TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Tampa Bay murderer will be executed next month after a new order from Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Friday, DeSantis signed a death warrant for Samuel Smithers, a former Plant City Baptist deacon who murdered two women in 1996.
According to a letter from Florida Attorney General James Uthemeier, Smithers murdered two women, Christy Cowan and Denise Roach, whose bodies were found on a property Smithers was supposed to maintain for another woman.
“Samuel Lee Smithers met Marion Whitehurst at church and agreed to maintain the landscaping at a vacant property Whitehurst owned in Plant City,” Uthmeier wrote. “The property consisted of a fenced twenty-seven acres with three ponds and a house. On May 28, 1996, Whitehurst stopped by the property to find Smithers sitting in the carport cleaning an axe. While speaking with Smithers, Whitehurst noticed a pool of blood in the carport. Smithers told her someone must have come by and killed a small animal.”
Smithers told Whitehurst he would clean up the mess, and she called law enforcement after she left the house.
When a deputy arrived, he noticed that even though the blood had been cleaned up, there were drag marks that led to a bond on Whitehurst’s property. There, they found the bodies of the two women.
Court records stated that he met Roach at a Hillsborough Avenue motel and picked her up to have sex for money. After taking her to the Whitehurst property, he then killed her by smashing her face, strangling her, and leaving her in the pond.
“Seven to fourteen days later, Samuel Smithers picked up Cristy Cowan at the same Hillsborough Avenue motel at approximately 6:00 p.m. after his work day to have sex for money, and after traveling well out of his normal route to his home in Plant City, he took her to the same secluded property, locked the gate behind him, had sex with her, and then violently killed her as has been previously described, which included inflicting facial and head trauma with an axe and a hoe, strangling her, and possibly drowning her,” the court records stated.
The killer was convicted for the murders and was sentenced to death on June 25, 1999. During his trial, Smithers’ loved ones described him as a loving father and family man who attended church regularly, despite being a murderer.
Smithers also became known as the “Deacon of Death” and the “Serial Killer Next Door” by Fred Rosen, who wrote a book on the murderous church man’s crimes.
The state has scheduled his execution for Oct. 14, 2025, at 6 p.m. He has until 1 p.m. Friday to file an appeal.
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