Byrne toward my daughter were brutal, savage, harsh, cruel, unnecessary and worthless! It was downright cold-blooded murder.”
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