Elliott Smith’s girlfriend Jennifer Chiba has lost a California appellate court case where she claimed she was entitled to a portion of Smith’s estate “because they had lived together, shared equally their earnings and property and held themselves out to the public as husband and wife. Smith, she claimed, promised to support Chiba for the rest of her life.”
She also claimed she acted as Smith’s manager and agent, including booking gigs for him, and was entitled to 15% of all proceeds he earned. She sought more than $1 million.
Chiba was there when Smith allegedly killed himself, and admitted to police that she pulled the knife out of his chest. Chiba has maintained that she didn’t kill him: “It’s absolutely not my fault. I know that, and people close to Elliott know that.” Smith’s family, however, was not so sure…
More from the Hollywood Reporter:
But the state labor commissioner and later the trial court ruled Chiba was not allowed to make a claim on the estate because she acted as an unlicensed talent agent under the state’s Talent Agencies Act.
In reviewing the trial court’s decision, the 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed 2-1 that while Chiba did have a “cohabitative agreement” with Smith, she also had a recording management agreement. Justices Fred Woods and Laurie Zelon ruled both of those contracts were “inextricably intertwined” and could not be considered as seperate agreements in the case.
But Justice Earl Johnson dissented, writing the two agreements were severable and Chiba could enforce her cohabitative agreement, known as the “Marvin arrangement” named after the infamous palimony case involving actor Lee Marvin.
MP3s from From a Basement on a Hill:
Guilty!!!
This makes me cry, I wish that I could stab her in the chest. She deserves it more than any human I know of. I have hated her guts since the day he died when i was twelve years old, FUCK HER for trying to take money from him. Or ever having known him. I love you elliott.
Peace to your beautiful soul.
you 12 year old idiot
you don’t sound cool. shut up
i believe she said in 2003 she was 12… 2009-2003=6+12=18. good job on your math skills though..
i miish u elliott
i got ur named tatted!!!
Jennifer Chiba did NOT kill Elliott Smith. He stabbed himself in the chest 2 times because he was suicidal (he tried overdosing on drugs, and he jumped off a cliff). He wanted to die. My mom met Jennifer and she used to have meltdowns when she talked about Elliott because she misses his beautiful soul. Fuck anyone who says she killed him. She is a sweet-heart. I’ll always love you, Elliott and i know you’re making beautiful music in heaven.
so where are your facts hun? I would love to know why she felt the need to wipe down the knife if she didnt kill him.. I would love to know why she called other people before she called 911, or why she was in a relationship right after he died,.. shes so sad she has to get fcked by other dudes to make up for it/? congrats on your mom going face to face with a murderer. Rivers Cuomo even has a song about Jennifer Chiba that straight up calls her a liar. shes a compulsive liar and even elliott smith himself said this.. She chased him around the house months prior with a knife threatening to kill him.. Elliot Smith said in once if he was ever to kill himself he would “do it in a way that would not hurt (his) mother” also its so interesting that your hero Chiba is trained in the medical field yet couldnt follow simple protocol, you dont take out a knife, you apply pressure, why didnt she immediately call 911? why was there “blood all throughout the house” I know this post is from 2009 and you probably wont answer, but its a Damn shame youre so gullible.
Almost everything you said is factually wrong. I was there the last few years when he was dating Chiba, and the night of the suicide I came by the house after it went down. You are making the most moronic baseless suppositions. Unreal. And for the record, Chiba is a therapist; she has absolutely no medical training of any sort. Where did you get this shit? Don’t give you opinion about that which you know nothing. These are real people’s lives. How would you like it someone just made stuff up about you involving the murder of someone you love by guessing about the facts or getting them 3rd hand? I don’t have the time to refute everything that is wrong with you post. So how many years did you train with the FBI and become an expert on murder scenes? I guess you examined it yourself and did interviews. You wouldn’t just make these slanderous claims without getting the information first hand? Oh, wait. You clearly did that, you complete idiot.
Andrew, of course she had a basic medical training! I talked to several therapists and CPR, First Aid are required by the state. I even emailed the place she worked at (Five Acres), and this is the answer:
From: Robin Smith Jurado
Subject: RE: art therapist (requirement for employment)
Thank you for your email,
All of our direct care staff, including our therapists, is trained in CPR and First Aid.
