Sammantha Uriarte Allen is on death row in Arizona along with her husband John Allen. According to court documents Sammantha and John Allen would put a ten year old girl into a plastic tub and closed the lid. The little girl would die from overheating. Apparently the reason for this barbaric punishment is that the little girl took a couple of ice pops without asking. When the forensic pathologist was examining the child he found signs of old injuries and police would uncover a long series of abuses that was inflicted on the child. The two would be convicted of child abuse and murder and sentenced to death
Last Name First Name Middle Initial URIARTE SAMMANTHA E
Gender Height (inches)Weigh tHair Color FEMALE 63 150 BLOND
Eye ColorEthnic Origin Custody Class Admission GREEN CAUCASIAN Close/Moderate 08/07/2017
Projected Eligible Release Date Prison Release DateRelease Type Death SENTENCE EXPIRATION
Most Recent Location As of Date Complex Unit Last Movement Status PERRYVILLEAS PC-PV LUMLEY UNIT 08/25/2021 ACTIVE
Sammantha Allen Other News
In the end, the jurors felt they had no choice but to sentence Sammantha Allen to death for the brutal 2011 murder of her 10-year-old cousin, Ame Deal.
Sammantha Uriarte Allen had been on trial in Maricopa County Superior Court since May, one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight.
“The pictures of the victim stayed in our minds,” said juror Ann Ospeth. “I think the thing for us was the victim and all the things her life entailed.”
It demanded a death penalty, the jurors agreed.
“We were following what the law stated,” said juror Amanda Heath.
And indeed the jurors felt that Allen should be punished to the max.
They also found aggravating factors for the four underlying child-abuse counts against Allen, which allowed the judge to impose harsher sentences for those charges.
Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders sentenced Sammantha to an additional four consecutive sentences totaling 76 years for those crimes. She was given credit for more than 2,000 days she has already spent in custody.
Sammantha was found guilty June 26. Then the jury deliberated for a week over whether there were mitigating factors that would allow Sammantha Allen to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison.
They considered her age, her dysfunctional upbringing and the fact that she had no prior criminal record. But they determined the horror of the crime outweighed all of those.
A Phoenix woman was sentenced to death Monday in the killing of her 10-year-old cousin who was locked in a small plastic storage box and left to die.
Sammantha Uriarte Allen is one of just dozens of female death-row inmates in the United States.
The jury reached the verdict after Allen, 29, was convicted in June of first-degree murder and four counts of child abuse in the 2011 killing of Ame Deal, who was punished for stealing an ice pop.
Sammantha Uriarte Allen held her head in her hand and wept as the verdict was read and later cried and hugged her attorneys before she was led out of the courtroom.
“Lack of remorse was the biggest thing that played into it for us, that we didn’t see that from Sammantha throughout the whole process,” juror Anne Schaad told CBS affiliate KPHO-TV.
Allen will become the 55th woman condemned to die nationwide. There are only two other women on death row in Arizona, which is among the states struggling to buy execution drugs after pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products in lethal injections.
In comparison, nearly 2,800 men are facing executions in the U.S., according to an April report by the NAACP that’s used by the Death Penalty Information Center.
In Allen’s case, authorities said she and her husband are responsible for making Ame get into the box, where she was left and found dead six or seven hours later.
The girl’s death was the culmination of a history of abuse that a handful of relatives heaped on her, authorities say.
Ame was forced to eat dog feces, crush aluminum cans barefoot, consume hot sauce and get in the storage box on other occasions. She also was kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool, investigators said.
Adults at the home originally claimed Ame hid during a late-night game of hide-and-seek and wasn’t found until hours later. Three other relatives are in prison serving sentences for abusing Ame.
Allen’s husband, John Allen, 29, is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 9. He’s has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse and also faces the death penalty.
Sammantha Allen’s mother, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who also was Ame’s legal guardian, is serving a 24-year prison sentence for a child abuse conviction.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn’t receive any reports of abuse before her death. But child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child, police said.
The verdict comes after executions in Arizona were put on hold following the 2014 death of a prisoner who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination before he died in what his attorney called a botched execution.
But the state is now able to resume executions after a lawsuit that challenged the way Arizona carries out the death penalty was settled earlier this summer. No executions are scheduled.
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Sammantha Uriarte is currently incarcerated at the ASPC Perryville, Lumley Unit the home of Arizona Death Row for Women
Why Is Sammantha Uriarte On Death Row
Sammantha Allen was convcited of the murder of a ten year old girl
Wendi Andriano husband became ill and he was unable to work and soon thereafter she decided that she did not want to take care of him and decided her best course was to kill him. According to court documents Andriano would ask friends to pose as her husband in order to take out life insurance policies and she spent her free time researching how to kill her computer online.
Eventually Wendi would start adding powerful medication capsules to his coffee and on the day he would die she would call the ambulance saying her husband was having a heart attack however when they showed up she turned them away. Wendi would call the ambulance back later in the day after she struck him several times with a blunt object and stabbed him in the neck. Wendi Andriano claimed abuse at her trial however none of her friends or family saw any indication of abuse. Andriano would be convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Comments:Wendi Andriano’s husband became seriously ill and had to cease working. Allegedly resentful of her responsibilities, Wendi Andriano began frequenting bars and engaging in extramarital affairs. As her discontent increased, she hatched a scheme to kill her husband and profit from his death. She asked her friends if they would pose as her husband so that she could obtain a life insurance policy.
