Going West: True Crime - Samira Watkins // 156

Episode Date: December 11, 2021

In October of 2009, a 25-year-old Florida woman was reported missing when she failed to show up for work the morning after an important conversation. But when her body washed up in a duffel bag at a local bayou days later, the investigation into her murder began. From an eerily accurate psychic reading to a web of suspects and lies, tensions ran high during the search for this woman’s killer. This is the story of Samira Watkins. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zach-littleton-convicted-killer-of-pregnant-florida-mother-i-did-not-kill-samira-watkins/ https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/true-crime/murder-of-samira-watkins-by-navy-boyfriend-zachary-littleton-examined-on-48-hours-on-id-ncis/ https://www.viacomcbspressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/releases/view?id=53008 https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/man-gets-life-for-killing-pregnant-mistress/article_310b8bb3-553c-5c97-a2ad-a700041a4f8f.html https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/fl-samira-watkins-25-pensacola-29-oct-2009.91085/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yIb1BgZEEc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teeve and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. Oh my god as you can tell it's still sick. But really exciting news. That has nothing to do with True Crime. Heath and I are moving to Portland. Oh my god. I bet you guys are sick of like hearing us moving. We have moved. I think this is going to be the seventh time we've moved in our four years together. Yeah. So we're, but we're really excited, because we miss Oregon so much.

We've only been in Boise for about four months, but we just, we love the West Coast, we love Portland, so we're super excited to call it home in a couple of months from now. So that's what's going on. It's snowed here the other day, which was really exciting. I hope it snowed on Christmas. I've always wanted that.

Yeah, I don't think we've ever had like a snowy Christmas in Oregon. No, never. Or in Los Angeles. Obviously. So yeah, so that's what's going on with us. Just been trying to recover this week from this sickness as you can tell, Heath is all healed up. So hopefully I'm right behind him. Yeah, definitely. It seems like you're doing a little bit better. So hopefully a couple more days you'll be. The voice just has to follow. Yes, thank you. So today we have a case from 2009 from Florida. I found it just recently,

and I'm surprised there's not more coverage on it because it's just such a devastating and crazy story. So thanks for joining us today. Let's get talking about it. All right guys, this is episode 156 of Going West, so let's get into it. 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh

1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh 1 tbh In October of 2009, a 25-year-old Florida woman was reported missing when she failed to show up for work the morning after an important conversation. But when her body washed up in a duffle bag at a local Bayou days later,

the investigation into her murder began. From an eerily accurate psychic reading to a web of suspects and lies, tensions ran high during the search for this woman's killer. This is the story of Sam Lee Watkins was born on August 20th, 1984 in Pensacola, Florida to parents Valerie Joseph and Edward Watkins. And after her came sister's April and Sylvia and brother's Chris and Montel. Sumerra was always known as just a super hard worker. She earned good grades throughout her many years in school and she had perfect attendance.

And she really looked forward to attending college. But still, she saved some time for fun. You know, for example, according to her sister Sylvia, she loved dancing around the house with her dad and siblings to her dad's jukebox growing up. That was a thing they all just loved to do. So although her parents did split up, the family reportedly remained extremely tight-knit, even when Samira's mom remarried.

Samira was a fantastic eldest sibling, because her brothers and sisters, as well as her cousins, really looked up to her and they knew that they could rely on her if they needed anything at all. When Samira was 20, she was dating a young man named Will Peters, who was her first serious boyfriend, and while she was 20, Samira became pregnant, and she decided to keep the child, because she knew she would be a good mom, which she really was, and she had previously suffered a miscarriage, so the thought that she could finally be a mom made her so happy. But sadly, Will was not a good guy at all. He was very abusive towards her.

Will was also known to be jealous and controlling of her, he abused drugs, and on one occasion, he actually broke into their house and stole things to sell, and then acted like someone else broke in to try to get away with these things going missing. That's really strange. I'm not sure why you would break into your own house unless of course they weren't living together at the time. So the article that stated this said, the house, so I'm assuming it meant they are especially

if they were having a child together, you know, it seemed like they were very serious even though he was horrible. So I'm assuming it was his house and he was stealing his own things. Again, it really makes no sense here. Yeah, I mean, he was just awful. I mean, he was known to be extremely physically and psychologically abusive.

