Murder in Mt. Pleasant

On February 20, 2015, in Mount Pleasant Texas, Ginger Kesterson called 911 to report that someone had broken into her nieces home. Ginger claimed that her niece, Samantha Wohlford was tied up and gagged and that the knots were so tight, she couldn't even get them loose. Samantha claimed she had wriggled over to where her phone was and used her nose to call her mom and beg for help. Her mom then called her aunt to go over immediately to assist Samantha.

All five of Samantha's children were still sound asleep when Ginger showed up to help. Samantha cried that someone had broken in while the family slept, ripped her out of bed, slammed her on the floor and tied her up while they beat her husband, Ernie Ibarra Jr and then took him. Samantha said he had been hit over the head and in the face at least five times with a gun and then dragged out of the home.

The police arrived on scene and asked Samantha what happened and what the intruders looked like. She told them that the three or four people were all wearing black and that every inch of skin was covered. She went on to say that she never saw a vehicle and that the only name ever spoken was the name, "Luke." She didn't know anyone who had any hard feelings towards her or her family. She claimed that they said things to taunt her husband while they beat him. Things like, "How can you not appreciate what you have here? This beautiful woman. This beautiful family. How can you treat them so badly? Take a good hard look.. this is the last time you will ever see her." They did this all as they continued to beat him, according to Samantha.

Samantha Nicole Wohlford was a liar. Her web of lies would slowly unweave over the next few days and the truth of what happened to her husband, Ernie Ibarra Jr. would leave the small town of Mount Pleasant Texas shaken.

Ernie Ibarra Jr.

Ernie was born on Christmas Day and weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz. He was brought to his mother in a little red stocking. His mother, Randa Atchley, said that he was the best of both herself and his father. His mother recalled Ernie being so helpful and selfless growing up. "I remember one day when a neighbor was out mowing. It was so hot he went over and asked if he could mow. The way he was, he gave without expectation of return."

Ernie was the father of a blended family of five children including two sets of twins. He was a hard worker and worked two jobs to provide for his family. It was said that Ernie would do anything to provide for them and keep things going financially. Everyone who knew Ernie described him in the same way, very happy, very smart, very selfless. He loved to read, made good grades, and he loved computers. He could tear a computer apart, put it right back together and make it work better than it did before.

Ernie was described as an extremely caring person who would do anything for anyone. He would stay up all night reading books and studied technology in college. A friend who interned with him said he was a great person who would have done amazing in the tech world. He described Ernie as someone who just had a way of making you smile, even if you were annoyed at him. Ernie also worked at a baseball bat manufacturing company called DBat. He seemed to be doing amazing and his family was incredibly proud of him.

Samantha Nicole Wohlford-

Samantha was born on August 28, 1989. She was the oldest of three siblings. Her family described her as bubbly, friendly, and outgoing. She was talkative, overly confident, and an extrovert. Samantha always said she only wanted two things in life, one was to be a vet (which changed when she discovered that meant she would have to put animals down, something she swears she could never do.) and the second was to be a mother. That would happen when she became pregnant with twins by her high school boyfriend at the age of eighteen. Her boyfriend stayed for awhile before discovering that he absolutely did not want to be a father. They eventually broke up and Samantha became a single mother.

At one point, Samantha claimed to work three jobs while she attended college. She also claimed to have the worst taste in men because she kept finding herself attracted to "losers" who wanted nothing more than to sit around and play video games all day. No work. Never helping with the kids. No cleaning. Nothing.

They meet:

After the break-up, Samantha and Ernie met on Facebook. They talked for awhile and then decided to meet in person. Samantha would later describe their meeting as the best day in her life in one of her Youtube videos. Samantha and Ernie instantly hit it off and they were both head over heels. He was the calm she needed and she was the wild he craved. They balanced each other out perfectly. They both loved tattoos and piercings and reading. In her video, Samantha claimed that Ernie got along great with all of her family and even her two kids. She said it upset him that the fathers name on the birth certificate was left blank and that he would love to adopt them and put his name there. She described being swept off her feet by how kind and amazing he was.

