Ep 60 | Samuel Howard Part 1

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome back to Voices of a Killer. This week's case takes us to southernmost Missouri, where life along the Mississippi flood plains moves at a gentle pace. But don't be fooled by the idyllic landscapes or peaceful facade. Even here, tempers run high, bullies get even, and drunken fights boil over in the small towns that populate the Missouri Bootheel.

Our guest today, Samuel Howard, tells us one story of a hot headed fight that left two men dead and multiple lives ruined. We'll hear blow by blow the events of a crime that ended in nine deafening bullets. From his strict Pentecostal upbringing to the pact He made with his nephew Samuel's is a story about the true cost of blood loyalty. And while he is always stuck by his claim of self defense, Even Samuel admits that this one fateful night never should have happened. So sit back and listen closely to this as we revisit a murder in small town, Missouri on this episode of Voices of a Killer. Sammy how old are you?

I'm 55. 55. And did you grow up in the state of Missouri? Yes, sir. I was born down in the Bootheell, Kennet. Yeah. How was your childhood? It was pretty good. Pentecostal. Raised up in church. My mom didn't believe in TV and so on. It was very strict. Yeah, when I think of Pentecostal, that's the first thing that comes to mind is strict.

Very, very strict. Yeah. Were you at church every single week and everything? Oh, yes. Multiple, four or five times a week. Yeah. What does your mom and dad do for a living? My, both are deceased now. My, my dad worked on the farms as a, like a manager of farms. And, and my mother worked the factory jobs, that type of thing.

Shirt factories and stuff there, locally. Yeah, do you feel like you, I mean, besides the strictness, do you feel like your childhood was pretty easy going, or did you, was there like violence growing up at home? Oh no, no, it was great. Growing up, actually, I got a college education in reading and vocabulary due to the fact that I read so much and didn't have the idiot box to look at.

Yeah, do you have siblings? Yes, I have a brother, Jim Howard, that's in Kennett, and he worked maintenance at the hospital, and my sister, Jean Brooks, she worked in Kennett as well, and Emerson Electric, various factories. Do you have support on the outside? Yes, I do. Yeah. Whenever you were kind of going into adulthood, how would you consider your demeanor as a person?

Were you angry, violent? No, I had an alcohol problem. No, I wasn't angry or violent or any, any of that. I was what you would call a rugged individualist. I loved hunting and fishing and, and just the outdoors in general, boating, :L camping, you name it. I would have been the happiest to build a log cabin with a cabin with a live spring nearby.

Yeah. That, that type of thing. I'm, I'm that type of a person. If I can get out of prison, all I want to do is go to Southeast Alaska and Live out in the bush, just live outdoor life. Whenever you were growing up, is that the kind of stuff you did, you hunted and ? Oh, absolutely. I absolutely, a lot of it, yes.

You probably miss that quite a bit, being around concrete and metal all the time. Yeah, I, I'm not used to the cities. I, I can't stand all the clutter and noise and yeah. Lights and all that. So whenever you say rugged, you use the term rugged. Would that also mean that you were kind of like a, a no, no BS kind of guy that you, you got into it with?

I have always been a type of guy that I give respect where it's given and I will bend over backwards to help people. People like, I can give you just a quick for instance, there was a woman there in Kennet that had HIV and she was trying to go see her mother, her dying mother down in Memphis, Tennessee, and had no way. And obviously, I expected nothing from this girl. So, I Loaded her up in my truck, drove her all the way with my gas money all the way down to see her dying mother at the hospital in Memphis. And my sister's the same way. My whole family's like that. We, we'll go out of our way to help people.

The Missouri BootHeel is a boot shaped protrusion that juts out south of the state border. Arkansas in denial is what residents call themselves in Bootheel as it is more similar to the character of the old South than the Midwest. Once a hotbed for outlaws and bootleggers, life today revolves largely around agriculture and the church.

Farms in the region prosper off the drained fertile flat plains. And like Samuel's own Kennet, many towns are centered around a prominent Pentecostal church. Raised here, in the sleepy rural town of Kennet, Samuel fondly recalls his happy upbringing. Although strict, his parents were salt of the earth folks, the kind of people who go out of their way to help others.