And this was Samira's first relationship. Luckily, after around three years of dating total, he was eventually arrested and convicted on domestic violence charges. And Samira felt like she could finally kind of start over and make a good life for herself again. By this time she was raising her son, who she called Day Day, which, like Daphne said, she was just great at. She had such a huge heart.

Samira's plan was to start school and work towards becoming a dental assistant, and she was excited about the prospects of having an exciting and reliable career and to be the woman that her son needed. While she was going to school at Pensacola State College, she quickly got a job at a local McDonald's, and she was so hard working and motivated that she worked up to assistant manager within just six months of working there. We also read in one source that she was running her own cleaning company to kind of make more money to help support her son. And while she was at work or going to school, her family would often help a lot by just watching her son. In August of 2009, Day Day was four years old and Samir was still working hard at her goals. And one day this month, she headed over to the Pensacole & Naval Air Station to pick up

her friend from work. And as she pulled up to the main gate there in her car, the man working the gate asked for her ID, you know, as they do. She was interested in him immediately, and he felt the same way. He told her she had a pretty name and that his name was Ricky and he was for Mississippi. And the two got to chatting for a few minutes before she drove inside. And within these few minutes, Ricky asked her out that coming Saturday and she said yes, I mean she was super excited. So Ricky was an ex-sailer and member of the security forces there, also known as Master at Arms. So he was essentially the military police.

One of the guys who enforced rules and regulations and he was just two months younger than Samira, so they were the same age, and she was smitten with him. So naturally she told her family and friends about him and about the potential of starting a relationship with this respectable military man. Samira got dressed in a dress and her favorite gold hoops, which she always wore, like always. And then they met up for drinks and hid it off even more. Especially since Ricky seemed like he wanted to better his life just like her. He told her that he wanted to become a commander, and she just thought that was great.

So after a couple of months together, the relationship between Samira and Ricky was going really well, and to Samira it felt pretty stable, like it was going to be a long lasting relationship and she was really happy about this. Her sister April later described Ricky as a dream come true for Samira, because she wanted to settle down and grow her family and she felt that she could do that with Ricky, a handsome, loving, young military man who had a spotless record and was known to be very responsible. But in September, Ricky told Samira that he was married and she was in complete disbelief.

But Ricky said that they weren't together and that they were getting into force. His wife Samantha was also in the Navy, she was a sailor, and together they had a young daughter who lived with Samantha. The reason why he was able to get away with dating Samir for as long as he did was because his wife was actually stationed at a base in the South Carolina, so they weren't even in the same state. They had some problems in the past with him cheating, but they had worked it out and were in somewhat of a long distance relationship. But he didn't tell that part to Samira, just that they weren't together and that they were getting into divorce.

Of course, you know, since Samira was very close with her family, she told them about this, and they were really disappointed too, because, you know, this relationship had only at this point been going on for almost two months, but to find out that he's married, they were all just like, what? Yeah, she thought she had kind of finally found the one. Oh my god, yeah, so this was a huge, just huge disappointment to everybody, because they were like, is he playing you or is he serious? Is he really getting a divorce or is this just a lie? And Samira really wanted to believe

that he was telling the truth. So shortly after this, in October, Samira started feeling sick a lot. And she originally thought that it was stress-related. But once she missed her period, she took a pregnancy test, and she found out that she was indeed pregnant. So she did want another child,

but she hoped to have one once she finished college, like she wanted a child in a few years from this point. So she debated what she wanted to do, because it was difficult for her to become pregnant in the first place because of her fertility issues, but on the other hand, she was really trying to get her life on track and she didn't know if she had time

for another child right now And she and Ricky had only been dating a couple months But she ultimately decided that she wanted to keep the baby and that this was gonna be just a wonderful addition to her life At around this same time Samira received a call from her abusive ex-boyfriend Will, and he told her that he had just gotten out of prison. After serving three years, he wanted to pick things back up with Samira and see their son Dadeh, which Samira did not want, since neither of them even visited Will in prison,

of course. Yeah, that was something that Samira was adamant about. She did not want Dadeh to see his father in prison, so they never went there. She wasn't in contact with him. Of course, you know, after all the awful things he did to her. Right, and she was also worried that he'd find out about Ricky and her pregnancy.