She researched the effects of various poisons and how to obtain them discreetly. Andriano ordered poison and had it sent to a separate business. Although Andriano claimed that she was physically and psychologically abused by her husband, none of her friends ever observed any signs of abuse. Andriano began slipping sodium azide capsules to her husband.
In the early morning hours of October 8, 2000, Andriano called 911 to report that her husband was having a heart attack, but when paramedics arrived, she turned them away. Several hours later, she again called 911 to report that she had stabbed and beaten him in self-defense. When paramedics arrived, they found Joe Andriano dead from repeated beatings and a stab wound to the neck. Weak from the poisoning and chemotherapy, he was unable to defend himself against Andriano, who struck him at least 20 times with a barstool before stabbing him in the neck. Proceedings:Presiding Judge: Hon. Brian K. Ishikawa Prosecutor: Juan Martinez Defense Counsel: Daniel Patterson & David Delozier Start of Trial: August 23, 2004 Verdict: November 18, 2004 Sentencing: December 22, 2004 Aggravating:Especially heinous, cruel or depraved Mitigating:None sufficient to call for leniency Pub Opinions:[Direct Appeal pending before the Arizona Supreme Court]
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In 2004, Wendi Andriano was convicted of one count of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the killing of her terminally ill husband. The following facts are taken from the opinion of the Arizona Supreme Court affirming the conviction and sentence, State v. Andriano, 215 Ariz. 497, 161 P.3d 540 (2007), and from the Court’s review of the record.
At about 2:15 a.m. on October 8, 2000, Andriano called Chris, a coworker who lived at the same apartment complex, and asked her to watch the Andrianos’ two children while she took her husband, Joe, to the doctor. Wendi Andriano met Chris outside the apartment and told her Joe was dying. She also stated that she hadn’t called 911 yet. Chris urged her to do so.
Upon entering the apartment, Chris found Joe lying on the living room floor in the fetal position. He had vomited, appeared weak, and was having difficulty breathing. While Wendi Andriano was in another room calling 911, Joe told Chris that he needed help and had “for a long time.” He asked why it was taking 45 minutes for the paramedics to show up.
Chris heard the paramedics arrive and went outside to direct them to the apartment. As the paramedics were unloading their equipment, Andriano came out of the apartment screaming at them to leave. She returned to the apartment and slammed the door. Chris and the paramedics knocked on the door but no one answered. The Phoenix Fire Department called the Andrianos’ home telephone in an attempt to get Wendi Andriano to open the door. They notified the paramedics that contact had been made with someone in the apartment who would come out to speak with them. Instead of coming out the front door, which opened onto the living room, Andriano went out through the back door, climbed over the patio wall, and walked around the apartment building to the front door. She had changed her shirt and her hair was wet. Wendi Andriano told the paramedics that Joe was dying of cancer and had a do-not-resuscitate order. The paramedics left without entering the apartment.
Wendi Andriano called 911 again at 3:39 a.m. The same paramedics responded. When they entered the apartment they found Joe lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood. As determined by the medical examiner, Joe had sustained brain hemorrhaging caused by more than 20 blows to the back of his head. He had also suffered a stab wound to the side of his neck that severed his carotid artery. A broken bar stool covered in blood was found near Joe’s body, along with pieces of a lamp, a bloody kitchen knife, a bloody pillow, and a belt.
Trace amounts of the poison sodium azide were found in Joe’s blood and gastric contents, and in the contents of a pot and two soup bowls in the kitchen. Police also found gelatin capsules filled with sodium azide.
Defensive wounds on Joe’s hands and wrists indicated that he was conscious for at least part of the attack. Blood spatter and other evidence indicated that he was lying down during the attack. The absence of arterial spurting on the belt and the knife indicated that the items were placed beside Joe’s body after he died.
At trial, Wendi Andriano testified that Joe, who was suffering from terminal cancer and had been contemplating suicide, decided to take his life that night and swallowed several of the sodium azide capsules. The poison failed to kill him, however, and he became verbally abusive, accusing Andriano of infidelity and violently attacking her when she admitted to an affair. Andriano testified that Joe tried to strangle her with a telephone cord but she was able to cut the cord with a knife. When Joe picked up the knife she struck him with the bar stool in self-defense. She then hid in the bathroom but when she returned Joe still had the knife in his hand and was threatening to kill himself. She testified that she tried to stop him and during the resulting struggle his neck was cut.
Andriano also presented evidence, including expert testimony, that she was a victim of domestic abuse. Andriano testified that throughout the course of their marriage Joe had been emotionally, physically, and sexually abusive. The expert testified about the psychological effects of domestic abuse.
The jury found Wendi Andriano guilty of first-degree murder. During the penalty phase, the jury found one aggravating factor: that the murder had been committed in an “especially cruel manner” under A.R.S. § 13-751(F)(6). The jury then found that the evidence presented in mitigation was not sufficiently substantial to call for leniency and returned a verdict of death.
