Slain Dallas Officer’s Widow Testifies

The wife of a Dallas police officer took the witness stand Wednesday at the trial of the man accused of killing her husband last year.

Senior Cpl. Norman Smith was shot and killed in January 2009 while he and other gang-unit officers attempted to serve an aggravated assault warrant.

Charles Patrick Payne, 29, is charged with capital murder in Smith's slaying as well as two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer and possession of cocaine.

Lt. Regina Smith, also a Dallas police officer, testified Wednesday at Payne's trial about her husband's death and their relationship.

"I was trying to make myself think, 'Maybe it's a minor, minor wound," she said on the witness stand. "But when I got to Baylor [Medical Center] and I saw all the officers there... I knew that he was gone."

"He was everything to me," Smith said. "He adored me, and I adored him."

The couple met about 20 years ago at the Dallas County Jail. He was a booking officer, and she was a rookie Dallas police officer.

"There he was at the jail, and I just kind of demurely looked down, and he came over to the area where the Dallas police officers make their arrests," she said. "And he approached me. He asked me, could he have my phone number."

Smith said she did not realize at the time how close they would become.

"We were together every day from that moment on until January 6, 2009," she said.

Smith said her husband's death wounded her forever.