ID's The Murder Tapes: Did Ernie Ibarra's wife Samantha Wohlford kill him?

ID's The Murder Tapes will narrate the story of Samantha Wohlford in an episode titled Friends Like These, which is set to air this Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at 9 PM ET.

The mother to five children, Samantha arranged a murder plot to get her allegedly abusive husband Ernie Ibarra, a Titus County tattoo artist, killed. Titus County Sheriff’s Office authorities rushed to the residence of Ernie and Samantha after receiving a distressed call from the latter's aunt, claiming that her niece had been tied up and gagged by intruders. Moreover, they had kidnapped her niece's husband after attacking him brutally.

The incident took place on February 20, 2015, when three masked men broke into their house in the middle of the night.

Ernie Ibarra was shot dead that night, and the investigation that followed led authorities to three individuals who were involved in his murder, namely Jose Ponse, Johnathan Sanford, and Octavious Rhymes. Surprisingly, Samantha Wohlford was linked to the murder case, and it was revealed that she was mastermind behind the whole arrangement.

Let's find out more about Samantha's involvement in her husband's murder.

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How did Samantha Wohlford plot her husband Ernie Ibarra's murder?

Investigations revealed that Samantha and Ernie had an abusive marriage, which had pushed the former to file a complaint against the latter in 2014 when Ibarra allegedly attacked her. Meanwhile, his family kept denying the accusations.

David Colley, the prosecutor in the case, reportedly commented on the matter, saying,

"Ernie was brought in for questioning and he was ultimately arrested. As part of that arrest, an emergency magistrate’s protective order was issued against him."

However, according to Samantha, all their issues were in the past and they started off fresh after the incident. She also tried to paint the picture of a happy family, regardless of their financial struggles.

During the interrogation process, Samantha tried to point the authorities in the direction of Johnathan Sanford, claiming that she met him at the hospital while visiting a friend and that he took offense upon hearing her husband's abusive behavior. Sanford was arrested along with his brother Jose Antonio Ponse and the two were charged with aggravated kidnapping.

The pieces all started falling into place when the two men detailed the incident, revealing Samantha Wohlford and Octavious Rhymes' (another accomplice) involvement in the murder. To get rid of Ibarra, the four had initially planned to plant meth in his vehicle and call the cops on him. However, things changed when they figured it would be easier to just kill him. Wohlford even lent her car to the perpetrators to assist them in executing the plan.

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Were the four involved individuals convicted?

Along with Wohlford and Sanford, Jose Ponse and Octavious Rhymes were also convicted in Ibarra's murder case (Image via Oxygen)

Authorities charged Sanford and Ponse with murder along with aggravated kidnapping of Ernie Ibarra, after discovering the victim's body in the remote woods of Sand Crossing in Camp County. Soon after, Samantha and Rhymes were also charged on the same grounds when chats between the two uncovered their roles in the murder plot.

Jose Ponse and Johnathan Sanford reportedly entered guilty pleas in April 2016 and received 50-year jail terms each. That same year, in December, Octavious Rhymes went on trial. He was found guilty on all charges, and received a sentence of 93 years in prison. In October 2017, Samantha Wohlford was put on trial and she received a sentence of 99 years in jail.

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The Murder Tapes episode will detail Ernie Ibarra's homicide further.