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A 34-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills woman was convicted Thursday of poisoning, beating and stabbing her terminally ill husband to death in October 2000 and now faces the possibility of the death penalty.
If sentenced to death, Wendi Andriano would become the second woman on Arizona’s death row. Jurors, who took 2 1 /2 hours to return their verdict, will begin hearing evidence in the penalty phase Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court.
After the guilty verdict was announced, Andriano glanced sharply at defense attorney David DeLozier. Her husband’s parents and two sisters, one of whom is raising the couple’s two small children, cried quietly and exchanged hugs.
“This is a relief for us because now we can get on with our life, and the children can get on with their life and have the normal family life they deserve,” said Jeanea Lambeth, one of the sisters.
Jurors were told Andriano grew tired of the time it was taking Joseph Andriano, 33, to die and devised a plan to poison him with the pesticide sodium azide. Prosecutor Juan Martinez said Wendi Andriano believed she could receive as much as $20 million if her husband died before their medical malpractice suit went to trial.
Not only did Wendi Andriano have two affairs in the weeks before her husband’s death, but she called multiple insurance companies in an attempt to get policies on her husband, Martinez said. She also asked two men to impersonate Joseph Andriano during the required physical exams — offering one of them $10,000 to do so, the prosecutor said.
Wendi Andriano’s attorneys, DeLozier and Dan Patterson, painted her as a meek and battered wife desperate for affection.
Andriano testified that her husband was the one who devised a plan that would end his life on his terms and provide life insurance for their two children, Nicholas, then 3, and Ashley, then 2. It was at his insistence, she claimed, that she purchased the insecticide under a false name and tried to purchase extra life insurance.
Wendi Andriano said that on the day of her husband’s death he voluntarily took the poison in pill form and stabbed himself in the neck after learning she had a one-night stand. She said she beat her enraged husband repeatedly with a bar stool in self-defense.
According to court testimony, Joseph Andriano was struck in the head 23 times and the pesticide was found in a pot of soup and two bowls.
Wendi Andriano faces either life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years, life without parole, or the death penalty. She could receive the death penalty if the jury finds the slaying was especially cruel, heinous and depraved and because the motivating factor was money.
If given the death penalty, Andriano will join Debra Milke on death row. Milke was convicted of hiring two friends to shoot her 4-year-old son to death in December 1989 because she didn’t want him to grow up to be like his father. The boy went with the men believing he was going to visit Santa Claus
Shawna Forde was part of an underground network of people who wanted to stop people from illegally entering the country or at least that is what they told people. According to court documents Shawna Forde and Jason Bush would force their way into a home where they would murder a man and his nine year old daughter and attempted to murder the child’s mother. Of course police would learn that Shawna Forde and Jason Bush were actually looking for drugs and money. The pair would go to court and be convicted of armed robbery, two counts of murder and attempted murder and would be subsequently sentenced to death. Shawna Forde remains on Arizona Death Row
Shawna Forde, a border vigilante, was sentenced to death today for the murders of a 9-year-old Arivaca, Ariz., girl and her father in a home invasion she orchestrated to rob the family.
The jury deliberated only a few hours before coming to the decision, but the one juror who spoke to reporters said the deliberations were difficult.
“We chose death because that’s what seems fair,” juror Angela Thomas told ABC affiliate KGUN-TV in Tucson.
“While Shawna Forde gets to delight in the picture of her brand new grandson, there’s another person in this equation who never will. There’s another person in this equation who’ll never get to wear her first pair of high heels or have her first kiss or go to prom or graduation,” Thomas said. “There’s a little girl in this equation who’s father won’t be able to walk her down the aisle.”
She said the trial, which included graphic, detailed testimony about how Raul “Junior” Flores, 29, and his young daughter were gunned down in their own home while Flores’ wife, pretending to be dead, watched, was extremely painful.
“Hideous, the apropos word is hideous. Every second of every day. Every time I close my eyes I see this picture. It’s a picture of a love seen innocent enough. And little hands with red fingernails and a white tank top and turquoise colored pajama shorts,” Thomas said. “I’ve seen it a thousand times in my house. I have daughters. The difference in this picture I see is that this little girl’s face, half of her face is missing.”
Shawna Forde, 43, founder of Minutemen American Defense, showed no emotion when the verdict was read, but her attorney, Eric Larsen, said he did not expect the jury to come back with a death sentence.
“No I did not,” Larsen told KGUN-TV. “I fully expected that this community valued human life greater then this jury did.”
Shawna Forde was convicted Feb. 14 of two counts of murder for orchestrating the home invasion. Prosecutors said she planned to rob Flores, who she thought was a drug dealer, to fund her border watch group.
There were rumors that Flores had a stash of $4,000 in cash in the house.
Flores and his daughter Bresenia were both killed in the May 2009 attack at their Arivaca home. His wife, Gina Gonzalez, was shot three times, but survived by playing dead.
