Smith accompanied the men on that trip but returned to Cambridge the next day, where she first met with police.

Afterward, with Copney in jail, Smith moved in for a time with Copney’s mother, though as of March, then out on bail herself, she was living on her own and working in a New York retail store.

Since his arrest, Copney and Smith appear to have carried on their relationship, and prosecutors have used continued contact between the two as evidence that Smith has motivation to lie to protect Copney. Prosecutors have entered into the record jail visits and phone calls in which Smith has expressed her desire to marry Copney.

At a March hearing that centered around whether Smith’s lies to investigators were cause to bring her to trial, lead prosecutor Daniel J. Bennett ’85 to ask, “Miss Smith, you’d do anything to help Jabrai Jordan Copney, wouldn’t you?”

“Not at my own expense,” Smith responded. “Or at the expense of the truth. No, I wouldn’t do anything to protect him. I tried to do everything to protect him, it failed and now—now we’re here.”

IV.

“Here,” to be precise, is the Middlesex County Superior Court in Woburn, Mass. where Smith may soon stand trial for six criminal counts that include possession of a firearm and accessory after the fact to murder.

Smith had signed a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for her cooperation in the case. But prosecutors said she violated the deal by making numerous untrue and misleading statements, including her claim that she did not see the gun loaded before the incident and her failure to disclose information about the prior robbery of the Yale students.

Announcing that the deal was off because Smith had not upheld her end of the bargain, the Commonwealth indicted her in March 2010. Smith’s attorney responded by asserting that the agreement still stands and that Smith cannot legally be charged.

A Superior Court judge has had under advisement for months the question of whether Smith can indeed be tried. As of now, the judge is set to rule on the matter by June 10.

But at the conclusion of the most recent court action in the case—the sentencing of Aquino, who along with Jiggetts pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Cosby’s killing—District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. ’85 issued a statement indicating that she will be tried.

“Our efforts continue as we turn our attention to ... the trial of Brittany Smith,” he said.

Ruminating on Smith’s turbulent trajectory, Hodge said that Smith’s time at Harvard “should have resulted in a different outcome.”

“I think sometimes the challenge for young people is that ... they can’t bring people or mix up two different worlds,” Hodge said, referring to Smith’s decision to bring Copney from New York to Harvard with her.

Reflecting on his erstwhile star student, Hodge was regretful.

“We’re very disappointed at the sort of situation that this student got herself into.”

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.