Staff Report
A trial date in February 2022 is anticipated for Freddie Lee Smith, one of two men Austin Police Officer VonTrey Clark, 32. hired to kill his 29-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Samantha Dean, in 2015.
Dean was a victims services coordinator for the Kyle Police Department and Clark, who was the father of her unborn child, pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for a life sentence in December 2019.
The third man, Kevin Watson, is awaiting trial.
The delay is blamed on the coronavirus, with officials in Bastrop County, where Dean’s body was found, hoping that by that time, the criminal justice system and jury trials will have returned to normal.
If the trial does take place in February 22, it will mark five years since Dean’s body was found in a Bastrop parking lot. The case has experienced a number of delays, notably when Clark fled to Indonesia soon after his relationship with Dean came to light.
He was brought back in August 2015.