In addition to the first-degree murder charges, Shawna Forde was found guilty of one count of attempted first-degree murder; one count of burglary in the first-degree; one count of aggravated assault, serious physical injury; one count of aggravated assault, deadly weapon/dangerous instrument; one count of armed robbery; and one count of aggravated armed robbery.
The Pima County Superior Court jury came back with a verdict after it deliberated for seven hours over two days.
Shawna Forde’s lawyer had argued that the woman was not in the house when Flores and his daughter were murdered, so she should not be found guilty.
But prosecutors said Shawna Forde was with the two men who broke into the Flores home, and Gonzalez testified that she was there.
“She didn’t put a gun to Brisenia’s head … but she was the one in charge,” Pima County Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said in closing arguments. “Because of that you must hold her accountable.”
Gonzalez, who played dead in the kitchen after being shot three times in the leg, identified one of the three suspects as Shawna Forde.
“She’s walking in and she’s got a smile on her face. She looks up … and walks back out,” Gonzalez told the jury.
The woman testified in chilling detail about seeing her husband and daughter killed.
“He’s all out of bullets by then because he used them on me and Junior,” she said of one of the alleged gunmen who had shot and killed Flores before turning the barrel on their crying daughter, Brisenia. “He stands here and he loads the gun right in front of her.”
“And is this something you can see happening?” Pima County Deputy Attorney Kellie Johnson asked.
“I just hear her telling him, ‘Please don’t shoot me, please don’t shoot me,’” Gonzalez said.
Then, Brisenia was shot in the head.
Two other suspects — Jason Bush, a known white-supremacist, and Albert Gaxiola, a convicted drug dealer — are in custody awaiting trials later this spring. Like Forde, both men have pleaded not guilty.
In a 911 call recording played in court, Gonzalez could be heard using her husband’s handgun to fire back at the men after they had left and returned, continuing to ransack the house.
“They’re coming back in, they’re coming back in,” she told dispatcher Tanya Remsburg. Several rounds of gunshots can be heard on the recording. “Get the f*** out of here, get the f*** out of here.”
Gonzalez said that the family had been roused from their sleep by a trio dressed in camouflage, claiming to be law enforcement officers looking for fugitives.
“They told us that somebody had escaped jail or something, they wanted to come in and look at my house,” she said on the call. “And they just shot my husband and they shot my daughter and they shot me. Oh, my God, ma’am, I can’t believe this is happening. … I can’t believe they killed my family.”
Lying in the kitchen, bleeding from gunshot wounds to her leg, she described the suspects as a white male whose face was painted black, a six-foot-tall Mexican man and a “shorter fat woman.”
In the courtroom Jan. 26, Gonzalez pointed to Shawna Forde and said she looked like the female suspect. Previously, however, she had failed to pick Forde out of a police lineup.
But prosecutors said there was evidence beyond that from Gonzalez and other witnesses that linked her to the crime.
They presented text messages sent through Forde’s phone and recorded conversations between Shawna Forde and other suspects. He said Shawna Forde had planned the crime for months with her fellow suspects, in meetings out-of-state.
“Even if she didn’t pull the trigger … make no mistake about it. She’s the one who planned the events. She’s the one who recruited people to do this,” Unklesbay said.
Prosecutors also said police recovered from Shawna Forde several items of Gonzalez’s personal jewelry, including her wedding ring, during a search after her arrest. Shawna Forde remains on Death Row
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Shawna Forde is currently incarcerated at the ASPC Perryville, Lumley Unit the home of Arizona Death Row for Women
Why Is Shawna Forde On Death Row
Shawna Ford was convicted of the murders of a father and his young daughter
Valerie Dee Martin is on California Death Row for the murder of an elderly man. According to police reports Valerie Dee Martin, her sixteen year old son and his fourteen year old friend along with an ex convict planned the murder of the elderly man who would be found dead in the trunk of a car suffering from severe burns and trauma. Valerie Dee Martin would be charged and convicted of robbery and murder charges and would be sentenced to death
Valerie Dee Martin 2021 Information
Inmate Name
MARTIN, VALERIE DEE
CDCR Number
WA4277
Age
52
Admission Date
04/07/2010
Current Location
Central California Women’s Facility
Location Link
Directions
Parole Eligible Date (Month/Year)
CONDEMNED
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Jennifer A. Mannix, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and G. Tracey Letteau, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Defendant Ronald Ray Kupsch III appeals from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury found him guilty of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)) and found true the allegations that the murder was committed by means of lying in wait, during the course of a robbery, and during the course of a kidnapping (id., § 190.2, subd. (a)). Defendant was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime (id., § 182, subd. (a)(1)), with the jury finding one or more of the alleged overt acts to be true. In addition, the jury found him guilty of robbery (id., § 211), kidnapping to commit a crime (id., § 209, subd. (b)(1)), and arson causing great bodily injury (id., § 451, subd. (a)).
The trial court sentenced defendant to life without the possibility of parole for the murder and imposed a concurrent indeterminate term of 25 years to life in prison for the conspiracy. It imposed a concurrent indeterminate term of 15 years to life in prison for the kidnapping and a concurrent term of 9 years for the arson causing great bodily injury, and it stayed a determinate term of three years for the robbery. The court also imposed five $30 fines under Government Code section 70373; a $40 penalty assessment under Government Code section 76000.5, subdivision (a); a DNA penalty assessment of $40 under Government Code section 76104.6, subdivision (a)(1); and a $140 penalty assessment under Government Code section 76704.7.
