Hemans Found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder of His Wife

State Attorney Melissa Nelson announces the Honorable Anthony Salem found Samijo Hemans guilty of Second-Degree Murder in the killing of his wife, Catherine, after a bench trial. With the verdict, Hemans faces up to life in Florida State Prison. Judge Salem will sentence Hemans at a later date.

On May 20, 2021, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to an apartment on Old Kings Road about a deceased person. When they arrived, they met Samijo Hemans, who told them he had struck his wife, Catherine, with a metal pipe. He was immediately detained. When officers went inside the home, they found Catherine Hemans on the living room floor deceased with severe trauma to her head. Post-Miranda, Samijo Hemans admitted he had arrived to the apartment before his wife and she and their baby arrived 45 minutes before he killed her. He admitted that as she walked away toward her bedroom, he struck her in the back of the head with a pipe. The two then struggled over the pipe before he regained control and struck 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.

The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant State Kelli Shobe and Erin Wolfson.