It wasn't long before Samantha was pregnant with another set of twins. In her Youtube videos, Samantha would say that the father wasn't involved and that she was doing everything on her own. She said she had so much love for the father of her children but that he was an idiot and no good and only wanted to play video games. She said he was irresponsible and that he was in jail. Ernie Ibarra was in fact in jail at one point. Apparently he had gotten into an altercation with a cop and had a few traffic violations. It's said that his temper got the better of him and that he was charged with assault of a police officer.

He spent about a year in jail. Upon his release, people said that Ernie had become more mature and that he was ready for a fresh start. He just wanted to take things seriously and grow up. He was ready to take his relationship to the next level and asked Samantha and the kids to move in with him and they did. Ernie worked hard to try and earn a living to support their family, working at Dbat during the day and slinging pizzas at Little Caesars at night with Mama Sandy's crew.

Samantha on the other hand didn't work. She wanted nothing more than to be an actress. She put all of her efforts into running a Youtube channel. Her goal was to become famous and that was what would pull them out of their financial distress.

The best way to describe her Youtube channel is "all over the place". Samantha has videos attempting to do makeup tutorials, but the makeup itself is just awful. She has videos she titles as reviews, but she never really gets around to reviewing anything. She basically just shows a product and says she likes it or doesn't but doesn't really talk about what is good or bad about it. She also had a handful of movie reviews that didn't really clear up anything a review should.

Her most frequent videos were videos of her "ranting" and videos of her reading news articles. None of which had nearly enough views to be making any sort of income at the time.

In the beginning, Ernie tried to be supportive, but as time went on and Samantha divulged more private moments to the world, he was starting to become fed up. Samantha's phone was her life. She was consumed with her Youtube career, videos she wanted to make, and over sharing. Ernie was a very private person. He didn't want the private details of their life and their children shared with everyone in the world. Samantha didn't care, she continued to post what she wanted when she wanted and it was said that you couldn't find her without a phone or Ipad in her hand.

In her videos, Samantha talked a lot about Ernie and her family. She tried to give advice on how people should wait to have children and described her struggle with two sets of twins. Samantha seemed to be delusional. She seemed to be under the impression that she was more popular than she actually was. She seemed to believe that people were waiting around excited for her content, but that just wasn't the case. At the time, she had less than one hundred subscribers and was not even getting one hundred views per video. On top of that, she seemed to make up a lot of things to make herself seem more famous than she truly was. Her videos included things that she claimed her "fans" had requested, but there wasn't a single comment from anyone asking about or for anything. She also claimed that she had done work on a Gerard Butler movie. Samantha seemed to be a pathological liar and someone who was really self absorbed.

Her dream was to become a viral Youtube star but her content was boring and no one actually took much time to watch it or seemed to care about what she had to say, which was really just a whole lot of.. well.. nothing.

A series of unfortunate events-

Samantha's Youtube videos at this point were mostly videos complaining about her life or fabricating her popularity. She would complain about Ernie and how he wasn't helping her with anything. She said that he wasn't a very good person and goes on to talk about she keeps on falling for losers. She finished up by saying she still loves him so much though because he is the father of her children. More and more of her content became her just trying to use the children for views. Apparently the last straw for Ernie was when she posted of video of one of their children dancing in the front seat of the car while she was driving. That with the fact that was neglecting her duties as a mother was enough. Ernie left.

