Man sentenced to life in prison in killing of student who mistook his car for an Uber

A man who killed a college student after she mistook his car for an Uber was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

Nathaniel David Rowland was found guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping and being in possession of a weapon during a violent crime before he was sentenced to life by State Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, NBC News reported.

University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson was kidnapped and killed by Rowland after a night out with friends in 2019. 

Prosecutors said in court she was stabbed 100 times and her body was found in the woods near Rowland’s home in Clarendon County, South Carolina. 

Witnesses say they saw Rowland cleaning a knife and found bloody clothes in a dumpster.

“For whoever asked me for leniency, that’s not part of my DNA,” Newman said before delivering Rowland’s sentence, according to NBC News.

Newman said this was the “most severe” murder case he has seen in his time as a judge.

“There’s a thousand trails, each that led to you,” he said. “All of the evidence, each speck of the evidence — not simply beyond a reasonable doubt, but as the highest standard the law requires — all points to your guilt.”

Rowland continued to claim his innocence during the sentencing proceeding.

“But I guess what I know and what I think really doesn’t matter,” Rowland said. “I just wish the state would have done more finding out who the actual person was instead of detaining me and proving my guilt.”

His attorney argued there was no DNA evidence of Rowland on Josephson’s body despite her fighting back during the crime.

“Zero: that’s the amount of DNA on Samantha Josephson’s body that matches Nathaniel’s,” Rowland’s defense attorney, Tracy Pinnock, said. “Zero. It’s not on her clothing, not under her ripped and torn fingernails, it’s not on her ankles.”

Uber added new safety features to the app after Josephson’s murder two years ago.