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A Florida woman is behind bars and facing an attempted murder charge after she allegedly drugged a man she’d met on a dating app.
Samantha Adams, 39, and the victim, 69, had been in a relationship “for the purposes of … paid sex” for two to three months after meeting online, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
Adams told the victim her name was “Nala.”
“Black widow” is what Polk County deputies call her, Judd said.
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Samantha Adams, 39, faces an attempted murder charge after investigators say an elderly romantic partner was poisoned with benzodiazepines after a meeting at his home. (Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
“She tried to kill him,” Judd said in a video posted to social media. “She tried to overdose him. She tried to extort him.”
On Aug. 17, Adams and the victim were in an argument about a vehicle he’d bought for her, court records show. When he told her he wanted it back because he couldn’t afford it, she said they could discuss it at his house, according to records.
When at the victim’s home, Adams gave him a shot glass filled with “suspected whiskey,” court records show.
“She slipped him benzodiazepine,” Judd said.
After he drank the beverage, the two “engaged in physical affection,” court records show. When the victim “attempted to touch the defendant in a sexual manner,” Adams demanded $1,000, according to court records. When he told her he didn’t have the money, she got dressed and left the home.
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Not long after, the victim was asked to pick up his granddaughter from a Wawa gas station near a movie theater where he’d dropped her off with her boyfriend earlier that day.
On his way to the Wawa, he began feeling ill, court records show.
Later, he could only recall being pulled from the driver’s seat by his granddaughter and being moved to the back seat of the vehicle, Adams’ arrest warrant shows.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says Samantha Adams drugged and tried to extort a 69-year-old man she met through online dating. (Carmen Whitehead via Getty Images)
The granddaughter drove her unconscious grandfather home. When he was still unconscious later in the evening, she called 911.
At the hospital, the victim was given Narcan for a suspected opioid overdose, records show.
A urinalysis and other testing showed he had benzodiazepine poisoning, metabolic encephalopathy, dehydration and acute kidney injury, investigators reported.
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Benzodiazepines are depressants that cause sedation and hypnosis, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Overdosing on the drug can cause extreme drowsiness, confusion, impaired coordination, decreased reflexes, respiratory depression, coma and possible death.
The victim told investigators he doesn’t drink often.
The last time he drank and consumed “exponentially higher” amounts of alcohol was on the Fourth of July, when he had three Long Island Teas and three beers, he said.
And he was never drowsy and disoriented like he was when he drank with Adams, he told investigators. It wasn’t the first time the victim had become drowsy after meeting with Adams, he said.
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Earlier in August, the victim fell asleep behind the wheel after leaving Adams’ home. He was awakened by an Osceola County Sheriff’s deputy after he accidentally reversed his truck into the deputy’s agency vehicle.
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“There’s lots of investigations still to go,” Judd said. “That’s underway.”
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The victim’s normal medications do not include benzodiazepines, investigators found.
Sheriff Grady Judd said Samantha Adams tried to kill the man she had met on a dating app. (Reuters/Pierre DuCharme)
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He also was assessed for mental acuity and wasn’t found to be in a forgetful state of mind or a state in which he would intentionally take the drugs to hurt himself. And he wasn’t found to have a previous history of opioid use.
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Ten days after the incident, Adams was arrested outside a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Polk County Aug. 27.
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In addition to attempted murder, she’s been charged with resisting an officer without violence, offering prostitution, tampering with physical evidence and five different drug-related charges.
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When searching Adams’ vehicle, authorities found prescription medication, including 19 pills of hydrocodone/acetaminophen, 2½ pills of oxycodone hydrochloride, nine Zoloft pills, a partial Adderall pill and a partial Xanax pill.
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Adams was previously involved in a Lake County investigation in which a woman named “Nala” was approaching an elderly man “with the intent to obtain goods and money from the gentleman,” court records show.
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Polk County jail records show Adams was still in custody without bond as of Sept. 2. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
