Jury convicts Palo woman of life sentence for suffocating stepmom with pillow in 2022

VINTON — A Benton County jury, after hearing testimony last week, took just over an hour Monday to find Samantha Bevans guilty of first-degree murder for suffocating her stepmother with a pillow on July 14, 2022.

Samantha Bevans, 35, of Palo, showed no visible reaction to the jury’s unanimous decision. The jury was polled individually and all verified “guilty” was their verdict.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Chad Kepros set her sentencing for June 14 in Benton County District Court. She faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Bevans last week took the stand in her own defense and said her boyfriend, Tacoa Talley, was controlling her and he was the one who killed Jodie Bevans. Talley was convicted last year of first-degree murder in the case.

Samantha Bevans’s testimony contradicted some of her statements to law enforcement during the investigation, and the jury saw a Snapchat video she made after the killing — confessing to the crime.

She attempted to explain the video as a way to get a reaction out of Talley because she was angry at him. She said she didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t because he was manipulating her.

In the video, Bevans, smiling and jumping around, says, “I killed her. I killed her myself,” as Talley encourages her to “keep going.’”

“And I knew this would happen, so good job,” Talley said.

“We killed her,” Samantha says in the video, then makes an obscene gesture to the camera.

Bevans, during testimony Thursday, admitted she put a pillow partially over Jodie’s face and was going to step on it to hold it down. But then Jodie threw up and she couldn’t go through with it, she said.

Jodie was still breathing when she left the bedroom, she stated, which is why she told an investigator she didn’t think Jodie was dead.

She said Talley, acting alone, held down her stepmother and suffocated her.

However, Special Agent Holly Witt of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, in rebuttal testimony, said Bevans told her and another investigator how she placed the pillow fully over Jodie’s face. She demonstrated for the investigators on a table how she was “grinding” her foot on top of the pillow over Jodie’s face.

Jodie Bevans died by a asphyxiation, the state medical examiner testified. She had abrasions on her face that were consistent with something like a pillow being held over her face, and a blunt force trauma on her left cheek that could have been made by something hitting her, such as a fist.

Dr. Dennis Klein, chief state medical examiner and forensic pathologist, said Jodie also had hemorrhaging to her neck, which was consistent with some sort of pressure.

Assistant Attorney General Monty Platz, during his opening, pointed out Jodie went to bed early that night, which Samantha knew, and was already asleep when she was attacked and never had the chance to “put up a fight.” She was held down and suffocated her with a pillow, he said.

“A slow way — up close, personal way — to kill someone,” Platz said.

The prosecution theory was that Jodie was killed for ”pay back and pay out.” Samantha Bevans knew there was a safe with money in the house. She selected July 14, 2022, for the crime because she knew the Bevans family was going camping but Jodie, who was a nurse, would stay behind in order to get to work early the next morning.

Platz said Samantha Bevans wanted retribution after Jodie kicked her out of the house. Jodie and Samantha Bevan’s father, Mike Bevans, found out she was sneaking Talley into the house and things had gone missing.

Other family members also testified the stepdaughter was mad at Jodie because Jodie didn’t come to a July 7, 2022, court hearing regarding a custody issue with her children.

During the trial, Samantha Bevans claimed diminished responsibility. But two experts testified Thursday she was able to premeditate, deliberate and form intent.

Rosanna Jones-Thurman, a clinical psychologist licensed in Iowa and Nebraska, testified she conducted a mental examination of Bevans in 2022 and found she didn’t have any severe or significant mental health issue.

Jones-Thurman said Bevans wasn’t suffering from diminished capacity and she saw no signs of any issues when Bevans testified Thursday in her own defense.

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