At this time, we do not have any plans to hire Master’s level art therapists.
Robin Smith Jurado
Assistant Director of Human Resources
Volunteers and Recruitment
Integrity, Compassionate Leadership, and a Commitment to Collaboration
As for the rest I could give all the info you want. I don’t know if she cleaned up the knife but it is a FACT there were no fingerprints on the knife handle. I talked to the detectives and they confirmed this to me.
She said to Elliott’s family (I talked directly to one person) that she could not call immediately because her cell phone was no working, and this is why there was a delay with the ambulance. Again, first hand info directly from Elliott’s family… I could go on.
And why are you talking about the ‘night of the suicide’, you know it happened at noon right?
How do you stab yourself *twice* with no hesitation wounds? Why would she pull the knife out when she knew that was a death sentence with her medical training? Why does the family still have doubts? Sorry, but I call BS.
I have always loved Elliott. ..I am also inflicted with mental disorders, have been a heroin addict and alcoholic, and have acne. I am always saying that I hate my face. So i really relate to him. About seven months ago Dusty, my Fiance /Love of my life, who was a musician, overdosed and died in my arms. His parents were really worried if we were married b/c it turns out he had a big inheritance. I never knew about it. We lived very poorly during our heroin years, but I was still so happy just to have him with me and cuddling all the time. He would give me sooo many kisses on my neck. No amount of money could make up for those times, or for his life. Money was the last thing I would think of when I lost him. I don’t blame Jennifer either though. When you are in love and loved, you want the best for each other. I know Dusty would want me to have everything of his, especially sentimental things. I feel for Jennifer because I relate. My Love’s mother Hates me and blames me. I don’t believe Jennifer killed him. I know that when I was High, my lover and i would fight sometimes because i was really needy. Anyway, I used to cut myself. I used a razor blade and went deeper than I realized or intended. One time I cut my arm so deep i could see my muscles and whatever. Now I have ugly ass scars all over my body. When your depressed and suicidal as Elliott and I were, then add drugs, It’s real easy to go too far when cutting or attempting suicide. Depression is powerful and it is all consuming. At least that’s how its been with me. I know that Dusty had a hard time dealing with me because he couldn’t understand why I would hurt myself. It’s not his or Jennifer’s fault.Or Elliott’s or mine, It’s sad but life isn’t fair. At least Elliott and Dusty are in heaven and no longer in pain, either physical or emotional. We’ll see them again when our time comes. The day Dusty died I made a promise to never touch a drink or drugs again, to honor him and respect him. Now I am going on one year sober, pretty much the first time sober in fifteen years. Yet I am completely destroyed by his death. The good news is that there are people like Elliott and Jennifer that i can relate to and i don’t feel so alone. And Elliott’s music give me comfort. Sorry so long- I just really felt inspired to share my story. Love to all…
I hope you’re happy and well Kate <3 Sending you love and courage xo
hey, fellow junkie here. i just wanted to let you know i feel for ya, and i understand at least some of how you feel. about 63 (yes, 63) of my friends over the years have died from ODs. no, not everyone of them was super close to me, but they were still important, and some of them were close af. yet here i am, still being a bonehead and using, cause i just wanna block out the pain. God Bless.
She did it.
No other witnesses, and she would not talk to investigators afterward.
Then she went after his money, posthumously.
2 defensive wounds on arms
No hesitation wounds in the autopsy report
Who told you that everyone has hesitation wounds when committing suicide? Who told you everyone talks to the police right away no matter how much grief they are in? People grieve in a million different ways any psychologist will tell you. The court case was split 2-1 as her case was not without merit. Based on your reading of the autopsy report you clearly must be an MD who had performed many autopsies. No? You are just an idiot repeating stupid things you heard 4th hand. Good for you. We should all just base our assumptions and guesses about topics and situations we know nothing about but accept all evidence that confirms your theory of the case, discounting info that is contradictory.. You must be a Trump supporter. Keep it up. You can fail your way to the top. Idiot.