Boothell instilled not just a strong set of morals in Samuel, but also an affinity for the outdoors, one that's far removed from the concrete prison cell he finds himself in today. Hearing Samuel describe his background feels at odds with what I've read about his case so far. This isn't the voice you'd expect to hear from somebody who, just days before Christmas in 1991, shot two men dead.

With that being said, and also kind of the, the demeanor in your voice, it doesn't sound like somebody that would've put a few bullets into two different people. No, no, and if, if not for the fact that they were trying to kill me and, and trying to kill my nephew, that it would not have occurred. It's interesting you say that because I have this court document pulled up in front of me.

It's actually State versus Howard, and it gives me a lot of insight of what, what's happened to you. And I don't want to get quite into that yet. What I'd like to do is ask you, this occurred in 1991. How old would you have been? I was 23. 23 years old. So what kind of work did you do at the time? I was working at roofing and construction work.

And I was also cutting a lot of wood, selling, selling cords of firewood and stuff on the side. Yeah. And you said you had a nephew who's actually your co-defendant. Yes. So your nephew is Steve Allen Bowen. Is that right? Yes, yes. How old was he at the time? He was about 24, 25. Okay. So y'all are actually close in age.

Were y'all pretty close? You said it was your nephew? Is that what you said? Yeah. I was actually closer with his brother, but blood kin is still blood kin. Yeah. From my understanding, the reason I talk to you guys over the phone and get your side is because sometimes the news and these documents that I read are, they're either kind of misleading or 100 percent wrong or partly wrong or however you want to put it, and it's my understanding that your cousin actually got into an altercation without you first with the victims. Where was this at where, where you weren't involved first?

Where was he at where he got all of these two victims? He was at the South End, I believe it was, or Southern Kitchen, some bar out on the South side of town. And all I knew was that when he arrived at his brother's house He just said that he had been attacked. So he comes to your brother's house, which is where you're at, too, and whenever he comes in, did you see any marks on him, or he was just saying that "I got attacked?"

There was actually a mark, mouse under his young daughter's eye, and he was real mad about the fact that he said one of the guys had hit him while he was holding his daughter, and pointed to the little bruise under her eye, and, but no, I didn't see no marks on him. You're telling me that his little, his daughter got hit too?

Oh yeah, she got hit in the, basically, the way he described it, he entered the bar to pick up a pie, it was, you know, like two days before Christmas, that the guy was like hiding behind the door, and he said the guy snuck up behind him and stole on him as he was trying to pass his daughter, To this guy's wife, but it, rather than waiting for him to get his daughter out of his hands, the guy stole on him from behind and hit him.

And once he was down, then they both tried, got on him. According to my nephew. How come this court document doesn't mention the daughter getting hurt or, I don't know that, that, it, it would've been in the testimony to my trial transcript. Yeah. And I don't have that. Yep. So whenever your nephew, your co-defendant as well, Steve, Bowen came to the house. What were you doing that evening? Were you drinking? I had two or three beers. Me and his brother were sitting there with a guy named Rick Wadley talking about a roofing job. So we were getting ready to try to make a bid on a roofing job. So y'all were just doing work stuff. He comes over and... yeah.

Whenever he tells you all that happened, was he saying like, "hey, we need to go get these guys" or he was just telling you the story and you were like, "hey?" He was, he was mad at the one in particular that he, he claimed had hit his daughter Leah and said, "I want to, I want to whip his ass" basically. And he looked at me and his brother and he said, I, he looked more at me saying, "I need one of you guys to go with me and make sure it's a fair fight, that they both don't get on me like they did at that bar," and he's looking directly at me, and I, like an idiot, I said, "okay." You know that, and that, that, it's funny because you were just explaining, you're basically living life, you're doing business, talking about a roofing job, bidding on it. Yeah. And that answer right there has changed your life forever.

Oh, it did, it altered my entire life. It literally caused me to lose my family, lose my property, lose everything. I lost everything. And while I've always claimed my defense of self defense, I recognize that I should never have went there in the first place. Samuel's memory of December 23rd is steeped in regret.

As it turns out, the beef with the two victims wasn't even his to begin with. It was Samuel's nephew, Steve, who was caught up in an ongoing dispute with Terry Easley and Bear Luttrell. How that conflict started is uncertain, but we know that it escalated in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. Like a tinderbox, fights broke out repeatedly until one incident which Steve saw as the final straw.

