Former Police Officer Paid Two Men To Murder Pregnant Girlfriend

KXAN reports that Freddie Lee Smith was sentenced to life in prison after his trial that began June 22. Freddie Smith and Kevin Watson were accused of accepting payment to murder Samantha Dean. Smith and Watson were paid by former Austin Police officer Vontrey Clark, who was in a secret relationship with Dean. Samantha Dean worked as a victim services coordinator for Kyle Police. She was seven (7) months pregnant when she was murdered, and Clark was the father of the child. Dean, 29, was found dead from gunshot wounds in her car in a Bastrop parking lot. Clark was arrested in September 2015 after federal agents extradited him from Bali.

In 2015, Clark paid Smith and Watson $5,000 to kill Dean, and plead guilty to capital murder in December 2019. He is serving a life sentence.

Watson received a 35-year sentence, but has credit for 2625 days previously served. Investigators report that Watson and Clark were using prepaid phones and PlayStation 4 gaming systems to plan the murder. 

KXAN received a three page statement from the Bastrop County District Attorney, Bryan Goertz. He wrote, “This was a particularly heinous and utterly heartbreaking crime – to execute a woman and your own unborn daughter just because she wanted to give birth to your baby is beyond comprehension…It was because of horrific nature of this fact pattern that I decided early on in this process that the State would be seeking the death penalty.”

Ultimately, however, Goertz found that pursuing the death penalty would be too risky. Clark didn’t have a criminal background of repeated violent behavior, which is required by Texas law for a person to receive the death penalty. Clark agreed to a plea deal; he would plead guilty in exchange for life in prison without parole.