Samantha didn't seem to care much. She continued posting content to her Youtube and other various social media platforms. In one video she posted, she talked about an injury she suffered from an accident she had been in at Walmart. Apparently she was injured pretty badly when a baby changing station lock broke and hit her in the back and neck while she was reaching down to pick up a diaper bag. In another video, Samantha complained of frequent, almost constant migraines and said that she wasn't sleeping well. Samantha said she was seeing a chiropractor four days of the week and said that she could really tell on the days she didn't see him because she was in such intense pain, she could hardly stand it. Samantha claimed she was supposed to be on complete bed rest and not doing any heavy lifting, including picking up her children, something she claimed was impossible because she had no help. She mentions in the video that her doctor says if she doesn't get the help she needs, then she may very well have a mental breakdown.

Ernie ended up moving back in and before long, and before long, their family was growing again. Samantha found out she was pregnant. Neither she nor Ernie were excited about it, which she documented in another video. Ernie was exhausted from working two jobs and picking up all the slack at home. Samantha was ranting on Youtube about how she had no help, even though Abbey, Ernie's sister had moved in and had started helping her out as well. During her pregnancy, Samantha seemed to kind of give up on her channel. She posted only a few videos about her pregnancy journey. She and Ernie were still fighting a lot, but ended up getting married anyways in a small private ceremony.

This didn't stop the arguing. The family said that the marriage did however somehow change their relationship. They said they seemed to be doing a bit better, but they still struggled. They argued over the smallest of things like video games, and also over big things like the kids not being taken care of properly and the state of the house as well as Samantha's addiction to her phone. One day Samantha confessed to Abbey that she and Ernie had a huge argument the night before over her laziness and that he became angry and hit her. She showed Abbey bruises on her arm to prove it. The family was shocked and didn't believe it for a minute. This was completely out of his character. Samantha began telling anyone who would listen that he was abusing her. She even went to the police and had Ernie arrested for domestic abuse, but it was never proven and he was released.

Samantha continued talking, telling everyone that she wanted something done about Ernie's abuse towards her and the children. Their relationship would go on like this for quite some time.

February 20, 2015-

On the night of February 20, 2015, Rosie Wohlford received a call from her daughter Samantha at around midnight. She was screaming and panicking and Rosie couldn't make out what she was trying to say at first. She was able to make out that the house had been broken into and that three men had ripped her from her bed and beat Ernie up. Samantha told Rosie that They tied her up and had kidnapped her husband. Worried, Rosie calls her sister, Ginger who lives only a few minutes away from the house and sent her to help Samantha.

Ginger went over, found Samantha and called 911. She told the dispatchers that her niece had been assaulted and that she was trying to untie her. After untying Samantha, Ginger went to check on the children, who were all asleep in one bedroom. This was strange because the kids usually slept all over the house. All of them were still sleeping even though according to Samantha, there had been yelling and crying. Not to mention Ernie had just been severely beaten and the door had been kicked in. Ginger began asking Samantha questions. She asked Samantha how she had been able to call her mom while she was tied up like that. Samantha replied that she had used her nose. Ginger also noticed that Samantha's car was missing from the driveway and asked where it was. Samantha simply replied, "It's not supposed to be here right now."

The police arrived on scene and asked Samantha to show them around and tell them what happened. They ask for descriptions of the men, how many there were, what they were wearing. Samantha says she is unsure of what happened. She said there were three or maybe four guys and that every inch of skin was covered so she had no idea what they looked like. She claimed that two of them had box cutter knives and that one had a gun. She told police she was just trying to do what they said so that they didn't kill her. She would go on to say that they cut her clothes off of her and threatened to rape her. Police asked where the clothes were but none were ever found.

Police asked Samantha to show them what she had been tied up with. Originally, she said she had no idea what it was but then when she pointed it out, she told police that it was a dress that they took out of her top drawer. Another thing they used to tie her up was a pink ribbon that she said they had brought with them.

At this point, police already know something strange is going on. They didn't think it looked like a break in or a kidnapping. Nothing was stolen or broken, aside from the door. The police noted that the lock was still intact though, indicating that the door was already open when it was destroyed. Police also noted to each other that there wasn't very much blood anywhere, certainly not enough to indicate that someone had been severely beaten. The cops agreed that this scene had been staged. They begin to interrogate Samantha.