Early that evening, Terry and Bear had ambushed Steve when he entered the South End Tavern in town and his daughter had been injured in the scuffle. To Steve, this was a step too far. He was determined to get even with the two men once and for all. When Steve asked Samuel to act as backup, Samuel tells me he agreed out of loyalty to his family.

Little did he know, however, that this momentary decision would alter the course of several lives. Nine bullets were about to be spent and blood spilled on a driveway in Kennet. After the break, Steve and Samuel hunt the victims down.

Well, there's some other stuff that I feel like, and I'm going to confirm later on, we're going to get deeper in this, but there's some other stuff that's kind of, it's a little bit pushed far, and you'll see what I'm talking about when we get there, but, So, you basically agree to this, I'm assuming you say yes, or does he have to talk you into it, or are you pretty much alright, let's go ahead.

I got in the car with him, I said, "now you realize" on the way up there, I said, "now you realize that if he starts whipping your ass, I'm not just going to jump in and try to break it up, that you're going to, you're going to take an ass whipping," because this guy was out waiting by quite a bit, and he's like, "I realize that."

And he said, b"ut however, if I told him that I've had enough, I'd expect you to jump in and break it up." I said, "well, if, if you tell him, if you say you've had enough and he continues to beat you, then I would try to get him off of you. But otherwise..." I said, yeah. So y'all had a pretty good talk about how this should work out when you get there.

And all of these, obviously... it was supposed to be a fistfight. That's all we went for. I understand. So obviously, you know, you had this talk and the problem is, is. And when there's anger and violence and stuff like that involved, you can't just plan it out like that. Other things happen. I know it. I know it.

In the documents, in the documents, you actually, you went to several places looking for these people and the first one, they weren't even there anymore, right? First one, we went right back to the bar where he said that they hit a tag team. They were not there. Did you ever, after that first time, you, you get out of the car and you're pumped up and they're not even there and you get back in the car.

So, you don't kind of have like a little bit of a... well, we didn't, we didn't actually exit the vehicles, but we just drove through the parking lot. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Drove through the park. He knew what their vehicles looked like. He said, "well, they're not here." So, after that, did y'all think about it and say, "hey, maybe we just go back on home or y'all were still pretty pumped?"

Yeah. He was still mad. I wasn't mad. He was mad about his, about his daughter. So you just kind of were going to be the referee, basically, making sure nobody got stabbed or something? Well, no, make sure that the second guy didn't jump on him like he claimed that both of them had got on him. They were known as the town bullies, these two guys that I That I shot that night.

They were known as the town bullies and they had a reputation that both of them would get on a single individual. They had a reputation. It's funny you say that because I interviewed a gentleman in the same prison as you that he has a story that's the same where this guy was the town bully but this guy went over and chased him down and went to his house and walked into his house and the guy shot him but he's obviously in prison.

He said the same thing, the town bully. Were you not worried that maybe one of these guys would beat you up? No, I wasn't, to be honest. No, absolutely not. So on this drive, are y'all in one vehicle together? Yes, we were in my nephew's Firebird. Is there somebody following you guys? My, his brother, after we left, his brother said later that he just decided that it could turn into more than what we thought it might, what we were intending it to be, and that he had followed us to try to make sure that it didn't turn into something worse. Yeah, we did see his truck. He was in a truck. When we was leaving the bar, we saw him pulling in, basically, and he was trying to wave us, and my nephew that I was riding with is like, "f**k him, I ain't got time to stop and talk to him. I'm trying to find him." And he just took off and basically he just followed his brother in a separate vehicle.

Pumped up with adrenaline, Samuel and his nephew drove loops around town trying to track Terry and Bear down. Terry's car was no longer parked outside the South End Tavern, neither was it at his brother's shop. Terry and Bear were not the kind of men you'd like to get into a fight with. They were known as the town bullies, quick to get into scraps, and known to fight dirty when they did.

Strangely, this fact did not unsettle Samuel, and the time spent circling Kennett did little to weaken his resolve. Instead of reconsidering their actions, Samuel and his nephew spent the drive discussing their expectations for the fight. All Steve wanted, according to Samuel, was was to teach Terry a lesson.