For your info, I sent the complete autopsy report to two forensic experts, one big name in the business, and another one who is a specialist of stabbing (suicide/murder). I am not going to give their names in a public forum, but I have documents to back up what I am saying. The first one told me it was very suspicious and that, based on his experience, it was probably a homicide. The other reviewed all the details of the autopsy, and made a list, and there are way more arguments toward homicide than suicide. And if hesitation wounds are present in most suicide (yes), one other ‘detail’ he noticed was much more important to point out: bone, cartilage injuries are much much more frequent in a case of homicide than suicide. Both stabs had injured Elliott’s bones, and this is a huge argument toward homicide… for more info read this article :’Homicidal and suicidal sharp force fatalities: Autopsy parameters in relation to the manner of death” published in Forensic Science International. I talked to one of the authors.
That self entitled cunt is a fucken murderer. Even an idiot would know not to pull the object let alone clean it. How this MURDERER CUNT got away with it is fucken baffling. I hope someone murders her money greedy ass. That poor man must have been wide eyed when she took the first stab and tried to deflect it causing the laceration on his hand. She was high on something and went bat-shit on this human than delayed the call and cleaned the evidence.
Too the little bitch defending her “You do not need to be a fucken FBI investigator to use commonsense”, use your goddam brainand think with it you ignorant sheep.
You really are desperate to defend Chiba. What’s your connection to her? Are you banging? Why are you randomly conflating thinking Elliott was murdered to being a Trump supporter? The brain rot is strong with this one.
Yeah things can get out of control when you’re high and you can go too far, but try reading the coroner’s report – no drugs found in his body when he died. He wasn’t high, he was murdered. I bet she can’t sleep at night for the guilt, I hope they convict her soon.
That’s great detective work. Since there were no drugs in his system, it was clearly a suicide. All those years as an MD doing autopsies has really paid off for you. People like you who give there opinion about which they know nothing are wonderful. Thanks for electing Trump. Keep at it. How can you accuse someone of murder knowing nothing about the case, the many different types of suicides which don’t fit neatly into categories or anything about their history. If anyone should feel guilty, its you. You accused someone of MURDER based on hearsay. That’s great. I hope someone accuses you of murder with no evidence so you know how it feels. How do you sleep? This is stupidity for the ages.
Who knows what happened..stop judging her, there is no proof to say that she definately did it. All i can say is that he must have been desperate if he stabbed himself in the heart.. twice. love you forever elliott.
The cause is officially undetermined and he did die under suspicious circumstances… So it is not unreasonable to argue for homicide…
It is very reasonable for her to be a person of interest. She was present in the home and had been arguing with him shortly before he was fatally stabbed in the chest. Each wound was as fatal as its counterpart wound. He was standing when she pulled out the knife.
It is actually surprising that she wasn’t scrutinized more by the authorities.
She also provided the police with a litany of reasons as to his predeliction to suicidal ideation and self harm and his history of drug abuse… Then she ziplocks her mouth and wouldn’t talk to the police.
Who stabs themselves in the chest? Like f-ing twice! Cmon! Use your head! This chick got away with murder! I have thought about this for years. Pisses me off.
You know who stabs themselves in the chest? Something like 20% of people who commit suicides. I looked it up years ago and it was not some freak thing that only happened in 1 in 1000 suicides. Much more common. So you made it plain as day you know nothing about suicide, their relationship, his mental health history, etc. Wow, what a great world where people give their opinion about that which they no nothing about. Maybe you should run the economy, or take over Google. What else don’t you know about so we can get your useless opinion. You just accused someone of murder, which, unless you were in the Police or FBI for 20 years, you know nothing about. Do you think that fair, or the decent thing to do?
I don’t think that 20% figure is accurate, Andrew. At least not according to the CDC:
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
Only 7.9% of suicides are by methods other than firearms (49.8%), suffocation (26.8%), or poisoning (15.4). Stabbing yourself in the chest (twice!) is very rare. That obviously doesn’t mean it never happens, nor does it prove Elliott Smith was murdered. But it is not a common way to kill yourself.
Where did you get this 20%?… This is not true at all, suicides by stabbing represent around 1.6-3.0% of suicides, This is called a fact based on research… look here, one of the numerous articles you can find on the subject:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3440888/
and according to this article, very few people stab themselves in the chest (20%), most of them stab themselves in the abdomen (46%)
so according to these statistics 3% x 20% => 0.6 % is actually the % of people who stab themselves in the chest.
You know nothing
You forgot to accuse him of voting for Trump. Just letting you know….