Samantha's story-

Samantha claimed she was asleep and had taken an Ambien before the event took place. She said she woke up when the sheets were ripped back and she was pulled from bed, thrown on the floor and tied up. She claimed the men started beating while holding a knife to her neck. Samantha told the cops that the intruders had taken Ernie's cell phone.

She told them that the intruder's had taunted Ernie while they beat him. Saying things like, "You have a beautiful wife and a beautiful family. Take a good long look because this is the last time you will ever see them." She said they smacked her in the face, threw her down and took Ernie.

Things aren't what they seem-

When they found out that the intruders had taken Ernie's phone, they immediately sent in to dispatch to have the phone traced. They told Samantha she was going to have to give them her phone as well. She asked if she could call her mother first and the cop agreed that it was fine.

The cops did get a lead on Ernie's phone and told Samantha that it was great news because they just might be able to find her husband. This is when police really noticed how strange Samantha was acting. The search continued while police questioned her. One thing they noticed was how Samantha kept making it a point to talk about how perfect their relationship was, how they never fought, and how he was the most amazing husband. Police knew this was a lie because of the call Samantha had made claiming that Ernie was abusing her before. It was still in the records, of course. Samantha maintained that she didn't know anything and just wished they could find her husband. At one point she even said, "Is me not knowing what type of car they were in gonna cost my husband his life?"

Later on, dispatch comes through on one of the cops walkie talkies and says they have an address in Pittsburg Texas for someone who they think may be involved. Samantha said that she needed to message her mom just as that message came through. The police ended up taking Samantha into an interrogation room at the station where they would question her all through the night and she would maintain her innocence. Samantha insisted she did nothing and had nothing done.

The next morning-

At around 9 a.m. on February 21, 2015, things changed. Samantha finally said that she thinks she may know who had been involved. She insisted her life would be in great danger if the man knew she had said anything and that it was just a suspicion. She begged them to reassure her that she would be kept safe if she decided to speak up. Samantha finally told the police that she had been to see a friend in the hospital who had just had a c-section and that while she was there, she told that friend that Ernie had been beating her and the kids. That friends boyfriend was there and overheard and apparently was livid about it. He offered that he and his brother in law could "take care" of Ernie. When the police asked her why she hadn't already said anything, she said it was because she didn't take him seriously. She gave them the name, John Rebel.

Samantha swore that she didn't know him at all and that she had never seen him outside of this one trip to the hospital. Police wasted no time picking up him and his brother in law.

Johnathan Sanford-

John Rebel, or Johnathan Sanford, had been recently released from prison for molesting his cousin. He was known in middle and high school as a bully. It was said he never had any remorse for anything wrong or even illegal that he did.

John wasted absolutely no time telling the authorities what had happened and why.

Johnathan Sanford- "Samantha was talking about the relationship with me, Tay, my sister in law and all that and me tryin to talk to her to help her out and all that because she seemed like a good person to me. She was explaining to me how he treats the kids and stuff. I said if I ever see the kids or her with bruises I would take care of him."

His attitude was said to be pretty casual. He knew he was caught and was ready to lay it all out for the cops. Johnathan told police that his brother in law, Jose Ponce, a friend, Octavious Rhymes, and himself had taken Ernie to the woods and killed him. He said that Ernie was stripped to his boxers and they beat him to the point where he was just moving, not even aware of what was happening or where he was going. Sanford said that the plan was initially to shoot him, but he had decided to slit his throat instead to keep things quiet. However, Ponce shot him before he had the chance. Sanford went on to say that he wasn't expecting that to happen. He said he lifted up Ernies head and made sure he was dead, shrugged and said, "Game over." and they went on with their night.

What really happened?

If you go visit Samantha Wohlford on Youtube, you will see a ghost yard filled with 88 videos she has posted in the hopes of becoming a viral Youtube sensation. Ironically, the first video she posts is talking about how CPS fails children and how killers are not made over night.

