Man charged in 2018 death of Pasadena woman who was found stabbed in Westminster motel

A 26-year-old man was charged on Monday in the 2018 stabbing death of a Pasadena woman found in a Westminster motel room.

Aryan Vito Smith is charged with murder with a sentencing enhancement allegation of the personal use of a deadly weapon, in this case a knife, stemming from the death of 22-year-old Treeanna Nichols, court records show.

Smith was arrested Thursday, May 7 and was being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to jail records. Details about how he was tracked down and arrested were not immediately known.

Nichols was staying alone in the motel and had only been there a short time, Westminster police said in the time following her death. She had friends and acquaintances in the area, police said.

On Feb. 5, 2018, Westminster police were called by the woman’s family to do a welfare check on her at the Quality Inn at 6601 Westminster Blvd. Officers found her at about 11 p.m. in a room stabbed multiples times, Westminster police said.

About one month after Nichols’ death, police released surveillance footage of someone they suspected was her killer in hopes it would help find him.

The footage from the day she was found shows a man in a hooded sweatshirt walking up the stairs of the motel at about 3 p.m. and then leaving a short time later.

In the time in between, police said they believed he killed Nichols.