So Samira told Will that she didn't want anything to do with him, and she hung up the phone. So now Samira had this stress to deal with, especially since Will started showing up to her work, looking for her and being aggressive with her co-workers. He was basically stalking her and harassing her on the phone as well. Which is really scary. I can't imagine how much stress that added to her life with everything that's already going on, and how her abusive ex is out of prison,

and he is literally stalking her. Poor woman, like seriously, she just, there's just too much going on right now. So at this point, Samira is extremely confused. She doesn't know what she wants to do about Ricky's relationship and the pregnancy, and she's also still worried about will getting out of prison. So she visited a local psychic to get some advice. This psychic essentially told her to be

where of darkness in someone. And they also mentioned a child, so this really just brought up a lot more stress for her. So instead, she went to Ricky and she confided in him about Will getting out of prison. And in turn, Ricky came clean about something. His wife Samantha had requested to put in a transfer to work at the Pensacola base to be closer to him. And he told her that he had to be with her. So he's telling Samira, my wife is coming home and, you know, essentially you and I can't

be together anymore. So then she told Ricky about her pregnancy, because at this point he still didn't know. And of course, especially after what he had just said, he didn't have a very positive reaction. He was just in shock, and he actually wanted her to get an abortion, which was incredibly disturbing to Samira because again, even though they hadn't been dating very long, the relationship was great. But in a way, Ricky was breaking up with her. And this led Samira to be terrified of what was going to happen with her life. She was afraid that Will was going to find her, and this led Samira to be terrified of what was going to happen with her life.

She was afraid that Will was going to find her, and she kept having these nightmares, including one about she and her sister getting killed by gunshot. So with that, she was extremely paranoid, because now she's alone, you know, with her and Ricky not really seeing each other right now, she's by herself a lot, and she did not want to be by herself because Will was out there. And the morning that she woke up from that one nightmare about her and her sister being murdered by gunshot, Ricky actually called her and said that he wanted to be with her after all, and that he wanted to have the baby.

So this is obviously a huge shock for Samir, because she's like, wait, you just told me that you didn't want us to be together. This poor woman is being thrown through the ringer. I mean, she's just, she is so confused, she has so much going on, and there's these two particular situations between Ricky and Will, and there's so much stress there. So yeah, so Ricky, he said he was married, but he wanted to be with Samira, they're getting a divorce, but now he's saying, actually my wife's funman back, I'm gonna be with her, and now he's saying, actually, I do wanna be with you and I want us to have this baby.

Well, I wonder if she was like, so is your wife still coming back then or like, what's going on with that? Well, that was the whole thing, is he wanted to talk about it and figure it out and that's what they planned to do. On Thursday October 29th 2009, Samira headed to work for the day at McDonald's and then planned to meet Ricky that night to discuss their plans. She had allegedly wanted to meet him somewhere in public but he asked her to come over to his place. But after leaving work, 25-year-old Samira Watkins went missing.

The following morning, which was October 30, 2009, Samira's cousin Jasmine alongside Day-Day went into her room to see that she wasn't there, so Jasmine called her cell phone. But her phone was going straight to voicemail, which was very concerning for Jasmine because she would have never left her son Dayadey like that, especially without telling anyone or scheduling for them to actually watch him. Shortly after, the house phone rang, and Jasmine answered, it was Samir's work calling, asking if she was okay, because she hadn't shown up for her shift that day. So at this point, the whole family got together and tried to figure out where she could be.