If you watch her videos, you will see someone who is pretty self absorbed. In a lot of the video descriptions, she mentions how she looks and she enjoys giving herself a lot of under cover compliments.. insisting they are from someone else. This is probably one of the reasons she never gained the fame she so badly desired.

Ernie became tired of her always being on her phone or Ipad because that's all she seemed to want to do. They fought a lot over stupid things. Once Samantha even fought with Ernie over one of his online games. In the game, his avatar married another females avatar and Samantha was furious. She also tried to get him fired from work and accused him often of having affairs with women at work. None of this was true. The main thing they didn't agree on was Samantha's love of social media. Ernie didn't like every moment of their life being shared on Youtube.

He truly was very smart, gifted, and talented. He was doing everything he could to provide for his wife and family. Working two jobs. He did what he could to provide a safe home, vehicles, and clothing. He made sure to do all that he could to provide a good loving home for them. Unfortunately he just met a black widow who took everything from him and eventually lead him to his death. He was a loving father, a loving husband, a hard worker. An all around decent human being. He was not what Samantha said.

Samantha may not have actually pulled the trigger, but she was an accomplice. The mastermind to be more accurate. She made this murder happen. She wanted it to happen and she took steps to make sure that it did.

Samantha saw herself as an actress, but she really exaggerates her own abilities and everyone saw right through her. During the interrogation, Samantha changed her story quite a few times and law enforcement picked that up. Reality is the truth doesn't change. When you're telling the truth, your story will stay consistent. Samantha's didn't.

The original plan was to set Ernie up with meth and have him caught and put in prison. So one day, Jonathan, Jose, Octavious, Samanatha, and ALL five children drove to a drug dealers house and bought meth. Some time after, they changed their mind and while preparing some home made enchiladas, Jose Ponce said to Samantha that they could just kill him. She asked if he was serious and he told her just to keep her door unlocked. The three men told Samantha that if she locked the door, they would plant the drugs... but if it was left unlocked, they would kill Ernie.

The only problem would be the kids. All five kids were always at home and surely something like this would wake them up. Well, Samantha had a plan for that too. She put all of the kids into one room and gave them medicine to make them fall asleep and stay that way. During all of the planning, the children were present. Samantha literally planned the murder of her husband in front of all five of her children. Ironic for someone who rants on Youtube about how some people shouldn't have kids.

So after they plan it out, Octavious and Johnathan drove Samantha and the kids to Walmart to get some food and then dropped her off at home at around 10 p.m. They all reminded her to keep the door unlocked and took her car because they would use it to take Ernie, which is why it "wasn't supposed to be there right now." Octavious and Johnathan went back to Walmart to get everything the needed and then all three men smoked the meth that they were planning on using to frame Ernie with. Ernie had been working at Little Caesars that night He had been trying to reach Samantha on her phone and she wasn't picking up. He had no idea where she was. He had given up. Ernie delivered a frappe to his boss, went home, and fell asleep. Johnathan, Jose, and Octavious went back to the couple's house and tested the door. It was unlocked. They entered, went upstairs into their room, grabbed Ernie and began to violently beat him up.

Samantha was awake. They never grabbed her. She was awake and watched the entire thing as her husband was violently beaten and dragged from the home. They took him and his phone, threw him in the car and then came back to tie up Samantha to make the whole thing look more convincing. Before that, she made the call to her mother to tell her what allegedly had happened. After she told her fake story, they tied her up and left with Ernie in Samantha's car. They drove him to the woods in Camp County Texas and then they killed him by shooting him in the back of the head.

Samantha told her different versions of the story, claiming things like she had no idea who it was to things such as it was maybe Ernie's dad who had a knack for getting involved in things he shouldn't, such as drugs. She said that the kidnappers claimed that Ernie's dad had gotten one of their people thrown behind bars, so they were gonna take someone away from him.