On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on voluntary intoxication, abused its discretion in sentencing defendant to life without the possibility of parole, failed to stay the sentences for arson and kidnapping to commit robbery, and erred in imposing certain assessments. We agree that the assessments under Government Code sections 76000.5, subdivision (a), 76104.6, subdivision (a)(1), and 76104.7 must be stricken. In all other respects, we affirm.
In February of 2003, William Whiteside (Whiteside) was living in a mobile home with Valerie Dee Martin (Martin), defendant, who is her son, and defendant’s pregnant girlfriend, Jessica Buchanan (Buchanan). Whiteside and Martin worked at Antelope Valley Hospital. Defendant was a White supremacist and associated with other White supremacists, including Donovan Casey (Casey), Bradley Zoda (Zoda), Christopher Kennedy (Kennedy), and Stewart Smith (Smith). Whiteside’s racial background was non-White and defendant did not like him because of his race. Defendant, his mother, girlfriend, and other friends were all methamphetamine users.
On the morning of February 27, 2003, Zoda came over to Whiteside’s mobile home “to get high.” While Zoda, defendant, Buchanan, Valerie Dee Martin, and Kennedy were in a room talking and smoking methamphetamine, Martin said that she owed a $300 debt to “some Mexicans” for methamphetamine and if she did not pay, the “Mexicans” would come over. The group discussed options to repay the debt, including stealing cars. While Buchanan was in another room, Kennedy asked Zoda if he was “down with it,” and they discussed robbing Valerie Dee Martin’s “old man.” It was decided that they would go to the Antelope Valley Hospital parking lot, and Zoda would “jump” Whiteside and take his wallet when he got off work.
Around 9:00 p.m., Valerie Dee Martin drove Kennedy, Zoda, and defendant to the hospital. When they arrived and located Whiteside’s car, it was determined that the vehicle was too close to the street and there would be too many witnesses. Valerie Dee Martin suggested an alternate plan. She would drop the other three at “Suge’s”1 mobile home, call Whiteside and ask him to pick them up on his way home from work. The three were dropped off at Suge’s mobile home and smoked methamphetamine.
When Kennedy informed defendant and Zoda that Whiteside was near the mobile home, they left to meet him. Defendant carried a wooden stick and Kennedy carried a red aluminum bat. Kennedy entered the right rear passenger seat of Whiteside’s car, Zoda entered the passenger seat behind Whiteside, and defendant entered the right front passenger seat. Kennedy and defendant began striking Whiteside with the stick and bat. Zoda got out of the car, went to the driver’s window and began striking Whiteside with his fists. Whiteside was struck approximately 28 to 29 times and was rendered unconscious. Kennedy took Whiteside’s wallet; defendant and Kennedy then placed Whiteside in the car’s trunk. Kennedy drove them around until they got lost.
While they were driving around, they heard a noise coming from the trunk and realized that Whiteside had opened the trunk. Kennedy stopped the car; defendant got out and closed the trunk. Whiteside was able to open the trunk a second time. Kennedy got out of the car with defendant and he beat Whiteside with the stick. They closed the trunk and drove around in an effort to find a familiar landmark.
Defendant called his mother and asked her to bring gasoline. When Valerie Dee Martin arrived, Kennedy took the gasoline container and began to dump gasoline all over the car. Defendant lit the gasoline on fire. Defendant accidently burned Kennedy.
They returned to Whiteside’s mobile home. Defendant, Kennedy, and Zoda took off their clothes and placed them in a trash bag. Defendant took off his skater shoes with red laces and placed them in the trash bag. After awhile, everyone went to Kennedy’s residence, where they smoked some drugs.
Later the same morning, several deputies, including Kennedy’s uncle, a reserve deputy, came to the residence and arrested Kennedy for a probation violation. Defendant, Valerie Dee Martin, Zoda, and Buchanan left and drove to Rebecca King’s mobile home. Casey, a leader of a skinhead gang, was there.
After defendant told Casey what they had done to Whiteside, defendant and Casey left in Valerie Dee Martin’s car, and defendant obtained money from an ATM using Whiteside’s bank card. Upon their return, defendant gave Martin some money. Casey also accompanied Martin to a check cashing business, so she could wire someone money. Later that evening, defendant went to Smith’s house with Zoda. Defendant, driving Whiteside’s car, drove Smith to Whiteside’s mobile home. While at the mobile home, Smith said that they needed to leave because Whiteside was coming home. Defendant told Smith, “Bill’s not coming in. We killed him.” He also showed Smith his two “M” tattoos on the back of his neck.2
Defendant stayed in a motel for a few days. During that time, he told the details of the murder to Smith. At some point, defendant, Zoda and Smith went to a dumpster and burned the plastic bag containing the bloody clothes. Prior to burning the clothes, defendant had Zoda take his black skater shoes out of the bag. The shoes did not have any laces. When Zoda was arrested, he was wearing the shoes. When defendant was arrested, he was wearing the red shoe laces on a pair of white tennis shoes.3 Red was a sign of White supremacy.
