Killer of University of South Carolina student will remain in prison after losing appeal
A man convicted of killing a University of South Carolina student who mistakenly entered his car because she thought it was her Uber ride will remain in prison after losing an appeal.
Nathaniel David Rowland was arrested and charged with the murder of USC student Samantha Josephson in 2019. Following his conviction two years later, he appealed the case to the South Carolina Court of Appeals on the grounds that officers didn’t have probable cause to conduct a traffic stop of his vehicle; handwriting samples used to prosecute the case were not his own; and mixed DNA samples collected at the crime scene improperly implicated Rowland.
The Appeals Court reject those arguments, affirming that Rowland was properly convicted and sentenced by Circuit Judge Clifton Newman.
Josephson was stabbed more than 100 times by Rowland in March 2019, 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson told a jury in 2021.
Turkey hunters found her body in a Clarendon County wooded area.
Based on the evidence, Rowland was convicted of murdering Josephson in 2021.
But he appealed the verdict, citing a lack of probable cause for the traffic stop that led to his arrest and the admission of evidence deemed prejudicial against him. All of which a South Carolina Appeals Court rejected.
Columbia Police Officer Jefferey Craft stopped Rowland on March 30, 2019, after identifying Rowland’s black Chevy Impala driving toward Five Points.
During the traffic stop, before Craft could finish informing Rowland that his vehicle matched the description of the one involved in Josephson’s disappearance, Rowland “took off running,” according to court records.
He was ultimately apprehended.
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.
Josephson, 21, a senior at USC, had been celebrating her upcoming graduation with friends in Five Points, Gipson said, and was looking forward to a new chapter in her life. Josephson was headed to law school in New Jersey on a scholarship.
This story was originally published August 21, 2024 at 5:35 PM.
