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Who Is Manzie Smith Jr., Man Accused Of Killing 69-Year-Old Evelyn Player?

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore police and city officials on Thursday said 62-year-old Manzie Smith Jr. had been arrested and charged with the murder of Evelyn Player, a 69-year-old church staffer who was found dead inside the Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore last month.

According to court records, the last known address of Smith, who sometimes appears in records with the Sr. suffix, is in the Oldtown neighborhood. Officers arrested Smith on Wednesday in the 4900 block of Crenshaw Avenue in the Frankford neighborhood.

Smith was convicted of rape and assault in 1992, but Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Thursday there was no evidence Smith sexually assaulted Player.

In 2014, he was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery.

Smith was released on mandatory supervision, which ended in October, Harrison said.

There's also no evidence Smith and Player knew each other, the commissioner said.

Investigators found DNA evidence at the scene of Player's murder that led them to Smith, but Harrison declined to offer more details.

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