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January 30, 2007

Last suspect pleads guilty in murder on Indian land

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The last of three people accused of killing a 19-year-old Providence woman and dumping her body over a bridge in Connecticut pleaded guilty today.

Tawanna Sampson, 31, admitted to second-degree murder and conspiring with her half-sister and cousin to murder Stacy Ann Brissett on Narragansett Indian land in Charlestown on July 26, 2005. The three at the time believed Brissett, a former Providence stripper, played a role in the shooting death of their brother, Dwayne “DA” Sampson, weeks earlier.

In Washington County Superior Court today, Sampson wept and stared back at the 20 or so friends and family members gathered in the courtroom as she agreed to the deal in which she faces 50 years, with 40 to serve, at her sentencing March 27.

Sampson’s accomplice, Shea Cook, 22, of 364 Curtis Corner Rd., pleaded guilty to similar charges in late November. The shooter, Shonda Northup, of Ledyard, Conn., pleaded no contest in May to second-degree murder, conspiracy and two firearms charges in exchange for a 60-year sentence, with 40 to serve. She provided statements against Cook and Sampson, of 89 Broad St., Cumberland.

Prosecutors say the three lured Brissett into their 1991 Plymouth Voyager and with three others, who were not charged, drove to Narragansett Indian land in Charlestown. There, Cook and Northup argued about who would kill her with Sampson’s .25-caliber handgun. Northup shot the 19-year-old Providence woman three times, court records show.

They carried her to the minivan, where they beat and strangled her as she tried to escape. They then threw her body over a footbridge at Indian Leap Falls on the Yantic River in Norwich, Conn.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 4:21 PM | Permalink

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