South Africa man convicted in deaths of 2 Alaska Native women faces revocation of U.S. citizenship

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Federal prosecutors want to revoke the U.S. citizenship of a South Africa man convicted of killing two Alaska Native women for allegedly lying on his naturalization application for saying he had neither killed nor hurt anyone.

Brian Steven Smith, 52, was convicted earlier this year in the deaths of the two women, narrating as he recorded one woman dying. That video was stored on a phone that was stolen from his pickup. The images were transferred to a memory card and later turned over to police by the person who took the phone.

Smith lied when he responded to questions on the naturalization application asking whether he had been involved in a killing or badly hurting or sexually assaulting someone, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska said in a statement Friday.

Smith answered “no” to those questions, but prosecutors say he had committed the two murders that involved torture and sexual assault by the time he completed the application, officials said.