Murder of Angela Samota

Donald Bess died in prison from a heart attack on October 8, 2022, while awaiting execution.

Donald Bess remained on death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit until his death on October 8, 2022. Samota's body is buried in the Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Texas. Sheila Wysocki lives in Tennessee and is still a practicing private investigator.

In 2016, the Dallas Police Department re-established a unit dedicated to researching cold cases. In a 2021 Investigation Discovery episode, titled "Betrayed: Co-ed Killer", the case and the subsequent identification of Samota's murderer were re-enacted.

The true crime series Dateline NBC produced an hour-long program covering the Samota case. Entitled In the Middle of the Night, it originally aired on NBC on June 8, 2012.

The defendant in the 2010 trial for the sexual assault and murder of Angela Samota was already in prison, serving a life sentence. Donald Andrew Bess Jr. had been previously convicted in 1978 for aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping. He had been sentenced to 25 years in prison, and was out on parole by 1984, when, according to the court's decision, he raped and murdered Samota.

During the punishment phase of the Samota case trial, in 2010, various women came forward and testified that they had also been raped by Bess. The defendant's ex-wife testified that he had abused her and their child during their marriage. They had wed in 1969 and divorced three years later.

On the basis of the DNA match, Bess was found guilty by the jury and, on June 8, 2010, received the death sentence. On March 6, 2013, the appeal filed by Bess was rejected and the judgment of the trial court was affirmed. On August 13, 2013, a certiorari petition was filed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and denied on January 13, 2014. In April 2016, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused an appeal submitted by Bess, upholding the findings of the Dallas County trial court.

In 2006, then-Dallas police detective Linda Crum, tasked with the case, used the DNA evidence from blood, semen, and fingernail samples to try to find a match among persons with a criminal record. In 2008, the results pointed to a Donald Bess who, at the time of Samota's murder, was on parole while serving a 25-year sentence.

In 1985, in a case unrelated to Samota's murder, Bess was sentenced in Harris County, Texas, to life imprisonment for one count of aggravated rape, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of sexual assault.

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr., who was subsequently tried and received the death penalty. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

On the night of October 12, 1984, Samota and two friends, one male and one female, went to the State Fair of Texas. Samota's boyfriend did not join them because, according to the subsequent police report, he was working in construction and said he had to get up early the following morning. The three friends went to the Rio Room dance club and stayed there until "after midnight." According to subsequent testimony of the male who accompanied the two girls, Samota "was going [from] table to table, talking to people" and seemed like "she knew everyone."

Angela "Angie" Marie Samota was born on September 19, 1964, in Alameda, California. She enrolled at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and was a part of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She was studying computer science and electrical engineering.