CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. – An El Salvadoran national accused in the death of a Jefferson County woman whose body was found under a burning couch near Martinsburg last year entered guilty pleas in Jefferson County Circuit Court Monday.
David Antonio Calderon
David Antonio Calderon, 47, was indicted by a grand jury in Jefferson County in January of this year. He stands accused in the death of Samantha Dailey, who was 32 at the time of her death May 6th of 2024.
Monday afternoon, Judge David Hammer explained the terms of the plea agreement: guilty pleas to one count of Murder of the first Degree and one count of Concealment of a Deceased Human Body.
Judge Hammer explained in detail the possible sentences for each offense. The Concealment charge carries a one to five year prison term and fines of up to $5,000.
The Murder charge carries a penalty of life in the penitentiary with the possibility of parole after fifteen years served for that sentence.
An interpreter relayed the information to the defendant, who answered in the affirmative when pressed as to whether these were his pleas, that he was making the pleas of his own volition, that he understood the penalties for each, and that he was waiving his right to a jury trial.
The judge explained that the Murder and Concealment sentences would be carried out following Calderon’s sentence on previous assault charges. All told, Calderon may not be able to petition for release for nearly 20 years.
“Being eligible for parole does not mean you will get parole,” Judge Hammer cautioned the defendant.
Through his interpreter, Calderon answered, “I understand.”
The judge will have discretion at sentencing, planned for July 23rd. At that time, victim impact statements will be entered into evidence. Some will be read in court.
Five of those family members sat in court Monday. Many of Samantha Dailey’s family members live out of the area and had been told to plan for a jury trial the week of July 21st through the 25th. The plea agreement means the jury trial will not move forward. The out of state family members plan to be in court for the sentencing.
In the courtroom Monday was the victim’s uncle, Joshua Dailey. Following the plea hearing, he told The Panhandle News Network why the family is hoping for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He says Calderon will be able to look forward to a possibility of life outside of prison if parole is on the table.
He said hope is something he took from Samantha Dailey and her two children, a boy and a girl who were preteens when their mother was killed.
Following the plea in court, Jefferson County Senior Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Adam Ward laid out the case the state intended to bring should the case go to trial.
Investigators believe Dailey, who was wearing a home confinement monitor, had communicated with Calderon leading up to May 6th when she told her probation officer she was looking into an opportunity to clean an apartment with the hope that it could become an avenue to finding a new place to live following an eviction from her current apartment.
Investigators established there were messages between the two, although the contents of those conversations could not be recovered as there were gaps in Calderon’s texts during the day of the murder and the victim’s cell phone was never recovered.
They established that between 5:30 and 5:40 Calderon sent a series of text messages to Dailey. She responded after 5:40. She then sent a screenshot of a ‘piece of junk mail’ with an address to her probation officer, saying this could be an opportunity for her. She then said she was going to walk over at 6:30. This was followed by more text messages to the defendant.
Investigators filled in the timeline, saying Dailey walked to 7-11 and bought a bottle of water that was later found in the kitchen of the building she went to, a business prosecutors called the Amigos building after a business that used to be located there. The building had an apartment attached.
Between 7:07 and 7:14 “15 GPS points that showed her location placed her inside the Amigos building,” according to Ward.
Soon after, her ankle monitor, which could relay her movements, showed her moving rapidly (at 3 miles an hour). Family members would later tell The Panhandle News Network they believe that’s when a struggle ensued and “she fought like hell.”
At 7:18, her monitor went to “at rest” mode, meaning there was no movement. Ward said the monitor indicated “there was no movement from 7:18 to 3:15 that afternoon.”
GPS showed her location to still be inside the building.
“That is what led us to believe the homicide occurred in Jefferson County,” Ward said.
Calderon asked a local pastor he was familiar with for a ride to Martinsburg, saying he was going to the Union Rescue Mission. Prosecutors say instead, he ended up going to his sister’s home nearby and borrowing her Nissan. “We believe that is the car he transported Samantha Dailey’s body in,” Ward said.
Back in Ranson, video from a passing school bus seemed to capture Calderon in the Nissan back at Amigos, where Ward posited he was loading the victim’s body in the trunk of the car. He then drove to an autobody shop in Martinsburg and got out of the car, leaving it down the street. Ward says Dailey’s ankle monitor showed her at rest in the vehicle’s location.
