Aspiring Starlet From TC Faces Charges

A 2008 Traverse City West Senior High School grad and aspiring pop star was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder in Los Angeles. Courtney Argue, 25, was charged in connection with the death of John Michael King-Smith, 31, a record company executive who was found choked and beaten to death in a Glendale, Calif. apartment Sept. 15, according to the New York Daily News.

Two others, Sparkle Soojian, 32, and Jared Kasiewicz, 28, face murder charges.

Argue worked for Soojian’s company, Sparkles Angeles, as a “shot girl,” or someone who helps liven up parties. Argue’s ambition to become a pop star was the subject of a cover story in the April 11, 2011 Northern Express. Since then, Argue has recorded singles with the rappers Pitbull and Flo Rida, though she remains unsigned according to her Instagram account, which has 30,000 followers.