Tue. Dec 3rd, 2024
Man gets 26 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing a woman at a Westminster hotel

Aryan Vito Smith, a 30-year-old man, was sentenced last Friday to 26 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing Treeanna Nichols, a 22-year-old Pasadena woman at a Westminster hotel six years ago.

Smith pleaded guilty on Friday, March 8, 2024, to murder with a sentencing enhancement for using a deadly weapon.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson ruled that Smith had committed a first-degree murder after she reviewed more evidence. If she had found it was second-degree murder the punishment would have been lesser – 16 years to life.

Smith was captured by a surveillance video camera as he was walking up the stairs of the Quality Inn on Westminster Boulevard at about 3 p.m. on Feb. 5, 2018, while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and vaping. He left a short time later. Nichols was killed, according to police investigators, during that time period.

Police were called just before 11 p.m. that day to conduct a welfare check on Nichols and found her dead in a room at the Quality Inn.

The Westminster Police Commander, Cameron Knauerhaze, described the murder as brutal and violent at a news conference at department headquarters.

Nichols was alone at the motel at the time of the murder. She had only been there for a short time. Apparently she had quite a few friends and acquaintances in the area. They all thought she was going to have a short stay at the hotel.

Westminster police officers were asked by her family to do a welfare check when they could not get a hold of her. They found her body just before 11 p.m.

Smith was arrested in May of 2020 and he was being held on $1 million bail. He was finally tracked down by the use of DNA evidence.

“Treeanna Nichols should not be remembered as just a victim. She was a daughter, a friend and a human being,” Cmdr. Cameron Knauerhaze said in 2018. “No one deserves the violent death that she endured.”

author avatar
Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

By Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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