When she noticed the cops weren't buying any of it, she then went on to tell them about John Rebel. She claimed he was upset when Samantha said she was being abused by her husband. She said that he went on to say women should never be treated like that and that he would take care of it. Samantha claimed that when he said that, she didn't take him seriously. She laughed because she thought he was joking.

He was quickly arrested as well as his brother in law, Jose Ponce. She had said there were three people involved. Police also arrested Octavious Rhymes. He was from Pittsburg and had been in the military. He was also doing methamphetamines. When Johnathan realized he was caught, he told them everything. He told them who was involved, and included that Samantha was involved as well. He told them about the original plan of planting drugs on Ernie and how it eventually changed to getting rid of him completely.

Police asked Johnathan if he could take them to where the body was and he did. All three men were arrested and charged with murder. Then the cops came for Samantha. In the interrogation room videos, Samantha is seen writing things on the white board like, "Have you found my husband?" She played the part of the innocent concerned wife the entire time. When the police returned, they told her that they knew exactly what had happened. They told her that Johnathan had told them everything. She maintained her innocence but no one believed her. She was charged with Ernie's murder.

Samantha maintained she didn't even know John all throughout her trials. John testified and said it wasn't true. He even claimed to have babysat her children and there was footage obtained from a Walmart security camera that showed Johnathan, Samantha, and all five children going into the store together.

Johnathan's girlfriend also confirmed that Samantha knew John and told the court that they had hung out together on more than one occasion and that she was in the home when the murder was being planned. She claimed she had overheard Samantha actively participating in everything. Other witnesses claimed that on other occasions, they had heard Samantha say things like she wanted Ernie taken care of because he was abusive. Few even claimed that they knew she had tried to hire a hitman to have him killed.

The most damning piece of evidence came from the officers body cam footage from the night of February 20, 2015. In the video, Samantha told the cop that the intruders had taken Ernie's phone. So the police officer requested an emergency location on it. Samantha asked at that moment if she could call her mom and the officer told her to go ahead. Later on, Samantha can be seen sitting on the couch when dispatch says that they have a location of a suspect in Pittsburg. Samantha picked up her phone again.

The cops had taken Samantha's phone that night and pulled her records. Verizon gave the police some text messages between Octavious and Samantha. Messages that were to help them all evade law enforcement. At the moment when Samantha asked to call her mom, police were trying to have Ernie's phone located. Samantha never called her mom. The messages showed that she had texted Octavious Rhymes- "Kill Dae's phone. Shut that s***down." Dae was short for Daegon, a nick name that Ernie went by. Another text shown on her records was at the moment when dispatch said they had an address in Pittsburg. The message read, "Ditch phone. Move" It also showed a 30 second call between Samantha and Octavious. All of this proved that Samantha was not the victim she claimed to be. Samantha was a willing partner and the mastermind behind it all.

Samantha swore in her interrogation video on her children's lives that she did nothing wrong. She didn't kill him or have it done and that everyone was lying. Johnathan Sanford and Jose Ponce plead guilty to two 50 year sentences each. One for the kidnapping and one for the murder. They run concurrently. Octavious Rhymes and Samantha Wohlford plead not guilty and went to trial. Twice. Both were found guilty. Octavious Rhymes received one 50 year term sentence on aggravated kidnapping charges and a 99 year term sentence for murder.

Samantha Wohlford was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping which gave her a 50 term sentence and murder which gave her another 99 year sentence. She is currently serving her term in Carol Young Complex Prison in Texas. She is currently looking for legal help as well as people she can exchange letters and phone calls with. She promises you won't regret reaching out to her! Are you rolling your eyes here? Because I certainly did.

