Hello everyone, 

My family and I desperately need your help to keep a dangerous convicted murderer in prison! Over 30 years ago in Big Bear Lake, CA, my Aunt Jill and twin unborn cousins, Christopher and Caren Swafford were brutally murdered by her husband and Ex-Deputy Sheriff Samuel Leon Evans.  

We have been fighting to keep him in prison for a long time now, and we desperately need your help to do so. We believe he is dangerous and a risk to our society and community.  He is going up for his fourth parole hearing on April 26th, 2023.  Everyone who has signed previously has made a world of difference and has helped keep him behind bars. Please, help us once again?

Here is a recap of the terrible events that occurred that lead to my aunt and cousins murder:

Jill Swafford was nearly nine months pregnant when she was murdered on March 21, 1986. Sam was a deputy sheriff for the city of Big Bear Lake, California, and at the time of the murder had already been guilty of prisoner abuse, animal cruelty, and other miscellaneous violence---all of this by his own admission. Sam had also been having an affair which was, unfortunately, common knowledge to everyone including my aunt Jill. 

Jill loved Sam so much that she wanted to keep their marriage, and work it out with him. Things had been escalating, and feeling he was going to see the woman he was having an affair with, my aunt went out to follow him.  Around 3:00 am--the day of the murder, they both pulled over to the side of the road, where an argument concerning the affair broke out.

By his own admission, Samuel Evans pulled his gun, but then realized that it wouldn’t look like an accident if he shot her. He bludgeoned her in the head instead with his gun, and she fell to the ground after the first blow and begged for her life. He continued to beat her head in with the weapon, a piece of her skull chipping away in the process. Thinking he had killed her, he tried to cover his actions by trying to make it look like a terrible car accident. She was still alive when he put her into her car and pushed it off an embankment near the Big Bear Dam. After her car crashed to a halt, but not the way it would have if she had gone over the edge accidentally, he climbed down the hill.

Finding her still breathing inside the vehicle, he bludgeoned her again and again at the bottom of the embankment and then cut up her face, presumably with his knife. After this, he placed a hydraulic car jack on top of her head. He left her wedged tightly on the floorboard, face down with her abdomen pressed down on the transmission lever and her head slightly out the right front door. Sam then called the incident in on the police radio in his squad car.

Too many details did not add up for Jill’s death to have been an accident, and it soon became apparent that Sam had murdered her, and their twin babies. Both babies were viable, but were still born due to the trauma to Jill. The doctor who performed the autopsy on Jill had stated that it would have been more humane for Sam to have shot her. Her brain was mush.

Jill was a loving, vivacious person to everyone who knew her. She cared deeply for all the people in her life. Her greatest desire however was to be a mother, a dream that would never be fulfilled. Caren and Christopher, two innocent little babies weren’t even thought of or considered by Sam when he decided to murder his wife. Along with Jill, their lives were taken much too soon.

On April 5, 2016, a parole hearing was held for Samuel Evans (Inmate ID: CDC#D-89387) , and we the family of Jill, Caren, and Christopher attended as well. Despite our pleas, the parole panel insisted that Sam is ready to rejoin society because of several commendations and his longstanding record of good behavior. They stated that the “crime was inexplicable”, and that because of his good record, the crime was a “single anomaly” in his life. They also expressed that the justice system is no longer about punishment, but in determining when inmates are ready to rejoin society. Their ideals have proven that the destruction of a human life is worth only ten years of incarceration at best, which is a very dangerous attitude for our society.

As a deputy sheriff, Sam was supposed to be a model citizen; his job was to protect and serve. Instead of upholding his duty, Sam showed that from a mixture of being embarrassed and his authority being questioned, that he would pour all his wrath out on whomever angered him. He committed an abhorrent act of violence on not only the one who trusted and loved him the most (his wife), but on his unborn son and daughter, and this shows what he is capable of.  We do not believe that he has been rehabilitated, and that he is still a danger to society. 

Evans has been in prison now for 37 years.  During all this time, he has not shown an ounce of genuine remorse.  He has each time tweaked his responses in order to get out.  Each time he comes up for parole, we fear this will be the time he gets out.  We are afraid that he is institutionalize and could commit another violent act if he is allowed to be set free into society. My family is worried not only for ourselves, since we believe he will come for us, but for the community at large. No one should ever have to lose a loved one to such an act of violence.  We don't want any innocent civilian to be anywhere near Evans and lose their life or their loved ones life as a result of him being freed. Please help us!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  We hope you will help us by signing this petition and keeping a dangerous murderer, like Samuel Evans, behind bars.