On February 28, 2003, a burned-out vehicle was discovered. There was a lighter and a bat near the vehicle. Inside the trunk, Whiteside’s remains were discovered. Much of the body had burned away. A partially melted aluminum bat was recovered from the floorboard. An autopsy was conducted and the immediate cause of death was determined to be smoke inhalation and burns to the body. There were also fractures to Whiteside’s skull which would have been fatal in less than an hour.
When Whiteside failed to report to work, his former spouse, Tunda Curry (Curry), called Bank of America and inquired about any ATM transaction on their joint account. On March 3 or 4, Curry contacted Valerie Dee Martin and told her someone had used Whiteside’s ATM card, and photos of the transaction had been requested of the bank.4
After Valerie Dee Martin’s conversation with Curry, she called defendant in an effort to distance herself from any involvement in the murder. The conversation was recorded, and Martin acted like she had no idea what had happened to Whiteside. Defendant was upset because he knew that the police would have pictures from the ATM showing him making a withdrawal.
On March 10, 2003, defendant’s girlfriend, Buchanan, was interviewed by Detective Kennedy. She indicated that on February 27, 2003, she was in Whiteside’s trailer and heard defendant talking on the phone. Defendant stated that he needed to get $300 for his mother and “was going to go whack Bill to get the money.”
Buchanan said that she went to sleep and when she woke up, defendant, Kennedy, Zoda, and Valerie Dee Martin were inside the mobile home. They left and went to Kennedy’s home. They parked in the garage and a white pillowcase was taken out of the car. At one point, inside Kennedy’s house, she saw blood on defendant’s hands. She also saw blood on Kennedy’s arms.
Buchanan stated that three days later, defendant and Zoda went back for the white pillowcase and “torched” it. Thereafter, defendant got a swastika and two M’s tattooed on the back of his neck. The tattoo meant that defendant had killed someone of a different race.
Three to four days after the incident, defendant told Buchanan that he killed Whiteside by putting Whiteside in the back of Whiteside’s car and “beat[ing] the hell out of him.” Defendant gave her the details of the incident, including the beating, arson, and getting money from the ATM using Whiteside’s bank card. He said that he killed Whiteside because he never liked him, Whiteside yelled at his mother, Whiteside was of the “opposite race” and defendant was a skinhead. Buchanan also recounted details of the phone conversation defendant had with his mother.
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Valerie Dee Martin 2021
Valerie Dee Martin is currently incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility the home of California Death Row For Women
Why Is Valerie Dee Martin On Death Row
Valerie Dee Martin was convicted of the torture and murder of an elderly man
This is a weird case. Mary Samuels is currently on California death row for the murder of her husband and the man she hired to kill him. According to court documents Samuels wanted to collect on her husband’s life insurance policy so she hired someone to kill him. Then Samuels was worried the hitman would connect her to the crime so she hired someone else to kill him. Then Samuels collected on the life insurance and managed to go through the majority of it before she was arrested for murder. Mary Samuels would be convicted and sentenced to death
Mary Samuels 2021 Information
Inmate Name
SAMUELS, MARY ELLEN
CDCR Number
W54370
Age
72
Admission Date
09/22/1994
Current Location
Central California Women’s Facility
Location Link
Directions
Parole Eligible Date (Month/Year)
CONDEMNED
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Defendant was married to Robert Samuels. On October 31, 1986,
Mary Samuels filed for divorce. Even after the divorce proceedings were initiated,
Mary Samuels and Robert Samuels were cordial, and defendant continued to work in
the Subway restaurant she and Robert Samuels owned. However, by November
1988, just before his murder, Robert Samuels was depressed and had a less than
friendly relationship with defendant.
On October 31, 1988—approximately two months before he was killed—
Robert Samuels went to his divorce attorney, Elizabeth Kaufman, and signed a
document seeking changes to his divorce agreement. Robert Samuels wanted to
run the Subway restaurant because he was unemployed and felt he would be better
at running the business. He also wanted to reduce spousal support payments
below the $1,200 per month level because he was no longer able to pay that
amount. The modification was never filed because Kaufman was waiting for
Robert Samuels to complete a portion of the paperwork.
1. The Solicitation and Murder of Robert Samuels
Beginning in 1987, Mary Samuels solicited people to murder Robert Samuels
on numerous occasions.
Anne Hambly, defendant’s friend, testified defendant told her that after
several attempts to find someone to kill Robert Samuels had failed, defendant was
able to get James Bernstein to agree to commit the murder. Bernstein was dating
Mary Samuels’s daughter, Nicole Samuels. Bernstein was apparently angered when
defendant told him that Robert Samuels had abused Nicole. A month before
Robert Samuels was murdered, Bernstein said he wanted Samuels “taken care of
permanently” because he was a child molester and batterer. He asked his
2
employer, Charles Mandel, if he knew anyone who could “take care of it.”
Mandel provided Bernstein with the phone number of Mike Silva. Also, during
November and December 1988, Bernstein asked a friend who owned a gun shop if
he could get some weapons.