Weird, autopsy report showed defensive wounds on the left forearm, but she said she didn’t…..so closed case right? What a money grubbing murdering cunt.
I hope karma catches up with you and you get accused of something you didn’t do by some clueless moron who watch CSI to many times. You clear must be an MD who did hundreds of autopsies. Don’t you have any shame? You have 3rd hand info most likely and no background to make any sense of it. You would make a great President of the US, just like Trump. He gives his opinion on many things he knows nothing about. Grow up.
Hi Jennifer. Googleling your name?
For real. The last sentence in evol1sg’s message is aggressive and immature, but it feels to me like Andrew Perer is either her or is related/a sponsor for her. I feel like she killed him or maybe helped him kill himself. I think that’s what happened, but only she and Elliott know if he wanted that or not. I love Elliott’s work. Dearly. I wish I knew what happened that night and that he was alive today. Sorrowfully, he’s not. But thank heck he left the body of work he did. Literally every song he ever wrote was fantastic. I don’t think I can say that about any other musician I know of. Even The Beatles have a stinker or two. Thank you, Elliott. You rocked us, man.
the bitch did it. no doubt about it. elliott had problems as we all do, but he was someone special. someone the world needed a little longer, and she took that away from all of us. shes a fucking psycho, and now shes after his money. what a bitch, if anyone out there knows her seriously punch that bitch in the cunt for me.
RIP Elliott, you are missed more then you know.
Hey everybody, it’s fine to have an opinion about what you think happened, but can we try to stop with the personal attacks and name calling? It doesn’t do anybody any good.
We all miss you Elliot
I truly think we should all take the opinion of someone who has a mother that told her she met the person who caused the death of Elliott. You were not there, neither was your mother. You did not know Elliott. Why don’t you ask one of Steve’s family members for their opinions?
fuck that bitch! money grubbing cunt! put her away and throw away the key.
People do stab themselves in the chest…yes all by themselves. I know someone who did. In a park…sitting alone…stabbed himself and died.
Knowing Elliott’s history of wanting to leave this planet he more than likely stabbed himself.
Prior to his death, had Jennifer behaved as though she were interested in his assets there might be reason to believe she had something to do with his death but she didn’t.
Life is hard and often basically sucks so a few years down the road I can totally see someone wanting a piece of his estate, especially having lived with him.
Do the people who control his estate now deserve to control it?…sounds like to a large degree his parents were responsible for a lot of his hell.
But *twice*? Without hesitation wounds? Why did Chiba pull out the knife if she had medical training?
No, please… I had enough of this!!
HE WAS THAT SAD-SACK GUY ALL THE TIME
PLEASE, STOP
DO YOU GUYS REALLY BELIEVE HE WAS THE ~MOST SAD~ PEOPLE IN THE FACE OF THE WORLD??
C’MOM, PLEASE, STOP!!
HE WOULD NOT END HIS LIFE IN THAT WAY!!
Lorne, his stepfather was horrible, his mother did nothing to protect him from his step father , at least his biological father was there for him later on but it’s terrible that he had to live in such a bad environment until he was 14 or 15
As difficult as it sounds, I believe he could’ve stabbed himself in the heart twice. What doesn’t make sense to me is, why would she pull the knife out? Anyone knows you don’t pull an object that is deep in the human body because it could cause more damage, sever blood vessels and bleed him out. LAPD should have considered negligent homicide just for that act of stupidity.
Unfortunately many people have forgotten this…I haven’t. Jennifer Chiba lives and touts herself as an art therapist, he is dead. We all know that no one misspells their own name in a suicide note…and to sue his family after for a percentage of his estate?? No one who actually cared would even remotely do that – I’m a strong believer in karma but since she clearly has not gotten hers and still tries to profit off his estate over 10 years later I’ve lost all my faith…
You don’t know what you are talking about on so many levels. The coroner misspelled his name later; the suicide note did not have any misspelling. Did you go to the FBI Academy? What do you know about suicides? I can tell you there are no hard and fast rules that always apply. You just haven’t the slightest idea about anything you are talking about. You got your facts from 3rd party reports. I hung out with Elliot and Chiba just before the suicide and the night of the suicide after the police came. You don’t know the first thing about his history of depression, legal and illegal drug use, or how many times he’d already tried suicide. You should just shut up because you are so clueless. Just amazing. Just amazing. How would you like it if a totally clueless idiot accused you of murder with no evidence? Unreal. These are real people. This isn’t a soap opera. Think before you speak.
