Susan Smith Would Have ‘Conversations’ As If Her ‘Kids Were Still Alive,’ Former Cellmate Says

In July 1995, Susan Smith was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years following the deaths of her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. When she reported to prison, she did not receive the warmest welcome from her cellmate, Christie Smith.

“When I first went into the room with her, I was mean. I was a mean girl,” Christie says in In Touch’s exclusive clip of Cellmate Secrets: Susan Smith. “I thought she could be a good target for me to pick at, find somebody weaker, as a bully does.”

“In her locker, the way she folds her clothes is immaculately like, creased and [in] a certain way and I ended up tearing that locker, I’d done it out of spite and the first couple of times, she was kind of pissed off about it. After that, she kinda quit getting pissed off, so it [had] no longer become fun to me. And then I realized, I’m doing the same thing she’d done. I’m preying on something smaller than me,” Christie adds.

After she tried several times to provoke Susan, she eventually gave up when she realized she couldn’t get a rise out of her. But after watching her closely, Christie started to see a different side of Susan.

“Susan was very delusional and I would notice that she would have conversations like the kids were still alive,” Christie says. “One Saturday morning, we got up. She had the little photo album out — she loved having that photo album out. She had a cup of coffee in her hand and she was just talking to the photo album. She was like,’ It’s OK, Michael’s going to take care of you guys. I know he is.’ And I was like, ‘What is she saying? Them kids are not going to come back.’ And one day, I told her that.”

Cellmate Secrets: Susan Smith will air on Friday, July 9 at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT following the enhanced edition of the original Lifetime movie Doomsday Mom: The Lori Vallow Story at 8 p.m ET/7 p.m. CT.