Samantha Josephson Case Analysis | Mistaking a Killer for an Uber

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of samantha josephson just a reminder i'm not diagnosed anymore in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and check out my podcast on youtube bella grande media i will put the relevant links for those items in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background this case it's quite brief i'll move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis starting with the background this case takes place in south carolina in 2019 at this time samantha josephson a political science major at the university of south carolina was 21 years old she was a senior and would have graduated that year she planned on attending drexel university school of law where she had earned a full scholarship now moving to the timeline of the crime late on march 28 2019 josephson was spending some time with friends in downtown columbia south carolina at about 2 a.m now on march 29 she ordered an uber a 2017 chevy impala driven by a man named nathaniel rowan pulled up into a parking space alongside where josephson was standing she climbed into the vehicle believing it was the uber she had ordered but it was not roland activated the child safety locks so that the doors could not be unlocked from the inside at some point he stabbed josephson 120 times she died about 10 to 20 minutes later rowan then drove about 65 miles to the town of new zion and dumped her body in a field josephson's roommates reported her missing individuals who were hunting turkeys came across her body in a field at about 4 pm the police pulled nathaniel rowan over in the five points area near where the kidnapping took place he exited the vehicle and ran from the police on march 30 at 3 pm the police caught up with him and he was arrested rowan was charged with murder kidnapping and the possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime nathaniel rowan's trial would begin on july 20 2021 in addition to the substantial physical evidence which i'll talk about in the analysis the prosecution called 31 witnesses the defense called zero witnesses roland did not testify in his defense the jury would find rowan guilty on july 27 2021 after deliberating for just over two hours rowan was sentenced to life in prison immediately after his conviction the judge said that it was the most severe murder he had ever seen now moving to my analysis nathaniel rowan maintains his innocence was he actually guilty let's look at the evidence both for and against the idea of guilt starting with the inculpatory evidence even though rowan's defense said that he did not commit to murder they admitted he was driving the chevy impala that picked up samantha josephson in that vehicle the police found a number of items of interest including a large amount of blood belonging to josephson her phone as well as window cleaner cleaning wipes and bleach the victim's dna was found under roland's fingernails after searching the garbage outside the residence of roland's girlfriend maria howard the police found a multi-tool a sock a bandana and a sheet that had josephson's blood on them howard stated that she saw blood in the back of rowan's car and saw a bloody sheet she saw rowan use bleach to clean the vehicle and a multi-tool she said that her visor for work was missing when she asked rowan where it was he said it's in the country with blood on it when she inquired as to why he told her to mind her own business the multi-tool that was found contained knife blades a forensic pathologist noted that the bizarre parallel knife wounds on josephson's body were consistent with a multi-tool that had two blades extended data from roland's cell phone indicated he was in the five points area around the time that josephson disappeared and we see then the phone travels to where the body was found now josephson's phone was on for par that time and her phone and roland's phone travel together par that way something happened to her phone at that point it was either turned off or the battery died video from the five points area corroborated the cell phone data it showed roland's vehicle driving around for about 10 minutes before pulling next to josephson the cell phone data also showed that the phone stopped in sumner at about 5 45 a.m a man matching rowan's description tried to unsuccessfully withdraw money using josephson's atm card at a bank and sumner the same person tried to withdraw money from her account in colombia not long after this the owner of a phone repair store in colombia identified nathaniel rowan as the person who tried to sell him a cell phone belonging to samantha josephson on the morning of march 29th now looking at the exculpatory evidence roland didn't have any visible signs of being in a fight even though it was clear that josephson had vigorously resisted the attack his dna was not found on her body there was dna from rowan's car that belonged to neither jefferson nor roland that's pretty much it for exculpatory evidence as i mentioned the defense called no witnesses they didn't even call character witnesses even though several family members of roland were at the trial this was a case where the defense really didn't have to rest at the end as it was resting the whole time to be fair i don't know what else they could have done which leads me back to that question was nathaniel rowan guilty i think he was guilty in reality and i think he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as far as a case that went to trial it's hard to think of a more lopsided case in favor of the prosecution to use an analogy from golf the prosecution had to make a two-inch putt to get a conviction whereas to get an acquittal the defense had to make a hole in one except the tea was located in south carolina and the hole was on the moon moving on to other questions was nathaniel rowland's crime premeditated what was his motive not much is known about rowan he lived in colombia and attended east clarendon high school at one time his work history included fedex and a company called capital waste services he did not know samantha josephson they had never met i think he was looking to commit a robbery and willing to commit a murder i don't think he necessarily planned on committing the murder considering he did use an unusual weapon a multi-tool i think he saw an opportunity in the form of josephson waiting for her rideshare vehicle he was roaming around that area making u-turns driving all around in the parking lots he sees samantha josephson he turns his vehicle into a parking space for people with disabilities this is where she was standing right next to that parking space he doesn't have a permit to park there and he doesn't pull all the way into the space he actually hits the curb trying to get his car into the space josephson gets in rowan backs up and drives away it may have been his intent to rob her and not kill her but something went wrong or it may have been he was planning on killing her the entire time another question in this case is why did roland dump everything at maria howard's home the amount of physical evidence discovered there was substantial and almost certainly contributed to his conviction evidently rowan believed that nothing could connect him to maria howard which is interesting considering there was an envelope in his glove box that featured her address i wonder if roland was inspired to commit his crime by some of his associates we know that he allegedly sold items to a pawn shop that were stolen during the course of another kidnapping in colombia a woman was at a traffic light on october 19 2018 when two men carjacked her they beat her forced her to drive to an atm to withdraw money and then drove to her residence where they stole additional items including a playstation 4. the playstation 4 was one of the items that roland sold to the pawn shop this may have been a situation where roland was ramping up his criminal behavior he was learning from other criminals he was moving toward increasingly dangerous activity this case led to changes in legislation around ride-sharing safety for example there were laws passed in south carolina and north carolina making it illegal to impersonate a ride-share driver this kind of makes me wonder if it should be legal to impersonate anybody i could see a situation where the police are about to arrest a man for impersonating a rideshare driver and the guy says i'm not impersonating a rideshare driver i'm impersonating a pizza delivery person the police are like okay then go about your business i think one lesson learned this case is that healthy skepticism is necessary to remain safe the rideshare industry has developed very quickly it's not well regulated yet many people fully trust the system another lesson here is that some murderers live in a fantasy world as far as their ability to get away with a crime nathaniel rowland could not have increased his chances of being convicted if he confessed and video recorded the entire murder he didn't leave room for reasonable doubt he didn't leave room for any doubt in court he said that he wished the state did more research to find the real killer yet more research would only lead to more evidence that he's guilty the threat of life in prison or any punishment for that matter is not effective if an offender believes they will never be arrested or they'll never be convicted i think this is one of the reasons that people commit crimes that are associated with massive penalties they have convinced themselves the penalty will never be realized those are my thoughts on the case of samantha josephson please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 78,222

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Id: _gtY5djCm7E

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 06 2021