A judge in Los Angeles has decided the man charged with murdering a UCLA student in a furniture store in Hancock Park is mentally fit to stand trial.
Brianna Kupfer, 24, was stabbed to death Jan. 13 as she worked alone inside the Croft House store on La Brea Boulevard. Authorities have said they believe she was attacked at random.
"She had strength and character and care and love," Kupfer's father Todd told NBCLA earlier this year.
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The accused killer, Shawn Laval Smith, 32, has been jailed since January, charged with a single count of murder, and on Monday Smith was found competent to stand trial, according to the LA County District Attorney's Office.
Smith was arrested in Pasadena about a week after the killing after LAPD detectives publicized security video images and asked for the public's help in locating him.
A pretrial hearing was set for next week.
Last month the prosecutor who had been working on the case was suddenly reassigned within the LA County District Attorney's Office. John McKinney said he thought the move was retaliatory and feared it would negatively impact the prosecution.
