Left: Samijo Hemans (Jacksonville Sheriff”s Office). Right: Catherine Hemans (4th Judicial Circuit State Attorney).
A Florida judge convicted a 33-year-old man of murdering his wife with a metal pipe because she committed “voodoo” on him for “several years” and he was fed up with it.
Samijo Hemans was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Catherine Hemans, 33, in Jacksonville, the Office of the State Attorney for the 4th Judicial Circuit said in a press release. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded on May 20, 2021, to an apartment on Old Kings Road about a report of a dead person.
When they arrived, they found the victim dead on the floor with severe trauma to the head. The suspect remained on scene and deputies took him into custody. Post Miranda, he said his wife and their baby arrived at the apartment about 45 minutes before he killed her. When she began to walk toward the bedroom, Samijo Hemans grabbed a metal pipe and hit her in the back of the head, prosecutors said.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
The two began to wrestle for control of the pipe before he grabbed it back and hit her several more times.
“He said the two were not in any sort of argument, but that he committed the crime after several years of her having performed ‘voodoo’ on him,” prosecutors wrote.
Samijo Hemans will be sentenced at a later date. He faces up to life in prison.
According to her obituary, Catherine Hemans previously worked as an assistant athletic trainer at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.
“Cathy was an avid sports fan and her favorite football team was the Philadelphia Eagles,” the obituary said. “Cathy was a natural creator who enjoyed researching creative ideas on Pinterest and providing special sentimental gifts and portraits for family and friends. She was always making and creating something with her God-given talent.”