Neither of the two men had any reason to believe it would amount to more than a fist fight, and Samuel intended to play a minimal role. He might intervene if his nephew got caught in a tight spot, but this was Steve's battle to fight, really, and that would only come as a last resort. Plans like these, while well intentioned, don't always hold up in the heat of the moment.

And as Samuel and Steve pulled up outside Terry Easley's home, the story was about to play out very differently. We'll find out how the fight unfolded on the next installment. Of Voices of a Killer.

If you wanna find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you can find bonus content, early access, ad free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to sign up now. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in.

I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer. 

Ep 60 | Samuel Howard Part 2

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome back to this episode of Voices of a Killer featuring the true crime story of Samuel Howard. Where we last left off in Samuel's story, he and his nephew were chasing through Kennett, searching for the town bullies, Terry and Bear. We now pick up moments before the fight, as Steve looks to get even on his long held grudge on this episode of Voices of a Killer.

So how many places did y'all go 'til y'all found them, it was the second place? It was the third place where we finally found him, he was at his house, we went by his brother's shop. So y'all went by the house, y'all saw the vehicles there? When we got to the house, we seen that the vehicles there, and he basically called him out into the street for a fist fight.

So y'all pull up to the house, what does the house look like? Are people outside, or is it just, or what? Just, no, it, it, it was, they were all inside. Just a dim, very dimly lit, it had just been storming earlier that night, it was about 8:20 when we pulled up. So, so y'all pull up to the, the House and there's nobody outside.

Who gets out first? Do you wait in the vehicle or do you both get out of the vehicle? He got out first. And did you wait out in the vehicle and he went and knocked on the door or did he yell out the window? I stepped out of the vehicle and shut the door and was just standing in the road. Did he go knock on the door?

Yes. Who answered the door first? Terry. He said something to the effect of what's he want now or something like that. Terry did? The victim? And did your nephew Bowen, did he go off on him and start saying, "come on outside, I wanna fight you?" Or did he, what did he do? He basically, yeah, he called Terry out. He said, come out here in the road now and basically told him he's going to quit this site.

Whenever he said that, he called him out like that at his own house, did Terry seem scared at all? Did he flinch or did he come right out of the fight? No. He came right out and they locked up right away. They, as soon as they got out into the street, they locked up, started fighting. Yeah. Who was getting the better of one, of the other at the beginning?

Terry was at first. He hit my nephew and knocked him back and my nephew somehow used the, when his back hit the car, he used the recoil coming off of the car and managed to get a, I, I still think it was probably a lucky shot, managed to hit Terry and knock him down. Yeah, what were you doing at that moment, whenever he's, those two instances happened, getting knocked down?

I, no, I, looked at the guy, they called him Bear. I knew this guy, Bear Luttrel. Y'all knew each other? Yes. And, and I basically said, "Hey, just stay out of it. It's just between them." And he pointed his finger and he said, "all right, you saty out of it too." And you, you both stayed out it for them? Up until the point that my nephew knocked Terry down.

Yeah. So, so that time that. Whenever he finally turned around and knocked Terry down coming off the car, is that whenever Bear decided to make his move, or? Yes. He was a little closer than I was. He took about two or three quick steps and grabbed my nephew from behind. And I noticed that he had a knife through his throat.

Had a knife through his throat. Now, let me ask you a question. It's you, Bear, Terry, your nephew Bowen, And there's somebody else Yeah. That was able to hear everything that's going on. And it was a female. How is that? there was two females that came out into the yard. The wives of the guys that ended up getting shot and killed.

So on their, so women that are on their side, right? Exactly. They were doing whatever their husbands asked them to do. So he produced this knife. And he actually, which one, Bear or Terry pulls out the knife? Bear. Bear produced the knife and put it, grabbed my nephew from behind and put the knife to his throat.

Whenever he put the knife to his throat, how far away were you watching this? I was about 10, probably about 10 feet away, and there was nothing I could do at that point. What's Terry doing in this moment? He got up, went over into the yard, picked up a stick of firewood, and came back and started beating my nephew with a stick of firewood while his buddy held him from behind. At that point, they took him from the street over into the yard and pressed him up against the left driver's side of the car. So let's stop right here. I want to fast forward a little bit, all the way until examination of your cousin. Did he have any bruises of somebody beating him, beat him with a stick?