And after calling her college, they discovered that she also didn't show up for her classes that day. And this wasn't like Samira at all, if you can't tell already. She was very responsible, you know, the kind of person who still shows up to school and work if she's sick. She's not the kind of person who would just randomly not show up and not tell anybody where she's at. So Samiri's family called the police to report her missing. And they told detectives that she was supposed to meet up with Ricky, a married man who had

gotten her pregnant, and that her abusive ex will had recently gotten at a prison and had been stalking her. And because of the concerning circumstances, detectives got on this immediately, which is awesome. They were really working with the family to figure out where some America'd be. And they started by going to Ricky's work at the naval base to question him and see if he had seen Simir the night before. You know, at this point, they're trying to put the puzzle pieces together and just figure out what her last steps were. But when a detective named Jonathan Thacker approached the main gate of the naval base to

speak with Ricky, he learned that no one named Ricky worked at that main gate. Also stationed at the gate was another male, and his name was Zach Littleton. So essentially detective Thacker, you know, is, he's questioning these two men, and that's when he learned that Ricky was actually Zach Littleton. Thacker was incredibly concerned about the fact that Zach had lied about his name, but Zach said that he gave Samira the name Ricky so his wife wouldn't find out about their affair. He also seemed very shocked to learn that Samira was missing, but said that their affair

had ended and that he hadn't seen her. And in fact, he had just moved out of his house to get a new place with his wife. And that's what he was doing the entire night that Samira went missing. That was at least his alibi. As they continue to talk, Facker learned that Zack's wife Samanta was transferring bases. And he began to wonder if she had learned about their affair and done something to Samira herself. He especially wondered this when Samantha wasn't cooperating with his investigation and was slow at responding to his questions over the phone. So in the meantime, Detective Thacker worked Will Peters. Three days after Samira disappeared, there was still no sign of her at all, and detectives

were doing their best with the information they had. And while the family waited on updates, Samira's sister and cousin, Sylvia and Jasmine, visited the same psychic that she did just weeks prior in hopes of receiving some answers. I know that everybody's skeptical on sight, not everybody, but there's a lot of people who are skeptical on psychics. We're not like push in the psychic thing. This is just part of the story.

Yeah. So don't come to us and say, you guys believe in psychics. This is literally just part of the status. Don't come at us. This is part of how this whole thing unravels. And this part is actually pretty weird. You gotta admit, this next part is pretty freaking weird.

So the psychic said that she saw a red car, a large bag, and death, and that they were going to find Samira in shallow water. Samira drove a red 1997 Ford Taurus, maybe you're like, oh she saw, you know, she saw the car when Samira came to her appointment before, okay, sure you got us on that, but listen up. So as soon as they got out of the reading, Sylvia of course called Detective Thacker and explained what the psychic had told them, that as it's crazy as it sounded, that he should look out for her red card near a body of water, you know, just in case.

But he wanted them to keep hoping that Samir was still alive before they got ahead of themselves since there really wasn't any evidence yet that Samir was dead. Then a local called police to report a man loading suspicious items into his car. And when they arrived to the scene, the man was Will Peters. Detective Thacker asked him some questions because he's been wanting to find Will finally here. And although Will denied having anything to do with Samir's disappearance and explained that he was a changed man since he had gotten out of prison, he seemed like a pretty obvious

suspect. And by the way, some of these suspicious items included a bunch of cleaning supplies, but Will said that he had them because since he had gotten out of prison, he started working for his family's cleaning service. So this, I wonder a lot about this because I don't know what would make someone like, he's loading cleaning supplies, that's not weird, you know? Yeah, exactly. So I was gonna say the same thing, like what made them so suspicious of this man?

All I know is that someone reported something suspicious with a man loading stuff into his car, and that's what they found. So I wish there was more information about that specifically because that was really weird to me. Maybe it's possible that this person who had contacted police actually knew Will and knew that Samira was missing. And so they're like put two and two together

and we're like, oh, it's low then some cleaning supplies up into his car. Maybe that's a weird thing. Absolutely could be, that's a good point. But while Detective Thacker was talking to Will, he received a phone call about Samira's car being found in an abandoned driveway at a vacant house. Officers explained on the phone to him that the keys were inside her car and there was

a smell coming from the trunk, but when they checked the trunk, Samira wasn't there. Though it looked like a large object had been in there previously, based on the way other items in the car were situated. Things really weren't looking good at this point, so Detective Thacker continued to press Will with questions, and then took him down to the station to interrogate him. But before he's able to do this, he received some more disturbing information regarding Samira. Five days after Samira was last seen on November 3rd, 2009,