On December 7, 1988, Mary Samuels told Anne Hambly that Robert Samuels
was dead and that she planned to “discover” his body in two days. On
December 8, 1988, Nicole Samuels called her friend, David Navarro, and said “it’s
done” in reference to Robert Samuels’s murder.
On December 9, 1988, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call
from Robert Samuels’s home. Robert Samuels was found dead. He had been
dead for over 12 hours and was killed by a shotgun blast fired into his head from
close range. Samuels also suffered a blunt force trauma to his head that was a
contributing factor to his death.
Mary Samuels and Nicole Samuels were present when the police arrived.
Mary Samuels and Nicole worked to make it appear that there had been a struggle in
the house. Defendant told the police she discovered Robert Samuels’s body while
dropping off the family’s dog. Defendant sought to bolster this story by leaving
messages on Samuels’s answering machine regarding her plans to drop off the
dog.
Anne Hambly testified that she also went to Robert Samuels’s house the
night he was found dead. Referring to the murder of Robert Samuels, defendant
told Hambly that she could not believe that “it had finally happened” and that she
had given Bernstein money six months earlier to arrange the killing. Mary Samuels
feared being caught and was also afraid to speak because she thought the police
had “bugged” her car, purse, and home.
At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence showing defendant collected
on several insurance policies after Robert Samuels’s death. The total amount of
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these policies was in excess of $240,000. In addition, the prosecution introduced
evidence that a sandwich shop owned by Robert Samuels and defendant was sold
in early 1989, and Mary Samuels kept the proceeds of approximately $70,000.
Additional evidence introduced by the prosecution showing how defendant
benefited from Robert Samuels’s death included: (1) defendant kept a car owned
by Robert Samuels; (2) she received approximately $6,000 in uncashed payroll
checks of Robert Samuels; and (3) she refinanced the family home after Robert
Samuels’s death, thereby gaining possession of an additional $160,000.
Mary Samuels began to live a lavish lifestyle after Robert Samuels died. In
addition, defendant made several incriminating statements after his death. For
example, when asked by Anne Hambly who Mike Silva was, defendant told
Hambly that Silva was hired by Bernstein to kill Robert Samuels. Mary Samuels also
told a friend, Marsha Hutchinson, that if she were not careful in her divorce
proceedings, then Hutchinson’s husband might decide to put a hit on her.
Mary Samuels also spoke and acted in a manner that led Bernstein’s older brother and
sister-in-law to believe that defendant had Robert Samuels killed.
James Bernstein also made incriminating statements after Robert Samuels’s
death. He told his employer, Charles Mandel, that Robert Samuels’s murder had
been taken care of and that he received money from defendant to pay Silva for his
part in the crime.
2. The Solicitation and Murder of James Bernstein
On June 27, 1989, James Bernstein was killed. The circumstances leading
to his murder are as follows: David Navarro and James Bernstein met in February
1989. Navarro testified he met Bernstein through Nicole Samuels, who was a
friend of Navarro’s girlfriend.
4
Navarro and Bernstein became friends and they sold drugs together until
Bernstein disappeared in June 1989. Bernstein and Navarro were together when
Bernstein received a page, called the number he had been sent, and then went to
meet Mike Silva. Bernstein referred to Silva as the “hit man.”
Navarro made an anonymous call to the police and provided them with the
phone number Bernstein received via the page and Mike Silva’s name. Navarro
also provided the names of Mary Samuels and Bernstein to the police. Los Angeles
Police Officer John Birrer received Navarro’s call on May 1, 1989. After Navarro
provided this information, the police served search warrants. Police searched
Bernstein’s apartment on May 16, 1989, in connection with the murder of Robert
Samuels. The police also searched the victim’s house.
In late May or early June 1989, Bernstein told a friend, Rennie Goldberg,
he was feeling remorseful and frightened of being caught. He wanted to confess
his involvement in Robert Samuels’s murder. By June 1989, Bernstein had
become so afraid that he wanted to move out of the area. By the end of June 1989,
Bernstein was ready to go to the police and admit what he knew. He told Navarro
that he and Mike Silva had killed Robert Samuels and that defendant had paid
them for it. He repeatedly said that Mary Samuels had solicited him to murder Robert
Samuels. Bernstein stated that Mary Samuels wanted Robert Samuels killed for
insurance money, and that one person had been paid but did not do the job so she
approached Bernstein to see if he would do it. On June 26, 1989, Bernstein told
his older brother that he was frightened and that he was the only person who could
“burn Mary Ellen.”
After Robert Samuels’s murder, defendant told Anne Hambly that she
wanted Bernstein killed because she thought he would go to the police and
disclose her involvement in the murder. In March or April of 1989, Anne Hambly
introduced Paul Gaul to defendant. Gaul was Hambly’s live-in boyfriend.
5
Hambly believed Gaul could help Mary Samuels with her trouble with Bernstein.
