The False Prophet

I’m a huge fan of Investigation Discovery, and two weeks ago I came across a new show called Shattered. Shattered is about the impact of a crime, and what follows that life-changing collision. Connected by three different point of views, this original series explores how a crime forever alters the lives of those involved. Three lives, one crime, and no turning back.

The third episode, “False Prophet” caught my attention because of its bizarre story, and how it impacted the people involved. In 1994, Middle River, MD on Christmas Day, a murder rocked a family’s Christmas celebration. A Mother prepared a holiday dinner for her son who never arrived, and a detective unearthed a dark secret that shatters the town's faith.

According to Congregant Jan Pharr, people were captivated by Pastor Samuel Booth’s style of preaching and how he made people feel. Booth said it’s OK to make mistakes, and people are forgiven.

Looking back at Pharr’s wedding day, she saw signs that something may not be right with the pastor. Booth had dark circles under his eyes, and looked like he was in pain or uncomfortable. Maybe under the influence at the time of her wedding. She never had a bad feeling from Booth, but she had a strange felling when he was preaching about backsliding. When she heard Booth talking about backsliding, she noticed something was wrong.

Booth said when you backslide, the Devil gets a hold of you, and keeps coming at you, making you do things that God wouldn’t want you to be doing.

During the Christmas Eve service, Booth was late and somebody decided to go check the trailer behind the church. The man quickly ran back into the church and said the pastor had been shot. Pharr said she was a nurse and she went into his trailer. When she opened the door, the pastor was on the floor dead with blood everywhere. Booth was cut across the abdomen, and he was also cut from ear-to-ear with a knife.

According to Pharr, Booth was looking up like, "God, help me," and it looked like he was praying to God for forgiveness for what had happened right before that moment. Pharr couldn’t believe somebody would kill the pastor like that, but she said it had to be someone he knew because they were very, very angry.

Detective Keith Santagata found out Booth was murdered by getting a call from a homicide detective. When Det. Santagata found out Booth was murdered in a trailer behind his church, the detective said, “Poetic Justice. I’m not wishing ill on anybody, but if anybody deserves it, it was him.”

Det. Santagata had first investigated Samuel Booth years before his death, and knows a darker side to him.

A few of Det. Santagata's informants said Booth, “The Preacher,” was selling cocaine. After hearing Booth was selling cocaine from multiple informants, Det. Santagata realized that this may be true. After processing, what he heard from informants, Det. Santagata was shocked because Booth was living a double-life.

After doing a background check on Booth, he was totally clean, not even a traffic violation. Det. Santagata set up surveillance for a couple weeks, and thought maybe he’s not dealing drugs, maybe it’s just word on the street.

Booth was so closed off, and it was hard to get close to him. Det. Santagata found somebody to buy drugs from Booth directly, and that was enough to get a search warrant for Booth’s house. When Det. Santagata finally entered the house, everything that was found that was illegal was in Booth’s bedroom.

Booth was obviously using his product because he had crack pipes, water bongs and a lot of different paraphernalia, too much for him not use it himself. The cops didn’t find many drugs because Booth was down at the time of the raid. He was out of drugs, and hadn’t recuperated yet.

After finding out Booth was a pastor selling drugs, nothing after that surprised Det. Santagata. While searching the rest of the house, Det. Santagata was surprised when he found a gay magazine, but not overly surprised that Booth was a closeted gay-man.

After finding illegal drugs and paraphernalia, Det. Santagata arrested Booth on those charges.

When Det. Santagata interviewed Booth, he was a very soft-spoken man and very polite. He also tried to talk his way out of not being a drug dealer.

Det. Santagata turned Booth over to the DEA, and Booth was supposed to work as an informant, and that’s why the states attorney dropped his charges. This disappointed Det. Santagata because he felt Booth should have been made an example, and he believes Booth would have been convicted. With the charges being dropped, Booth could go back to being “Mr. Preacher,” which he did.

In the eyes of the police, Samuel Booth was a drug dealer, but to Booth’s congregation, he was a trusted man of God.

Joyce Wood and her family met Samuel Booth years before Christmas of 1994, and when her boys were in their teens, she would drop them off at Mr. Booth’s house. Knowing Mr. Booth was a minister, she thought the idea was great. Weeks after the boys were getting dropped off at Mr. Booth’s house, Joyce noticed the behavior of her oldest son James starting to change.

James was on drugs as a teenager, and over the next few years, James had a cocaine addiction. After years of treatment, James seemed like he may have conquered his addiction in 1994.

On Christmas Day, James called 911 and turned himself in for the murder of Samuel Booth.

During the night the murder took place, Joyce’s youngest son Joey and his friend started talking about Mr. Booth. The two boys said Mr. Booth would molest boys, and give them drugs in turn for sexual favors.

One day, Joyce went to go visit her son James at the counseling detention center, and they embraced each other. The first thing James said to his mother was that he didn’t have any intention of hurting Mr. Booth. Joyce then asked James did Mr. Booth ever molest him, and James said no. Then she asked if Mr. Booth ever touched Joey, and James didn’t answer her.

In a rare phone interview, James said, he headed off to work the Friday before Christmas, Christmas was on a Sunday. He drove where Mr. Booth’s church was, and Mr. Booth happened to be outside at the back of the church. Both James and Mr. Booth were smoking cocaine Friday morning all through the night and into the day. On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Booth asked James to leave and come back because he wanted to lay down before his Christmas Eve service.

Mr. Booth’s plan was that he would have more money from the offering that was going to be given at the Christmas Eve service. James said he wasn’t going to use drugs with the money that Mr. Booth was going to get from the offering plate.

A brief argument happened between Mr. Booth and James, and James told Mr. Booth it’s only right that he gets half the money. Mr. Booth didn’t want to give James the money because James wouldn’t allow Mr. Booth to molest him.

Once James heard that Mr. Booth wasn’t going to give him the money because he wasn’t interested in performing sexual favors, he stabbed Mr. Booth several times and killed him.

Mr. Booth was presented as a poor preacher who was killed by a drug addict kid, which was not the 100% truth because Mr. Booth was also molesting boys.

The evidence about Mr. Booth’s homosexuality and molestation was not allowed in the courtroom because the judge said Mr. Booth wasn’t on trial and said he was the victim in this case.

The jury found James Wood guilty of first degree murder of Samuel Booth with a sentence of life in prison without parole. When Joyce heard the verdict, she said she understood how Mary must have felt when they nailed her son Jesus to the cross.

A few years after James’ conviction, Joyce’s son Joey tragically died in a motorcycle accident.

It has been two decades since that fateful Christmas, but none of those touched by the tragedy have forgotten.

According to Det. Santagata, he never came across a case like this with so much deceit. It wouldn’t have been bad if Mr. Booth was an auto-mechanic and a dope dealer, but him being a preacher is a lot worse.