Well, it took them like three days to even do an examination from after we, It happened on the 23rd. We didn't turn ourselves in until the 24th. They waited about three or four days. So yeah, it was, it was well past when they should have, but that's, and that's going to be the big issue also of you guys that stick around, but anyway.

So now they're, you're saying that he has, Bear has a knife to his throat and terry's beating him with a stick. Is that whenever you decide you're going to go over to the car and retrieve a weapon? No, I knew there wasn't any weapons in the car that would do anything. I actually went back to the truck and started looking in the bed of it.

And in the process of looking in the bed, I realized that nothing that would be in the bed of the truck would do any good and I happened to look up into the rear view mirror of the truck and saw a 22 rifle hanging in the in the truck like a gun rack and I pulled out the 22 and tried to bluff them into turning him loose to just hold the 22 and say hey turn him loose and I'll take him and just leave.

And that seemed to infuriate them. Samuel tells me that the confrontation with Terry blew up into more than he'd bargained for. For most of the fight, he waited on standby as Terry and Steve wrestled in the street. It was Terry who initially had the upper hand, until Steve caught a lucky hit right across Terry's jaw.

From here on, things turned ugly. Bear jumped in and locked Steve down at knife point, while Terry beat him with a piece of firewood. With a knife pressed against his throat, Steve was utterly overpowered and helpless. His life was in serious danger. Desperate to save his nephew, Samuel intervened. He scavenged through the truck that Steve's brother had been driving and pulled out a rifle that, by pure chance, was resting on the back car door.

And though he aimed the barrel at Terry, Samuel tells me that he didn't ever intend to shoot. His hope was that, by upping the ante, Terry and Bear would back down and the fight would dissipate. As it turned out, that was wishful thinking. We'll hear more about that after the break.

I was going to ask you if you tried to bluff and maybe fire off the gun and see if they would stop. So I didn't try to fire it off. Here's what I'm extremely surprised of, of them not stopping when you pull the gun out, because most people respect guns, especially if there's two guys. Now, here's my thing is I, you're claiming self defense and I, and I'm certain that there was some moments where this guy's life was in danger and stuff like that. But there's two people involved and I'm reading this f**king court document and you f**king blasted these people, dude. They were, the toxicology came back, they tested for alcohol. They were three times the legal level of legal intoxication according to toxicology.

The problem was, was that they did not do according to the pathologist that came in and testified, he said he didn't know I have a lot of people that, uh, talk for m***amphetamines and I was claiming that they were out of their minds on m***amphetamines. And I can see that, you know, I don't, I wasn't there, but, so you basically try to get them to stop.

They're extremely intoxicated. Yes. And who's the first person that you feel like you need to go after lethally? Well, I waited until, he, he sent his wife, Bridget, in the house after a 30-30, and he turned around and pointed at me and said, wait right there, as soon as I get my gun, I'm gonna kill you. And I said, "Terry, please, just turn him loose, and I'll take him and leave."

I said "why are you wanting to kill him in the first place?" And he said, "that's none of your f**king business." But he said, "he's gonna die. One way or another, he's gonna die. If you stay here, you're gonna die along with him." His wife, when she came back out with the gun, she started coming down the steps.

And he was right at the bottom of the steps, and right as she went to hand him this lever action 30-30 was when I shot him. Where'd you hit him first? I hit him first in the face. In the face? And I immediately... how far were you? In the face. I was probably 25 feet. I was standing out like near the, where the street, I was standing out in the street, and he was up close to the house, up by the steps of the house, and she was in the process of passing the 30-30 to him.

What I did though, is when I shot him, I immediately changed my line of vision, even though I was still pulling the trigger, and he got hit seven times, I didn't even know where I was hitting him after the initial first couple rounds, and actually it was too dark out there to aim at anybody, it was just point shooting.

