Grieving family says mother’s murder changed their lives, and they miss her ‘pure soul’

VINTON — Davis McKenna said his mother, Jodie Bevans, who was killed July 14, 2022, was a “kind, generous and loving person” who taught him the “true meaning” of family.

It has been “701 days” since his stepsister, Samantha Bevans, planned and killed his mother “in cold blood.”

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He said, during his victim impact statement Friday in Benton County District Court, that life will never be the same without his mother and that he “doesn’t know how to heal.”

McKenna told Samantha Bevans that she had put on a “theatrical show” in court when she testified at her first-degree murder trial, making herself out as a victim.

He told her she wasn’t a victim but that Bevans’ surviving family members are. He’s a “darker person” after his mother’s murder, which is the “complete opposite of what my mom stood for,” he said.

“The world became darker for all of us that night,” McKenna said. “Tomorrow started without her and the sun rose and found her eyes — just never to be as bright.”

Sixth Judicial District Judge Chad Kepros sentenced Samantha Bevans, 35, of Palo, to life in prison without parole for suffocating her stepmother. She was ordered to pay $150,000 in victim restitution to Jodie Bevans’ heirs.

‘Pure soul’

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Arissa Maxwell, in her statement, said her stepmother had a “pure soul” who only helped others. She had a “naturally calming presence” and forgave others.

She told Samantha Bevans that she had caused “pain and suffering” in the only people who cared for her and that Samantha now would be “right where you belong.”

“All I can say is good luck,” Maxwell added.

Stephanie Dooley, Jodie Bevans’ stepdaughter, said in a statement read by a Waypoint Survivors’ advocate, asked Samantha Bevans why would she “brutally murder” their stepmother and then make a “celebratory” video of the crime.

She hoped Jodie’s face “haunts” her when the prison door “slams shut. You’re a pure, evil soul.”

Kellie Hughes, another stepdaughter, said in a statement read by the advocate that the murder “turned into a nightmare that never ended.”

Hughes found Jodie’s body that night at the house and pushed her dad out of the room, so he wouldn’t have to see his wife in that condition. It’s something she couldn’t forget when she tried to sleep that night.

Hughes said both of her children are “traumatized” by their grandmother’s murder. One child has developed post-traumatic stress disorder and has recurring nightmares that someone will take Hughes away. Her other child has anxiety and won’t sleep in his own bed.

Hughes called Samantha a “cold-blooded killer” who never took any responsibility or felt remorse for her actions. She said Samantha should never be freed from prison and she felt safer knowing she will die in prison.

“Jodie will forever be in our hearts,” Hughes said.

‘God makes mistakes’

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Dezirae Bevans — the biological daughter of Samantha Bevans and adopted daughter of Jodie and Mike Bevans — said she had to defend herself against Tacoa Talley, Samantha’s boyfriend, when she was 13 because Samantha Bevans was “too high to protect her.”

Talley, 39, of North Liberty, also was convicted in Jodie Bevans’ murder and sentenced in June 2023 to life in prison without parole. They suffocated Jodie Bevans, a nurse, with a pillow while she was lying in bed at her home so they could take money from a home safe.

Dezirae said she and her siblings are “angry and damaged” because of Samantha’s actions.

“It’s unfair that others get to grow up with loving and caring parents but were denied that stability,” Dezirae said.

She said she will carry Jodie’s death with her for the rest of her life. She said she is “terrified to open doors, fearing what I would find on the other side.” Jodie’s face and lifeless body is “burned in my memory.”

“You will only be remembered as proof that God makes mistakes,” Dezirea said.

‘Suffering in silence’

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Monty Platz, before the family’s statements, said some of the Bevans family members didn’t want to appear at the sentencing, saying they had given enough of their time and lives to this case.

Platz said the family has been “suffering in silence” over the past two years so they wouldn’t interfere with they trials of Samantha Bevans and Talley.

Platz said Jodie Bevans was a “good person” and her death was a “loss for everybody” — family, friends and her community.

As Platz said that, Samantha Bevans almost seemed to laugh and started smiling.

Samantha Bevans then apologized to her family and asked their forgiveness. She said she couldn’t “live life without Jesus Christ.”

Trial testimony

A Benton County jury in May found her guilty of first-degree murder after deliberating about an hour.

During her testimony at trial, Samantha Bevans said Talley was controlling her and that he was the one who killed Jodie.

She said the Snapchat video she made immediately afterward, confessing to killing Jodie Bevans, was made to get a reaction out of Talley.

She admitted putting a pillow partially over her stepmother’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 testified.

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

She said Talley, acting alone, suffocated her stepmother.

In rebuttal testimony, Special Agent Holly Witt of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Bevans told her and another investigator how she had 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. Dr. Dennis Klein, chief state medical examiner and forensic pathologist, said Jodie Bevans also had hemorrhaging to her neck, which was consistent with some sort of pressure.

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