Rowland guilty of murder in killing of former USC student Samantha Josephson, jury finds

Nathaniel Rowland, the man accused of killing former University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson in March 2019, was found guilty of murder on all counts by a Richland County jury.

The jury deliberated for just over two hours Tuesday before issuing the verdict.

Rowland also was found guilty of kidnapping and a weapons charge.

The trial comes to a close just a week after it began. Throughout the trial, the prosecution appeared to have the upper hand. Prosecutors called 31 witnesses and the defense called none.

At several points when prosecutors sought to enter evidence, the defense objected, only to be overruled by Judge Clifton Newman.

After the verdict was read, the judge heard victim impact statements from Josephson’s mother, a Columbia police officer, Samantha’s sister, a family friend and others.

Samantha Josephson’s mother, Marci Josephson, read from a paper, held by a victims advocate on one side and with her other daughter on the other.

“Her death was my death,” Marci Josephson said.

Marci Josephson described the things she would never see Samantha do, like graduate from USC or law school, have children or get married.

“I used to have dreams for her,” Marci Josephson said. “Now, all I have are nightmares.”

Marci Josephson called Rowland “evil” and called his crime “heinous and vicious.”

Sydney Josephson, Samantha’s sister, joined her mom in asking Judge Clifton Newman to impose the strictest sentence possible.

“No one should have to go through the stress and sadness that we face on a daily basis, minute by minute,” Sydney Josephson said.

Seymour Josephson, Samantha’s father, gave the judge a book of more than 90 impact statements from friends and family. He said he still feel anger and guilt and has trouble sleeping at night.

“I have such hatred running through me,” Seymour Josephson said. “I still to this day cant believe that shes gone.”

The murder scene is described

Throughout Rowland’s car, investigators found blood later determined — with a near 100% certainty — to contain Josephson’s DNA. Her blood was found on Rowland’s clothes, the murder weapon and several items used to clean up the crime scene, witnesses said.

One of the key pieces of evidence Rowland’s attorneys focused on was the presence of unidentified DNA that belonged to neither Josephson nor Rowland that were found throughout Rowland’s car. The defense argued this was evidence the prosecution was incorrect about what happened.

The murder weapon was a multi-tool police discovered in a garbage can outside the home of Maria Howard, one of Rowland’s ex-girlfriends.

Maria Howard, Rowland’s the ex-girlfriend said she saw Rowland cleaning off the multi-tool the afternoon after Josephson was killed.

In the defense’s closing arguments, attorney Tracy Pinnock accused Howard of lying. Pinnock held up a picture investigators found in their investigation showing the multi-tool covered in what appears to be blood.

Monday, the pathologist who conducted Josephson’s autopsy testified the bizarre, parallel knife wounds found on Josephson’s body were likely caused by the multi-tool that had both of its blades extended.

Phones highlighted in testimony

While Josephson was in Five Points on March 29, her boyfriend Greg Corbishley was tracking her location through a phone app that lets friends share their locations.

Corbishley watched virtually as Josephson got into the black Impala and began driving away. Corbishley noticed Josephson was headed the wrong way, so he tried calling and texting her, but received no response. Shortly after she crossed into the Rosewood neighborhood, the tracking stopped.

Even SLED investigators, who accessed Josephson’s unlocked phone, were unable to extract more location data from her phone from that night because the phone was either turned off or ran out of battery, SLED investigator Britt Dove testified Thursday.

SLED investigator Eric Grabsky testified Friday saying an analysis showed Rowland’s phone traveling from Five Points around the time of Josephson’s disappearance to the location where her body was found. As Rowland’s phone returned to Columbia, it stopped in Sumter at around 5:45, which is roughly the same time a person wearing clothing identical to Rowland’s that night tried unsuccessfully to withdraw money using Josephson’s ATM card at a Sumter bank. Rowland’s phone was then tracked back to Columbia near a second location where the same person tried to withdraw money from Josephson’s account, Grabsky testified.

Rowland’s attorneys didn’t deny he was driving the Impala the night Josephson was killed, but said he wasn’t the one who killed her.

Dove was also able to discover Rowland’s two phones called each other during the night of Josephson’s death. Rowland’s phone was unlocked in the middle of the night and someone searched for pornography, Dove testified.

“The only way somebody would have been able to pull that up is if they had the passcode,” Dove said.

Later on the morning of March 29, 2019, someone tried to sell Josephson’s phone to a phone repair store on Monticello Road in Columbia. The owner of that store, Osharmar Williams, pointed to Rowland and said the defendant was the phone who tried to sell him the phone.

Who is Rowland?

Throughout the trial, the jury learned little about who Rowland was. He is 27 and now lives in Columbia. They learned he worked at FedEx and at Capital Waste Services, but the defense called no character witnesses to defend him, even though Rowland had several family members at the trial.

A park ranger who lived “across the highway” from the Rowland family, had little to say about them during his testimony. Andrew Lee, who discovered Josephson’s body while turkey hunting, said he went to East Clarendon High with Rowland, but didn’t know much about him.

Throughout the trial, Rowland remained quiet. Aside from occasionally whispering to his lawyers, Rowland appeared to be expressionless underneath his COVID-19 mask. One of Rowland’s ex-girlfriends who, when cross-examined by the defense, answered in the affirmative when asked if he was “sweet” and “kind-hearted” but did not elaborate past that.

This story was originally published July 27, 2021 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Rowland guilty of murder in killing of former USC student Samantha Josephson, jury finds."