You seem to do really well in the dark, I mean, I know you said you were a sportsman, you hunt and stuff. I am an avid hunter, I used to point shoot rabbits. And, but, I looked at the second guy to see, I was hoping he would back away from my nephew and when I seen that he raised the knife up and started in a downward stabbing motion toward my nephew, that was the point I pulled over and shot him, but I was, what I was hoping was that when he seen that I shot the guy, Terry that had the 30-30 right there. I was hoping that Bear would back away from my nephew and drop the knife, but he, I think it was due to the, the drugs they were on and, and the alcohol, their alcohol level. They just... what was he, I mean, seven times, what is he doing? Is he trying to I know a 22 sometimes can only piss somebody off.

I don't know. That's a lot of shots. I don't know, I guess, and what it was, was that when I changed my line of vision, I guess my finger continued to pull the trigger, it was a semi automatic 22, and I guess with the fear of, he'd just made the threat that "as soon as I get my 30-30, I'm gonna kill you." Yeah, well, hold on a second, so Okay.

You fired, you actually hit him seven times and several of those went into his head, right? Three went in, they said three struck him in the face. They said that they claimed that, that when I changed my line of vision, and my nephew told me this later, they said, "yeah, when you was looking over at Bear, you was actually still shooting him.

And he died trying to run." What you're saying is, is you started looking at like Bear, but you were actually pointing a gun at Terry? Soon as I got the initial shot off. As soon as I pulled the first, the trigger the first time on Terry, I immediately changed my line of vision because I knew Bear's holding my nephew still at knife point.

So I immediately looked over at Bear to see, what is he going to do? Is he going to back away from my nephew at this point, or is he going to try to stab him? And then he chose the second option. He chose to try to stab my nephew. He raised the knife up and went in a downward stabbing motion toward my nephew's throat.

So I pulled over and shot him. But like I said, it was 8:24 when the shots occurred, according to the police dispatcher, I shot him twice and I didn't know, like I said, it was dark out there. So you can't aim in the sense of putting a bead, or sight into a lead or anything. By 8:24 pm on December 23rd, 1991, the encounter turned fatal.

Both Terry and Bear were shot dead by Samuel, in what he alleges was self defense. Whether his actions were reasonable or not is something that's up for debate. On paper, the level of violence seems extreme. 9 bullets were fired that night, 2 of which hit Terry in the back. That fact suggests that Terry had been in a fleeing position when he was shot, something that conflicts with Samuel's depiction of him as an aggressor who refused to back down.

But the way Samuel sees it, shooting Terry and Bear was justified. His nephew's life was in imminent danger, and without Samuel's help, he would have died. In any case, Samuel claims he tried repeatedly to reason with Terry and Bear, but his words were brushed off. Using violence was Samuel's last resort.

The only way he saw to save his nephew's life. Next time, we'll hear how this defense held up in the courtroom.

If you wanna find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There, you can find bonus content, early access, ad free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to sign up now. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in.

I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer. 

Ep 60 | Samuel Howard Part 3

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome back to our conversation with Samuel Howard. Last time, fearing for his nephew's life, Samuel made a life defining decision to shoot Terry and Bear. Now as the reality catches up with him, Samuel has to reckon with the consequences of his actions on this episode of Voices of a Killer. So after you shot Bear twice and he drops, what is your nephew's reaction to you killing those two people?

He just wanted to, he said, let's get the hell out of here. That's literally what he said. He just wanted to get, get away. So y'all get in the vehicle. What's the very first thing y'all talk about? Like, "holy shit, we just, we just killed two people." He, his initial words were, "Oh man, thank you. Thank you. You just saved my life.

Thank you." It was just, "Steve, it's okay. Calm down." And he just over and over, he was just thanking me, telling me that I had saved his life, but he said, "I thought I was dead. I thought he was going to kill me." Do you think if you wouldn't have shot those two guys that your nephew would have been stabbed to death in the front yard?

Yes, absolutely. So here's the problem of why there's no way that, and this is not, I promise you, I'm just, I'm trying to come from a neutral place, but you, you arrived at someone else's house. That's really, really hard to say self defense when you pulled up in their residence. What the law in Missouri actually states is that you lose the right to act in self defense if you are the initial aggressor.

