A college student suffered “heinous, cruel and malicious acts” when she was kidnapped and murdered two years ago by a man she believed was her Uber driver, a South Carolina attorney told a jury on Tuesday.
Samantha Josephson was out with her friends just months before graduating from the University of South Carolina before she was allegedly killed by Nathaniel Rowland on March 29, 2019, authorities said.
Josephson, a 21-year-old native of Robbinsville, New Jersey, was in Columbia’s Five Points entertainment district when she got into Rowland’s black Chevrolet Impala and thought it was her drive home.
Fifth Ward attorney Byron Gipson told jurors that they will be shown surveillance footage, cell phone tracking data, the murder weapon, and other incriminating evidence that will lead to a determination of Rowland’s guilt.
“It is these deliberate, heinous, cruel and malicious acts that Nathaniel David Rowland was charged with kidnapping Samantha Josephson. He was charged with the murder of Samantha Josephson,” Gipson said.
“And he was charged with possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime. And in due course we will ask you to give a guilty verdict in each of these cases.”
Gipson painted an alternating light and gloomy picture of the scene – of Josephson celebrating the end of school and of the defendant who was supposedly lurking.
“They had their future and their love for each other firmly in view,” said Gipson of the victim and her friends.
“But what they failed to see, what they never could see, is that the defendant, Nathaniel David Rowland, had his eyes fixed on Samantha Josephson. He had his eyes fixed on Ms. Josephson as she came out of the Bird Dog Lounge in Five Points went. ” alone when she went outside ordering an Uber ride, alone. “
And once she got into the car, there was no way out because the child locks were activated and the doors could only be opened from the outside, prosecutors said.
Samantha JosephsonColumbia Police Department via AP
Her blood and cell phone were found in Rowland’s vehicle after the student’s body was found in a forest off a dirt road in Clarendon County, about 65 miles away, officials said. She had wounds on her head, neck, face, torso, leg and foot.
But defense attorney Tracy Pinnock on Tuesday urged jurors to stay open-minded, pledging to show them that an army of crime scene investigators found no DNA evidence linking their client to Josephson’s murder.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to hear that number again and that’s zero,” said Pinnock. “That’s the amount of DNA on Samantha Josephson’s body that matches Nathaniel Rowland. Zero. It’s not on her clothes, it’s not under her severed fingernails, it’s not on her knuckles. “
Josephson was scheduled to graduate from USC in May 2019 before entering law school.
If convicted, Rowland faces life imprisonment without parole. He has been in Richland County Jail since his 2019 arrest.
Josephson’s death drew national attention to ride-hail safety and spurred changes in the industry, including more noticeable displays of driver’s licenses and drivers having to say their passenger’s name before traveling.