some tourists were jet skiing in the Bayou Grande by the Pensacola Naval Air Station when they discovered a duffel bag by the shore. A swarm of flies surrounded the large black duffel bag and a strong odor came from it. So when police arrived at the scene, they really just feared the worst. When the bag was opened, a woman's body was found inside in the fetal position. But due to the fact that the body had been in water for some time, they couldn't immediately

identify her. Inside the bag as well were some paper towels and a couple of chlorox disinfectant wipes, and the woman was only wearing a bra, and her mouth was tightly duct tape shut. After a fingerprint analysis was conducted, the body was confirmed to be that of two months pregnant Samira Watkins. And remember earlier when we mentioned that she always wore those gold hoop earrings? Well she was found with one in her ear, so Detective Thacker wondered if the other one would be found with her killer. But before doing anything else, Detective Thacker had the tough job of telling Samira's

family that she had been found dead. Her cause of death is fixation. On Tuesday, November 10th, Samirra was laid to rest and a service was held at their local church. I can't even imagine, you know, this family's feelings, knowing that their loved one was missing

and now she's found in this duffel bag. Like she- Yes, that's a brutal way. Yeah, like she was just disposed of. Like, you know, garbage, which is so tragic and just horrible. Yeah, and Samira's sister and cousin making that connection of, this is what we told police to look out for, and this is what actually happened to her.

Yeah, I know. It's just extremely bizarre. So, after digging into Will Peters' alibi, detectives uncovered that he was working the night that Samira went missing. And although his alibi wasn't perfect, it did check out. And detectives felt like his reactions were also very genuine, and he seemed truly concerned about what happened to Samira, despite his abuse towards her in the previous years.

And not that this really means anything, but it's definitely something that detectives noted along with his alibi. Then investigators noticed something that one phone number in particular called Samira continuously from October 20th and on, and she called this number as well. They knew it wasn't Will's or Zack's,

but there was a total of 47 calls between Samira and this phone number from October 20th up until the day she went missing, which again was October 29th. 11 of which occurred on that fatal day. Detective Thacker quickly discovered that the number belonged to a burner phone, and he knew exactly who it had to belong to. Zach Littleton. And by the way, when I said that they didn't believe that it was Zach or Will's, it's because it wasn't Zach's personal phone number. This was a burner phone, so they didn't immediately know who it belonged to. And I just want to remind everybody, Zach is Ricky because we talked about Ricky so much

and I know we did talk about the fact that he was lying about his name, but I just want to remind everybody in case everyone's like, who's Zach again? It's Ricky. So Zach didn't even deny it. He just said that there wasn't anything wrong with him having two phones. But this was strange to investigators because it looked like Samira and Zach hadn't spoken in days, you know, between Zach's real number and Samira. But in fact, they were speaking multiple times a day.

Even though Zach said that their affair had ended. Caught in this lie, Zach now was the number one suspect in Samira's murder. So they started questioning his colleagues who were all in complete disbelief that investigators were even suggesting that Zach would be behind something as sinister as murder. Because he was apparently such a great guy.

But there was one friend in colleague who made investigators question Zach's innocence even more. A man named Mark. So Mark was also one of the colleagues who said, oh Zach's awesome, you know, he wouldn't do something like this. But then he also said that on the night of October 29th, so the night Samir went missing and is presumed to have been murdered, Zach texted him saying, can you come help me move tomorrow morning?

And explain that everything would be all packed up. But when Mark arrived the next morning, nothing was packed at all, like all of his clothes were hanging in the closet, those food still in the fridge. So this put a giant hole in Zach's alibi, who was supposedly packing that entire night. No he wasn't. Then on top of this, some of Zach's neighbors came to police to explain that they saw a couple arguing in the parking lot on October 29th. And to be specific, the woman was backed up against a small red car just like Samira had and she was telling the man to calm down. And although they couldn't see exactly who this couple was, it seemed like it was Samir and Zach, so detectives then issued a search warrant

for Zach Littleson's new house, knowing that he was the last person to see her alive. And when they arrived, Zach was headed to work while they searched his home, and they found some incriminating evidence. Well, first they found Ducktap, which isn't too weird off the bat. That's something that most people have anyway. But on top of this, they checked Zack's computer history, and here are some of the things that he searched for online. How to induce a miscarriage, abortion clinics Pensacola, how to decompose a body, what speeds up human remains decomposition, and how to pass a polygraph?

