On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 9 PM ET, ID’s The Murder Tapes will run an episode titled Friends Like These, which will chronicle the tale of Samantha Wohlford. Samantha, a mother of five, plotted the murder of her husband, Ernie Ibarra, a tattoo artist in Titus County because she claimed he was abusive. After receiving a panicked phone from Samantha’s aunt, who claimed that her daughter had been bound and gagged by intruders, the Titus County Sheriff’s Office deputies hurried to Ernie and Samantha’s home. The spouse of her niece had been viciously attacked before he was abducted. Three masked males broke into their homes on the evening of February 20, 2015.
evening, Ernie Ibarra was murdered by gunfire, and the subsequent investigation identified three suspects: Jose Ponse, Johnathan Sanford, and Octavious Rhymes. Samantha Wohlford’s name surfaced in connection with the murder investigation, and it became out that she was the brains behind the entire scheme. Samantha’s role in her husband’s death is worth investigating.
How did Samantha Wohlford kill Ernie Ibarra?
Samantha filed a complaint against Ernie in 2014 after Ibarra allegedly beat her, revealing that their marriage was violent. His loved ones, however, maintained their denial of the allegations. Samantha claims that the occurrence marked a clean slate and that the couple has moved on. Despite the family’s financial woes, she attempted to portray them as a joyful unit.
Samantha sought to steer the police toward Johnathan Sanford during her questioning by saying that she and her husband had met at the hospital when she went to see a friend and that Sanford had been offended by her husband’s harsh conduct. Sanford and his brother Jose Antonio Ponse have been charged with aggravated abduction after their arrest.
After the two guys described what happened, it became clear that Samantha Wohlford and Octavious Rhymes (another plotter) were involved in the murder. The first plan to get rid of Ibarra included planting cocaine in his car and then calling the police. But then they realized it would be simpler to simply murder him, and that altered everything. To help carry out their plan, Wohlford even let them use her automobile.
More details about the case, charges, and allegations
Police arrested Sanford and Ponse for Ernie Ibarra’s murder and aggravated abduction after they found his corpse in the woods near Sand Crossing in Camp County. As their parts in the murder plan were revealed in a conversation between Samantha and Rhymes, they were also accused on the same grounds. After purportedly entering guilty pleas in April 2016, José Ponse and Johnathan Sanford were sentenced to 50 years in prison. Octavious Rhymes’ trial began in December of that year.
The allegations against him were upheld, and he was given a 93-year jail term. The trial for Samantha Wohlford took place in October 2017, and she was given a 99-year prison term after the hearing. More information on Ernie Ibarra’s murder will be provided in the next episode of Murder Tapes.