again, the stabbing didn’t happen at night. It was noon. It is true that his name was not misspelled on the note, but to me, it was not a suicide note, it doesn’t add up. There’s no way he could have written a note like this, while pounding on the door, begging her to open, (what Chiba said herself) then stabbing himself?? it doesn’t make sense at all, it was a very aggressive act to do in front of someone, he was terribly mad… but ‘forgive me’?? this note could have been written any day, at any moment
You spelled his name wrong: it’s “Elliott.”
but Andrew was a close friend, how could he misspell his name?
Andrew, I reiterate my demand, I would love talking to you, if you were around at the time as you are saying… I have tons of questions to ask you!! I talked to Abigail R. before she died… reach me at [email protected]
We have the police reports, you dumbass. SHE DID IT!
I would assume she would have blood on her but if she removed a knife blood could have gotten on her anyway. I think it’s tragic when someone is accused of something they didn’t even do, especially regarding the death of a BELOVED in which she was a candidate for children with and I’m sure she participated in the impeccable feeling of sitting on the couch and eating ice cream with. The truth always prevails. Blowing a bullhorn in an emotional display of lack for better terms an INNOCENT person walks the streets still a therapist for the love of others.
She didn’t have blood on her because she SHOWERED after.
Jennifer Chiba, art therapist, pathological liar, and murderer.
do you know this for sure? There has been a lot of confusion about the shower… did she take a shower, before, after, not at all? It’s not in the police report though. But I wonder about her appearance when the police showed up because if she did CPR on someone with two open wounds (which doesn’t make sense in the first place) she would certainly have some blood on her…
The answer is in the “suicide note.” That it states “God forgive me” is evidence it was not composed by Elliott. According to my research about Elliott Smith he did not believe in God, but he did believe in hell. This is a glaring contradiction to his personal philosophy. Why would a brilliant writer contradict himself on a subject so important, deep and personal in the very last thing he would ever write?
It has been over 14 years since we lost Elliott. Will this case ever be closed?
Also, I am horrified at the reported frequency that “psychiatrists” were willing to throw prescriptions at Elliott for his emotional difficulties. This is negligent and dangerous to take so many and often counteractive pharmaceuticals at once. This part of our system failed Elliott. If anything, he needed DMT, THC, and psilocybin to hasten healing.
Isn’t it ironic his father is a psychiatrist?
I LOVE YOU so much Elliott Smith. You are the musical love of my life.
Peace to all!
Correction to the previous post. It has been11 years since Elliott has passed.
I read that Elliott once turned blue and passed out at his show from malnourishment. It is so sad that a true genius who could probably afford the finest food in town was eating double rainbow ice cream and perishing for lack of real food. He could have grown strong off the fat of the land. I wish a true professional had been looking out for his well being when he needed help so dearly. He had too much freedom when a schedule or some kind or regiment he must commit to may have saved his life.
It is baffling how vulnerable people are. Perhaps the greatest musician of all time was a victim of his own past and choices. What can be done to protect artists, famous people, or anyone who has so many options for pain or pleasure?
If only Elliott had that one constant in his life. A place of unconditional love, nurturing and healing where he could always land. Maybe he had such a place, but resisted that option for a darker path.
Is it possible to heal such deep suffering and apparent brokenness?
One of the sweetest hearts to ever beat on this earth was broke by bad love, broke by life and then broke with a knife.
Mercy.
I’ve wondered if his mental issues were nutritional in nature. Low b12. Copper imbalance.
While it is cathartic to post an opinion on this site, I am appalled by the anger and violence fanning the flames of our pain. We are hurt by losing Elliott and react with that pain. This is violent and counterproductive. Regardless of the events that took place around Elliott’s death, we must take a breath and lead with compassion.
Selfishly, I wonder what was next in Elliott’s musical development. He seemed to be coming into his own and his style evolved incrementally over time.
If you went to one of his shows you are damn lucky!
I never had the privilege of going to an Elliott Smith show.
Here is a new website about his mysterious death, I have tried to talk to many people and gather as many information as possible… 2 posts will be added each day
https://justiceforelliottsmithcom.wordpress.com
She’s guilty