I mean, come on. Yeah, whoa. That's a lot to take in. Why? Every time there's like a stupid little thing in these kind of cases, I'm like, you really did that? Like, you really looked that up and didn't think they would figure that out. This just reminds me of that ding dong, uh, Mark Jensen. You remember from the Julie Jensen episode? I remember that ding dong.

Yeah. So if this wasn't incriminating enough, detectives also found that Zack's paper towels had the exact same design as the ones found inside the duffle bag that contained Samir's body, which had this kind of purplish design with a bird with flowers. So pretty specific. And then lastly, Samira's

missing gold hoop, her missing gold hoop earring, right there in Zack's home, and a plastic comforter bag. And she had been wearing both hoops that day when she went to work, so this earring wouldn't have come off some other time. And this earring is pretty unique. They were her grandmother, so they're quite old. And they have this unique design and shape, so they don't look like some basic gold hoop earring that you may be picturing at all. It's really hard to describe them just by looking at them, so we post it photos on our socials if you want to go take a look.

I can't explain it, but it makes me think of like the hunger games or Lord of the Rings. I don't know why my mind is going there when I look at the earring, but that's where I go. Yeah, it definitely has like this like unique type of shape to it. Yeah, I mean, it's a beautiful antique earring, but yeah, they're quite unique. So detectives questioned Zach about this earring that they found. And he said that they were his wife's earrings, which they knew is basically impossible. And he said that they were his wife's earrings, which they knew was basically impossible. And then he just stopped speaking for the most part.

He was very adamant that he did not do anything to Samira. But they couldn't arrest Zach quite yet because they didn't have any DNA evidence to connect him at this time, especially since Samira had been found in the water, erasing any trace of a suspect's DNA. So Zach was allowed to say as little as he wanted and he exercised that right.

So they worked towards tracking Samira and Zach's cell phone pings for the night that she went missing. And because they didn't have the proper technology to do this, NCIS stepped in and helped to use their technology to pinpoint the movements. At 10.14 pm on the night, Sevmira was murdered. Zach called her cell phone and during this call, both of their cell phones

pinged going towards his apartment, which were the Crestview at Cordova apartments, coming from separate directions because he was leaving work. About 23 minutes later, Sev Samira made her last call, which was to Zach's burner phone, and both were in the vicinity of his apartment. In the very early hours of the next morning, Zach wasn't home, and we know this because he missed a call from a Navy friend

at 4.36 a.m. Just one minute later, Zach called this guy back, and his cell phone pinged going back to his apartment, directly contradicting his statement to police that he was home alone all night packing, and that he hadn't seen Samira or spoken to her. And what he was more than likely doing all night was hiding Samira's car and putting her body in the bayou. But that brought up a big question. How did Zach get back to his apartment if he dumped Samira's car?

So Detective searched through countless taxi receipts and found one that had the name Zach on it, spelled the exact same way he did, ZACH. This ZAC had called the taxi from a waffle house at 4.20am that was located just a half a mile from where some nearest car was found. So then detectives drove over to this waffle house in hopes of finding surveillance footage that would lead them to some answers. And when they got over there, they found some. On the security footage, a man that is without a doubt, Zach Littleton, is walking across the restaurant and looks right into the security camera lens.

And guess what he's holding? A tub of Chlorox wipes. The same type of wipes that were found in the Duffle bag containing Samira's body. This is crazy because the fact that they were able to just totally toss his alibi out and get this footage and that the footage was still available of him in the waffle house half a mile from where her car was and then a taxi picks him up from there and takes him to his house like the fact that there's record of all of this. Crazy. My thought is that this guy is holding some fucking Chlorox wipes that he probably just used to clean up a murder scene.