Defendant and Gaul had several conversations about Robert Samuels’s death. In
the first conversation, Mary Samuels mentioned she received insurance money from
Robert Samuels’s death and that Bernstein was blackmailing her for her
involvement in the murder. In the second conversation, defendant repeated the
substance of the first conversation and added that she wanted Robert Samuels
killed because he had abused Nicole and she wanted insurance money. During a
third conversation, defendant mentioned a failed attempt to kill Robert Samuels.
Mary Samuels also said that she had paid for Robert Samuels’s murder, but that the
murder was done sloppily and that she had not expected it to be done in her house
with blood everywhere.
Even in their first conversation, Gaul came to believe that defendant wanted
his help in killing Bernstein. Gaul testified that it was not until a later
conversation that Mary Samuels expressly asked Gaul for help. She told Gaul that she
wanted Bernstein killed because he was blackmailing her. She also told Gaul that
Bernstein was selling drugs to children.1 Defendant told Gaul that she would pay
for Bernstein to be killed. Mary Samuels spoke with Gaul five to 10 times about
killing Bernstein, discussing payment two to four times.
Prior to Bernstein’s murder, defendant called Gaul. She told Gaul that she
was taking a trip to Cancun and wanted Bernstein murdered before she returned.
Mary Samuels agreed to pay Gaul $5,000 for killing Bernstein. Another form of
payment was that defendant would forgive a loan made to Anne Hambly. To
assist him in killing Bernstein, Gaul solicited Darryl Ray Edwards. Edwards
agreed to kill Bernstein for $5,000.
1
Gaul testified that his brother had been killed by drug dealers and that he
had been angered by it.
6
In June 1989, at defendant’s request, Bernstein moved in with Anne
Hambly and Paul Gaul. When he moved out of his apartment, Bernstein told his
apartment manager that he was moving out of town to avoid the police. Bernstein
moved in with Hambly and Gaul because he was afraid the police were closing in
on him.
On June 27, 1989, Paul Gaul and Darryl Ray Edwards killed James
Bernstein. On that morning, Gaul met Edwards at a bar and they started drinking.
Their plan to murder Bernstein involved getting Bernstein to go up to an area near
Frazier Park. Gaul and Edwards planned to tell Bernstein that Edwards knew
some drug dealers in Frazier Park and that Gaul, Edwards, and Bernstein would go
and rob them.
The two men separated, planning to meet at Anne Hambly’s later that day.
Gaul returned to Hambly’s house around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. Edwards arrived
approximately two hours later. Bernstein was at Hambly’s house. Gaul, Edwards,
and Bernstein talked about going to rip off drug dealers. Although he did not
initially agree to the plan, Bernstein was curious and wanted more information.
Subsequently, Gaul, Edwards, and Bernstein left Hambly’s house in defendant’s
car. Gaul was the driver. After approximately 40 minutes, they ended up on an
isolated dirt road. However, it turned out to be a private driveway and several
dogs came running at the car. Edwards told Gaul to immediately get out of the
driveway, so Gaul placed the car in reverse and drove away. About five to 10
minutes later, Edwards yelled “Now” or something similar. Gaul slammed on the
car’s brakes, put the car in park, and turned off the headlights. Edwards grabbed
Bernstein’s neck from behind and began to choke him. Bernstein began to
scream, but Gaul twice hit him in the side of the head or neck to keep him quiet.
Gaul accidentally hit Edwards, which loosened Edwards’s grip on Bernstein.
Bernstein opened the car door and jumped out. Edwards and Gaul got out of the
7
car and chased after Bernstein. Edwards caught Bernstein and wrestled him to the
ground. Gaul held Bernstein’s legs, while Edwards choked him. Bernstein asked,
“Why?,” and Gaul said that it was because he talked too much. Gaul stopped
holding Bernstein’s legs and joined in with Edwards. Bernstein struggled for three
to five minutes, then stopped. Gaul put his ear to Bernstein’s chest to listen for a
heartbeat, but did not hear one. An autopsy on Bernstein confirmed that he had
been strangled to death.
Gaul and Edwards placed Bernstein’s body in the backseat of the car.
Edwards drove to a dark and isolated area. During the drive to this area, Gaul took
off Bernstein’s belt, which had the name “James” on it, and threw it over a cliff.
Gaul also threw Bernstein’s pager over an embankment.
When Edwards stopped the car, he and Gaul pulled Bernstein’s body out of
the backseat and put it over an embankment. Gaul and Edwards then drove back
to Anne Hambly’s house. Upon returning to Hambly’s house, Gaul, Edwards, and
Hambly discussed what had happened. Gaul and Edwards told Hambly that they
had killed Bernstein.
Anne Hambly made a phone call to defendant, who was in Cancun,
Mexico, at the time, and let her know that Bernstein was dead. Hambly did so by
using a “code” that she and defendant had agreed to. The code involved Hambly’s
calling Mary Samuels to say that Hambly had spoken to her sister. This statement was
a signal to Mary Samuels that Bernstein was dead and that it was safe for defendant to
return from Mexico.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mary Samuels Photos
Mary Samuels FAQ
Mary Samuels 2021
Mary Samuels is currently incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility the home of California Death Row For Women
Why Is Mary Samuels on Death Row
Mary Samuels was convicted of a double murder.
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