BENTON COUNTY, Iowa (TCD) — A 35-year-old woman was convicted of first-degree murder this week in connection with the 2022 smothering death of her stepmother.
The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports the jury returned Samantha Bevans’ guilty verdict after deliberating for about an hour. She will be sentenced June 14 and will likely be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On July 15, 2022, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office conducted a welfare check at Jodie Bevans’ home in Palo and found her deceased under suspicious circumstances. The sheriff’s office contacted the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation for assistance, and on Aug. 3, 2022, agents arrested Samantha Bevans and her boyfriend, Tacoa Talley, on suspicion of murder.
Talley was found guilty of murder last year and is serving life in prison.
According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, prosecutors argued Bevans killed Jodie Bevans as revenge because Jodie Bevans kicked her out of the house. They also said Bevans wanted Jodie Bevans dead as a “pay back and pay out,” because Bevans reportedly was aware of a stash of money hidden in a safe in the house.
KWWL-TV reports Bevans even had a to-do list note that said, “Kill Jodie.”
Bevans and Talley reportedly took a pillow and covered Jodie Bevans’ face until she died. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports Bevans testified in her trial and argued she did not think her stepmother was dead because she was still breathing when she stopped smothering her. She reportedly argued Talley was the one who actually killed her.
An investigator, however, testified that Bevans told them she put her foot on top of the pillow and was “grinding” it into Jodie Bevans’ face.
After Jodie Bevans died, Talley and Bevans posted a video to Snapchat saying, “We killed her.”
At one point, Bevans jumped up and down and said, “I killed her. I killed her myself.”
The medical examiner determined Jodie Bevans died from asphyxiation, though she suffered blunt force trauma injuries to her face and hemorrhaging to her neck.
Assistant Attorney General Monty Platz said what Bevans and Talley did was a “slow way — up close, personal way — to kill someone.”
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