$50 MURDER

By Bob Walsh

 

Left: Andres Torres Jr. Right: Amanda Soultz

 

Amanda Don Soultz, 32, formerly of Elkhart, Indiana, is about to begin serving a minimum 15 year term for the Fayette County, W.V. murder of Michelle Ann Smith, 41, over $50. 

It seems that Soultz and her accomplice, Andrew M. Torres Jr., entered into a private pawn deal with Smith over a watch.  She said that she had sold it.  They wanted it back, didn't believe that she no longer had it and beat her to death to get her to reveal the whereabouts of the watch.  She did, after they beat the crap out of her.  Torres then shot her in the head with a .45.

Smith's son found her in bad shape when he did a welfare check on her.  She died after a month in the hospital last year.  

Soultz will be sentenced formally in February.  She and Torres tried to set up a story over jail phones, which are recorded.  Not the sharpest knives in the drawer.  Torres was found guilty of kidnapping and murder and will be sentenced on January 30.