The Long Beach man accused of running over and stabbing a beloved physician in Dana Point earlier this month confessed to the killing in a jailhouse interview Friday, Feb. 10, saying he has no regrets and was entitled to commit murder because he is both God and Jesus Christ.
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In a rambling, hourlong conversation with a Southern California News Group reporter, Vanroy Evan Smith cited end-of-world scriptures from the Bible’s Book of Revelation and said that if the public knew he was the Messiah and the “king of kings,” they would think differently about him and his crime.
“I have killed,” Smith, 39, said during the interview at Orange County’s Intake Release Center in Santa Ana. “If they knew who I was, they would let me walk out of here. They would fulfill all my desires.”
Smith, who has pleaded not guilty to homicide charges in the death of Dr. Michael John Mammone, is being held in jail on $1 million bail.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Mammone, 58, was riding his mountain bike in the bicycle lane on Pacific Coast Highway at Crown Valley Parkway when he was struck from behind by a white Lexus driven by Smith. The impact hurled the doctor into the air.
Smith then got out of his car and stabbed Mammone with a large, long knife, sheriff’s deputies said. Witnesses on cellphone video are heard describing it as a machete. One man directed others to find it in nearby bushes. Bystanders detained Smith until deputies arrived.
Mammone died after he was rushed to Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, one of the hospitals where he had served as an emergency medicine physician.
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Smith, who denied in the jailhouse interview that he is mentally ill, said he awoke on the morning of Feb. 1 fully expecting to kill someone by the end of the day, adding that he has long been plagued by troubling “communications” from others and conflict because of his mixed-race heritage.
Smith said he placed a BB gun, intended to be used as a distractionary device, into his Lexus, and drove to a Long Beach area gun store, where he purchased the knife.
He also said he considered using a bow and arrow, but ultimately decided against it.
Smith recounted that after the knife purchase, he began driving around and felt compelled to run over Mammone and then stab him. “It was my right,” Smith said, adding that he feels no remorse for the killing. “He was in the crosswalk and presented himself.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.