The tapes that convicted Smart: Cecelia Pierce's role

Photos from the time period show a plump girl, usually disheveled with clothes that don't quite fit and aren't quite cool enough-with a look of yearning, always the yearning to belong, to be part of that which passes for high school cool.

Her downcast eyes and slumped shoulders made her a perfect candidate for Pamela Smart's self-esteem class, Project Self-Esteem. Cecilia Pierce did end up making a video splash, but maybe not the way she planned.

Even more than the two self-confessed murderers, she was the state's star witness against Smart, and her taped conversations with Smart were a major factor in Smart's conviction.

Early Years

Pierce was born on May 24, 1974. She was a sophomore at Winnacunnet High School when she first met Smart in Project Self Esteem. Pierce and Smart were both facilitators leading the same group of freshmen, according to her testimony during Smart's trial in 1991.

"Cecelia Pierce's mom worked and made Cecelia stay home and take care of her younger sibling," said Linda Wojas, Smart's mother. "She was failing a lot of classes, and Pam helped her."

In November of 1989 Pierce became an intern with the media center and was assigned to Smart, according to the Derry Police Department supplement report. It was during this internship that she became good friends with Smart.

"Pam befriended her," said Wojas. "She felt very badly…[Cecelia] was a chunky girl, failing in most of her subjects."

Smart, in an interview with Derry police, stated Pierce was a "good kid" who looked up to her.

Pierce had known William Flynn through high school, and both were involved in the Project Self Esteem class. Through the class, Smart, Flynn and Pierce worked on an orange juice commercial together, along with Rachel Emond and Traci Collins.

According to Wojas, Smart's own self-esteem was at a low point during this period.

"She was incredibly responsible in the workplace, [but] she was incredibly socially immature," said Wojas. "Greg [Smart] came to her and told that he had cheated on her. She was teaching a course on self-esteem when her self-esteem was in the basement."

According to Pierce in her trial testimony, Smart and Flynn were originally just friends. She first noticed a change around February, when Smart confessed to Pierce that she "loved Bill."

"She sat me down in a chair," said Pierce in her testimony. "She said, 'I think I'm in love with Bill."

Pierce thought it was "ridiculous" at first.

"I think Cecelia had a crush on Bill," said Smart in a prison interview. "Maybe she became jealous of me, and that might have been a possible motive [for helping the state]."

About a week later, Smart told Flynn that she loved him. According to Pierce's trial testimony, at this time Smart also told Pierce that "she had a choice either to kill Greg or get a divorce."

An Accomplice to Murder

Pierce stayed over at Smart's house on numerous occasions, sometimes for week-long stretches at a time.

According to the Derry Police Department report, the first of these visits occurred in April of 1990. She also stayed from April 23-27.

It was during this visit that Flynn came over. This was the first time that Flynn and Smart had sexual intercourse, according to Pierce.

According to Pierce's trial testimony, this visit occurred one week before Greg's death. Flynn stayed at Smart's house along with Pierce on Tuesday of this week.

"We rented two movies," said Pierce in her testimony. "We watched 'Nine and a Half Weeks,' and then Bill and Pam went upstairs and I stayed downstairs and watched another movie."

Pierce was "getting bored," so she went upstairs to check on Smart and Flynn. She found them on the floor of the bedroom having sex.

According to the Derry police reports, Smart told Pierce "on an almost daily basis what was going on in the planning of Greg's death."

In the report, Pierce states that she was present on occasions when Smart and Flynn were discussing the details of the plans to murder Greg.

"She [Pierce] knew everything that was going on," said Raymond Fowler, who rode along in the car with Flynn, Patrick Randall and Vance Lattime on the night of Greg's murder.

The Tapes

Wiretapped conversations between Pierce and Smart occurred on four separate dates in 1990: June 19, July 12 and 13 and Aug. 1. The tapes of these conversations are difficult to hear in many places, and numerous transcript passages obtained by the Equinox are labeled "inaudible."

"The tape was garbled, I barely heard," said Wojas. "They were crackly, distorted, not good at all."

During Smart's trial, transcripts were provided as well as headphones, but the sound quality remained questionable.

"I couldn't hear anything," said Smart. "We all had headphones, jurors too. No one could hear."

"Bill Smart threw down the earphones as the tapes were played in the trial and said, 'I can't hear these damn things,'" said Wojas.

Paul Maggiotto, prosecutor for the case, acknowledged the poor tape quality.

"When we first listened to the tapes, they were difficult to hear," said Maggiotto. "We recorded it through speaker phone to a hand-held recorder. I would have done it differently. It wasn't the best conditions, [but] the tapes speak for themselves."

The first of these wiretaps were a series of telephone conversations between 2:55 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. on June 19. Throughout the tape, Smart speaks rapidly and sounds increasingly frantic and nervous.

"I was on Prozac, so I was hyper," said Smart. "I was talking really fast, and I already talk fast. I was out of it."

According to Wojas, Smart's Prozac dosage was incorrect.

"Pam was on Prozac, she weighed 102-105 pounds," said Wojas. "She was little and had a much higher dosage; it made her manic, talking fast."