Murder of Angela Samota

Angela Samota
Born 19 September 1964
Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died 13 October 1984 (aged 20)
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Cause of death Multiple knife wounds to the heart
Resting place Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas
Occupation Student
Known for Victim of rape & murder

The murder of Angela Samota occurred in October 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped, and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s and charges were brought against a formerly convicted rapist, who was subsequently tried and received the death penalty.

Background

Angela "Angie" Samota was born on 19 September 1964, in Pennsylvania.[1] She enrolled at the Southern Methodist University in Texas to study computer science and electrical engineering.[2]

Assault

On the night of 12 October 1984, Samota and two friends, one male and one female, went on the town to the State Fair of Texas. Samota's boyfriend did not join them, because, according to the police report, he was working in construction and had to get up early the next morning. Participating in the night's festivities were also fans of the University of Texas football team that was to face the University of Oklahoma for the annual Red River Showdown. The three friends went to the Rio Room dance club and stayed there until about 1 am. She drove her friends to their homes, went by her boyfriend's apartment to say goodnight, and then went to her place.[2]

Not long after she got home, her boyfriend called the police to report he had received a phone call from Samota that was disconnected. The apartment manager let in the police and they discovered the woman's dead and naked body on the bedroom bed. The autopsy showed that the victim had been raped and then repeatedly stabbed, dying from wounds to her heart.[2]

Investigation and arrest

For a long period of time, the police reportedly suspected an architect who was twenty-three years old at the time and living in a Lower Greenville apartment.[3] He was the man who had gone out with Samota and another girl the night of the murder.[4] The victim’s at-the-time boyfriend was also reportedly a suspect.[2]

The case remained unsolved until 2008.[5]

In 2006, then-Dallas police detective Linda Crum, tasked with the case, used the DNA evidence from blood, semen, and fingernail samples to try and find a match among persons with a criminal record. In 2008, the results pointed to Donald Bess who, at the time of Samota's murder, was out on parole while serving a 25-year sentence.[2]

Claims by friend

Sheila Wysocki, who went to SMU and was a room mate of Samota, has subsequently claimed that the case was re-opened because she kept "badgering" the police until "they were so sick and tired of" her that they assigned detective Crum to re-examine it. She credits the fact that she became a licensed private investigator to her desire to assist in solving Samota's murder. Wysocki has further claimed that the police initially had stated the rape kit collected at the crime scene had been lost "in the [Dallas] floods."[5][6]

The defendant in the 2010 trial for the sexual assault and murder of Angela Samota was already in prison, serving a life sentence. Donald Andrew Bess Jr., born in 1948 in Arkansas, had been previously convicted in 1978 for aggravated sexual assault, and aggravated kidnapping. He had been sentenced to 25 years in prison, and was out on parole by 1984. In 1985, he had been sentenced in Harris County to life imprisonment for one count of aggravated rape, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of sexual assault.[7]

During the 2010 trial's punishment phase, women witnesses testified that they too had been raped by Bess.[8] The defendant's ex-wife testified that he abused her and their child during their marriage. They had wed in 1969 and divorced three years later.[9]

On the basis of the DNA match, Bess was found guilty by the jury and, on 8 June 2010, received the death sentence. On 6 March 2013, the appeal filed by Bess was rejected and the judgement of the trial court was affirmed.[9][10] On 13 August 2013, a certiorari petition was filed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and denied on 13 January 2014.[11]

Aftermath

Samota's body is buried in the Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas.[12] Donald Bess remains on death row[13] in Polunsky prison[7] with no execution date set.[2] Wysocki lives in Tennessee and is still a practicing private investigator.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Angela Samota, 1964-1984". MyHeritage.com. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bever, Lindsey (29 June 2016). "Her friend's brutal murder was unsolved for decades. This is how she helped find the killer". The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  3. ↑ Wynn, Christopher (16 June 2018). "Dallas architect wrongly suspected in rape and stabbing death of SMU sorority girl steps out of the shadows". Lakewood Advocate. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  4. ↑ "Murder case followed neighborhood resident for decades". Lakewood Advocate. 3 October 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "My best friend's killer got away - until I made police try again". BBC. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  6. ↑ "Dallas Floodway Timeline 1908-203" (PDF). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Donald Andrew Bess, Jr". The Texas Tribune . May 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "Woman testifies that she was raped by convicted killer years before SMU student's brutal death". Texas District & County Attorneys Association. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  9. 1 2 "Man on Death Row for 1984 Rape and Murder of SMU Student Loses Appeal". The Dallas Morning News. Associated Press. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  10. ↑ "Donald Andrew Bess, Jr., appellant, v. the State of Texas" (PDF). The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  11. ↑ "Donald Andrew Bess, Jr., Petitioner v. Texas". Supreme Court of the United States. 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  12. ↑ Angela Samota grave at Llano Cemetery, The U.S. Cemeteries Project
  13. ↑ "Death Row Offender Information: Bess, Donald Andrew". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  • Meloy, Michelle L. (June 2005). "The Sex Offender Next Door: An Analysis of Recidivism, Risk Factors, and Deterrence of Sex Offenders on Probation" (PDF). Criminal Justice Policy Review. 16 (2): 211–236. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
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