It does continue further though and says however, if you make an attempt to withdraw from the situation and that attempt is thwarted, in other words, you are not allowed to withdraw, you then regain the right to act in lawful self defense. Okay. And then here's.. That's the law. Right. And the second portion of that, that really makes you look bad, even though like we right there, you're just kind of, you're having to have attorneys try to argue that point, which is really difficult.

But, and my jury wasn't instructed on self defense. That made it hard from the, to get a verdict on it because they were literally not instructed on it. And so also from a, from a prosecutor and the police's point of view, somebody that also leaves the scene. Although it may not have nothing to do with the statue of self defense, leaving the scene just makes you look terrible.

And that's exactly what y'all did is y'all left the scene. We did initially, but then we turned ourselves in the following day. I thought you said it was three days later. No, no, no. We turned ourselves in on the 24th, the following day. And also in the court documents, it was said by one of the witnesses, of course, that's on the victim's side, that you yelled out something about, Hey, we're going to kill them now. Not in those words, but it's somewhere in the back. It's funny though. She, in her initial police statement, she said nothing to that effect. And that statement only arose all of a sudden at trial. And yeah, I felt like she was coached by the prosecutor.

Now that you, that is a big, big thing right there, you saying that where the witnesses, they take statements and then all of a sudden some damning stuff comes out afterwards and it's like they're, those prosecutors can corner people and say, you sure that this wasn't said? And kind of like, like, but honestly, your case is really, it's difficult because I know that.

It is. It is. I found the wording in there, but you guys showing up there and. I know it. I know it. I know it looks bad. It definitely looks bad. The wife of Terry, Bridgette Easley, has made statements to an investigator. He asked her, said, "what do you think about Sam?" She said, as far as I'm concerned, this was several years back.

She said, "as far as I'm concerned, I feel like Sam should have already got out of prison." But she wanted my nephew. She felt it was my nephew's fault. She said to Steve, "I hope he writes a mail." So she didn't want my nephew to get out, but she felt, at that time, she spoke to the investigator, the wife of the first guy I shot, she felt like that.

It's written into US law that ,if your life is in danger, you have the right to kill to defend yourself. While that idea sounds simple, it's a lot more complicated to prove self-defense in a courtroom. How did Samuel's crime hold up to the cold hard scrutiny of the Missouri self-defense laws? A few facts in the case undermined Samuel's claim of self-defense.

Firstly, he and Steve were the initial aggressors in this confrontation. They initiated the fight when they pulled up at Terry's house. And typically, that means they would forfeit the right to self defense. There's also witness testimony that Samuel made threatening statements when he arrived, and was far more aggressive than he's making himself out to be.

What's more, Samuel's level of force was excessive. If his primary goal was to save his nephew's life, wasn't it unnecessary to fire nine shots? The abrupt way Samuel and Steve left the crime scene also counted against them. They failed to check on the injured victims and immediately disposed of the weapon.

This kind of behavior would make them look guilty in the eyes of a jury. We'll hear more about the legal consequences after the break.

Yeah. Where did y'all go whenever y'all left the scene? Up to my uncle's in Lutesville, about 150 miles. And y'all hid out there? Yeah, we got out and we were both real tired and laid down and went to sleep. And after a while, relatives awoke us and asked us what happened and we explained it to them. They said, well, that's self defense.

And I said, well, I know it is, but can we prove that to a jury? And they said, well, if you'll go back, turn yourself in, we'll hire you a good lawyer, we'll try to see, tell them, tell them the truth, tell them what happened. Did y'all ride together to the police station, you and the co-defendant? You're Yes.

Yes. On the ride there, on the ride there, was there any talk about changing your mind? Like, "Hey, let's just go ahead to Canada or something?" No. So y'all arrive at the police station. And you walk in there, you turn yourself in, how long were you in there till they questioned you? Pretty quick. Pretty quick.

They took us into an examining room. Did they release you or did they charge you with murder? They charged us initially with second degree murder. For about two months, we were held on second degree. The day before the preliminary hearing, they came, they said, "give us those papers back." They upped the charges from second degree to first degree.

Wow. And I called Premeditated murder. So, do you think it's 100 percent self defense or do you think it's second degree? I think it's, it's 100 percent self defense in the fact that even though we went there, and it looks bad, and I know it looks bad, we did make an attempt to try to withdraw, in which case we regained the right, since they would not allow us to withdraw from the situation.