Yeah, it's unreal. So this was all definitely enough to charge Zach. So nearly three weeks after Samira's body was found on November 23rd, 2009, police headed down to the Naval Station and arrested him for the murder of Samir Watkins. A year and a half later, on June 27th, 2011, Zach Littleton went on trial for her murder, pleading not guilty, which is really upsetting because there's so much evidence here and the fact that he is still denying it is just like how dare you. So since Samir wasn't far along enough, he was not charged with the death of their baby. Prosecutors noticed that Zach had a very cocky demeanor the whole trial

and often had a grin on his face, you know opposed to having veer or concern like you would expect an innocent man would have during his trial for murder. Prosecutor surmised that Zach Quote got rid of Samira because he was afraid that his wife and the Navy would find out about his affair. Because if you don't know already, adultery is a big time crime in the Navy. Yeah, adultery is defined as extra marital sexual conduct in the code of military justice, and it calls for dishonorable discharge, forfeit of all pay and allowances, and even up to a year in military jail. So they take adultery very seriously, and Zach knew this. His entire career would have ended based on his own mistakes, of course, and instead of taking responsibility in making things right, he murdered an innocent woman.

The prosecution noted that he was likely so worried that especially with the birth of a baby, he would definitely be caught, so he took drastic action. And he planted ahead of time. He lured Samira to his house under the guise that they were going to make everything work out and discuss the plan for her pregnancy, and then when she arrived, they got into an argument. During said argument, the prosecution stated that Zach likely strangled Samira unconscious. Then taped her mouth shut, put her inside of the duffel bag, and then dropped it into

the bayou grande from a bridge. Afterwards he moved her car, and DNA evidence on the steering will prove that he had driven it, headed to the waffle house, and called a taxi to bring him home. And then suddenly, he moved. After a three-day trial and three hours of deliberating, the jury found 26-year-old Zachary Littleton guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and sent in Sim to life in prison. Years later, this is hilarious, in 2019 Zachary gave his first public interview with CBS and explained what really happened that night. He said that he

did see Samira and they had sex. He told her that she could spend the night but that they weren't gonna see each other anymore because his wife was moving back and that they didn't fight it first at all and instead after hanging out for a few hours she suggested that they go to Waffle House, because you know, Waffle House has opened 24-7, let's go. And during the drive-over in the car, things started to heat up between them and she asked him what it was that he didn't like about her, before telling him to get out of the car. And then, that was the last time he saw her.

Oh, and the reason he was holding the cleaning wipes was because he had an abundance of cleaning stuff. What? Hold on. This far is so unbelievably stupid. He added, quote, first thing you move into a house, you want to clean, and she took one, talking about how she needed some. But when she put me out, she threw him at me. And I picked him up and I told her, okay, you don't need him, I'll take him. What? It took him 10 years. It took him 10 years to come up with that really bad story. I mean, is that not so stupid? Incredibly stupid.

Like if that was true, why would you make up this huge web of lies and then not tell the real story until 10 years later, even though this story still makes no sense based on all the other evidence that was uncovered? I honestly, I don't even get like, what is he even trying to do? Like there's so much evidence in this case that he was the killer? Like what are you really trying to do man? But that's why I'm saying. This story is so bad. That's the best you could come up with.

And the fact that Porosomir is family, it's having to go through all of this. When you're supposedly this nice guy, you killed her for a horrible reason not that there's any good reason to murder. And now you're not even telling the truth like you're in prison for the rest of your life. This story isn't going to get you out. Just tell the truth. It's infuriating. After Samir's murder, her son, Day-Day, continued to be under the care of Samir's family and also his father, Will. And although Zach still maintains his innocence, innocence? Samir's family knows he's in the right place. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.

In next week, we'll have two more episodes for you guys to dive into. We also have a couple of Patreon episodes coming this month for you guys, patreon.com. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com. Slash Going West Podcasts. We got two episodes. We like to do international cases. Not only international cases, but a lot of them on our Patreon. So if you're an international listener or you're interested in that, head on over. We have 54 full length ad free bonus episodes right now.

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