The motive-

What was her motive? Samantha claimed abuse. She had absolutely no proof of this. It was said that Ernie had grown tired of everything she was doing. Samantha was always trying to get him fired from work and even made reports to corporate about him having affairs with co-workers. Some people say that Ernie had talked about leaving her and taking the kids with him. Samantha would never let that happen. Another theory is that Samantha thought that by making herself a victim, her Youtube channel would blow up and she would make a killing. She would use Ernie's death to her advantage to gain subscribers and she would never have to worry about money again. Surviving was going to make her a star.

A friend speaks out-

They both used to be friends of mine. I still can't believe it all. I remember the day she called me from the police station crying because he had been "kidnapped". I recently found old pictures of us and it made me sick to my stomach. I didn't talk to her as often when I moved away in 2011, but I did visit the house where this happened once, though I didn't go inside. This was also the last time I saw Ernie

I never watched her Youtube videos until after it happened. A lot of what she said is lies. She never worked 3 jobs and she wasn't in college as far I know. She did occasionally do piercings, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't licensed to do it. She lived mostly off of food stamps and any money she received for the twins before they got together. Also, they didn't meet online like she said. We were a group of friends. My uncle was a friend of both Ernie (before they got together) and also of her sisters son's father. Ernie was my uncle best friends before my uncle committed suicide in 2010. My uncle and I were friends of hers. That's how they knew one another. I also went to school with Abby, Ernie's sister. We were also friends. I can't really say how Sam and Ernie's relationship was. She never mentioned that he abused her, but she did tell me they fought sometimes.

Her injury from Walmart was from one of the stainless steel baby changing stations in the restrooms had a broken latch and when she closed it and latched it, it came back down and hit her in the neck and back when she bent to pick up the diaper bag.

The guy she carried to Walmart was a registered sex offender and she let him stay around her KIDS.

I did find out a lot of this after the trials because someone I'm close with was on the jury members for Octavious (no they didn't talk about the case during the trial, I found out after and I don't know Octavious). I was told that during his trial he didn't show any remorse for what he did. Also, Ernie (whom I call Daegon) was brought to the woods in his underclothes (in freezing February) and a blindfold they had him kneel on his knees and then shot him in the head from behind. From what I was told was that this wasn't the plan they had. The were supposed to carry him to an opening in the woods and do it there, but one of them started to get cold feet so one of the others just shot him right there.

She was a extra on an independent film shot in Pittsburg, TX and you don't see her specifically in it. A lot of people from the area were "zombies" in that film. That's the only one she was in.

Here's where the other guys motives came from. Remember the injury from Walmart? She told me she had a won a big settlement from Walmart and had a large sum of money coming to her. I was told she promised to pay them to do it when she got the money. I personally think that she had him killed because she wanted to get out of the marriage before she received the settlement so she didn't have to split the money with him. Divorces take a long time and she would have received the money before they were divorced.

At the end of it all though, Ernest Lee "Ernie" "Daegon" Ibarra Jr did not deserve this. He wasn't perfect, but was a sweet guy and did have a good heart. He loved the kids and would have done anything for them. I still don't know how to emotionally process all of this because I knew them. I know his family, I know her family. I don't know what to feel at all. I'm sad he's gone. I'm sad for his family and the kids. I don't understand what made her do it even now, 6 years later. I am glad she was found guilty though, but my heart hurts over the whole thing. Sorry for this long drawn out and possibly all over the place comment. I've never spoken about any of this until now."

Final thoughts-

Samantha was delusional. She even went so far as to set up a P.O. box so that her "fans" could send her gifts and she could open them up on camera. This obviously never happened because she had no fans... and no one ever requested to send her gifts. She claimed she was working on all kinds of big name movies. The only one she ever was credited for was when she played an extra in a movie about zombies. Samantha wanted to be famous. In her mind, never being caught would get the attention she craved and make her famous.. and well, I guess she got that. In her own words, "That's what all these psychos want.. to be remembered."

Ultimately, it was Samantha who killed her husband. She was the one who made the decision to leave the door unlocked and leave their five children without parents.