We regained, we regained the right under Missouri law to act in lawful self defense at that point. So whenever you, did they try to give you a plea deal? They offered 30 years and my nephew, but it was a joint offer and my nephew flat out refused it and it was made as a joint offer that was contingent upon both of us accepting it.

So I basically, that was taken off. That's the first time I've ever heard of that where it's contingent on both of you agreeing that. Wow. Well, he was trying to get, because I was the guy who actually pulled the trigger, and my nephew had a knife to his throat, he figured if he didn't get both of us to accept it, the jury would have quit him and maybe found me guilty.

So, he wanted So, your nephew, under his situation, what was he found guilty of? Second degree murder by acting in concert with me and how they figured with a knife to his throat that he acted in concert with me. It just blows my brain. I don't, I don't understand it, but... That's crazy. Two lives ruined. Well, four really, and a lot more because of his family.

But so go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. I was just gonna say he did 21 flat years before he was released for the first time. Oh, he's done a long time. So, it sounds like he may have a violent past. Is that the case? No, he's He just doesn't have good sense, I would say. At the end of the trial, Samuel and his nephew were found guilty of killing Terry and Bear.

Despite his nephew initiating the fight, it's Samuel who's been given the short end of the stick sentencing wise. Ultimately, he was charged with two counts of first degree murder and armed criminal action. And because he had a prior criminal record, he was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Steve, however, received a much lighter sentence, second degree, and has since already been released from jail. Hearing Samuel recount this crime, it's striking how easily all of this could have been avoided. If Samuel hadn't been so easily swayed by his nephew's influence, he may still be a free man today, and Terry and Bear might still be alive.

Before wrapping up the interview, I gave Samuel his final say.

Well, I keep going back to the fact that you were explaining how your life was just so normal. You're doing bidding on roofing, and all of a sudden it's like, "Hey, I need you to come help me do something," and you went off and found yourself f**ked your, the rest of your life up. Absolutely, I had three small kids.

I had one that was one year and four months old. And kids that were like three and four years old. I had my oldest boy, Samson, was like four. My youngest son, Jonas, was three. My daughter was a year and four months old. And, yeah, I was just... it's just so crazy, all those, all those people just completely ruined.

Oh yeah, our lives were all ruined. Everybody, including Terry's and Bear's. And it was just bad all around. There was, there was no win. Have you gotten much hate from their victim's family? No, I haven't. I haven't. So whenever you, you've exhausted all your appeals? I went all the way through, but of course you can always refile things and I'm looking at that now.

I've got one of them, the one on Luttrell got reversed and remanded and the state dismissed it. So the only one I'm still Go ahead, go ahead. The only one I'm still convicted on is Terry. And so I'm still trying to get that one reversed and remanded for a new trial. What were you sentenced to? Life without possibility of parole.

Man, whenever the jury read off that guilty, how'd that make you feel? Horrible, hopeless. And what does that feel like you, that you're going to die in prison more than likely? Oh, it's just a hopeless, it's a hopeless existence. It's like, you're just languishing. It's like, you have no, you're just, you're just languishing.

It isn't even life. I, I won't even call it life. It's just, it's like, you're just languishing. Yeah, man, Samuel, I, it sucks that it happened to you. There's so many lives ruined. Just, one little mistake. I don't know what to say. Oh, it can change. It changes your life forever. One little mistake. Well, I hope everything works out for the way it should.

I appreciate you telling me your story and all that. Thank you for using Securus. Goodbye.

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer. Whenever you saw him pull that gun out, what was your first reaction? Bruh, you ain't gonna shoot me, bruh. You know me. If you my brother, you ain't gonna shoot me. Did you actually hold the gun yourself and shoot him? No. How did he get shot? It was just going off.

I guess at the time, the murder weapon wasn't found. Cause they Haven found it. I didn't take it. They don't know who got it. Still don't know who got it. Did you take the gun? Nah, I didn't even know the gun was missing. Or finished writing my second book. Second book. Where's the first one? Yeah, I wrote a urban book, but I was in the county jail and I never got it published.

I never did anything like that. I just wrote it and I used to let people read it. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. I wanna thank Samuel for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast.

If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and podcast. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support, and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.