Calderon took a red gas can with him.
He then went to a ROCS convenience store off Jenny Wren and paid $20 cash for gas at the pump. He put some in the red gas can but the car was on the wrong side of the pump for the location of the Nissan’s gas tank, so Calderon had to do a series of maneuvers to get the car facing the correct side.
“During that time GPS showed Samantha Dailey making the exact same movements,” according to Ward, who said in any video that captured the vehicle, it appeared Calderon was alone, leading investigators to believe the victim was in the trunk.
Later forensics would match a hair follicle in the trunk to the victim.
Hair was also found in a mop bucket in the kitchen inside the Amigos building, according to Assistant Prosecutor Ward, who said investigators believe Calderon tried to clean up. One spot of blood remained on a cabinet, according to investigators. It was a match to the victim.
Some time after 7 p.m., investigators trace Calderon to Golf Course Road where in a field was a couch.
Sometime between 7:20 and 7:25, Ward says, that couch was turned over onto the victim and the gasoline was used to set the couch on fire.
A neighbor called 911 and firefighters extinguished the fire “in about 8 minutes,” according to Ward.
The victim’s body was badly burned in the fire. Investigators used DNA to identify her.
The Medical Examiner said the condition of the body made the actual cause of death hard to identify but concluded that the victim was not breathing when the fire occurred.
In laying out what the state would have been able to present, Ward admitted the expert witness from the state Medical Examiner’s Office would have labeled the exact cause of death unknown, but prosecutors would have established that the cause was homicide.
In concluding, Ward said prosecutors believe they had evidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
“She was murdered and (the defendant) took great lengths to conceal her body and cover up his crime.”
Calderon’s defense attorney Kirk Bottner told the judge he believed the state could have convinced a jury to convict his client had the case gone to trial.
Little was revealed about any motives or state of mind of the man who entered a guilty plea. His answers to the judge revealed he had worked in construction and tree cutting and has a six-year-old daughter.
During one exchange, Judge Hammer asked Calderon if he had ever been treated for any mental illnesses to which the defendant said when he was younger he had ‘spirits’ he was treated for.
At a news conference in May of last year, Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair and Jefferson County Prosecutor Matt Harvey blamed border security policies for allowing Calderon to be in the country illegally. He was denied entry into Canada in March 2023 but had been released into the United States with an immigration court appearance set for May 8th, two days following Dailey’s murder. The victim’s uncle, Joshua Dailey, said the system had failed her. He questioned why a man rejected for entry into Canada was then allowed to roam freely in the US for a year.
He also questioned why Calderon wasn’t reported to immigration authorities following a violent assault against two people at Walmart in Charles Town a few weeks prior to Samantha Dailey’s murder.
In comparison, he said his niece paid a heavy price for the mistakes she made. While not diminishing the seriousness of a DUI, he said the reason she wasn’t driving was that she couldn’t afford the ‘blow and go’ breathing apparatus to test for her compliance as a driver and could not afford insurance. When she was then caught driving without insurance, she was ordered to home confinement. Another relative who spoke to the Panhandle News Network said it was her opinion that Calderon seemed to have more rights as an illegal immigrant than the victim.
In the end, both agreed it was bittersweet that the very ankle monitor that she had been sentenced to wear ultimately gave investigators the tools to make the case. “Without it,” one relative said, “she would probably be a missing person.”
Family members say the victim was unfairly characterized as complicit in the incident somehow. Her uncle questioned her being evicted to begin with and said she was a devoted mother who took her two children to activities and classes. He acknowledged she had made some mistakes in her life, but, “Her priority was always her children,” he said. The children now live with relatives. Their lives, he said, have been turned upside down.
Dailey says he plans to get as many victim impact statements as possible ahead of the July 23rd sentencing hearing. He is hoping the judge will see fit to take parole off the table despite assurances he’s heard that as soon as Calderon finishes any stateside sentences he’ll be handed over to immigration for deportation.
As part of the plea agreement, half of any money Calderon makes through money or gifts while he is incarcerated will go to court costs and restitution to the victim’s family. He has also waived his right to appeal.
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Prior to Monday’s sentencing, Joshua Dailey was a guest on Panhandle Live, which can be heard weekday mornings beginning at 9:00.
