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Judge Gives Sex Offender Life Sentence

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 20, 2007

TAMPA - Samuel Matthews' record of crimes against children sent 'chills' down the spine of the federal judge who sentenced him Friday to life in prison.

The life term, Judge Richard Lazzara said, was the only sentence that would 'adequately reflect the seriousness of this offense, especially in terms of protecting not just the general public, but the vulnerable public, our children.'

Matthews was convicted in August of trying to get his neighbor - another convicted sex offender living in a St. Petersburg trailer park for sex offenders - to help him find a young girl to photograph in sexually explicit positions.

The neighbor alerted law enforcement and helped police. With investigators recording, the neighbor told Matthews he had found a woman who would allow him to photograph her 11-year-old daughter. Matthews was arrested when he went to try to meet with the woman.

At the time, Matthews was on probation for a 1999 federal child pornography conviction. He had previously violated the terms of that probation by looking at child pornography on a public library computer and had served more prison time.

Matthews also was convicted in 1984 of sexual battery on a child younger than 12. Lazzara said Matthews was sentenced in that case to 30 years in prison, but was released after serving just 12 years.

The judge lamented that if Matthews had served his entire sentence in the 1984 case, he wouldn't have been able to commit the other crimes.

'He comes right back and commits another heinous crime,' Lazzara said. 'His prior arrests had to do with child molestation.'

The August conviction carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years, and Matthews' federal public defender Dionja Dyer urged the judge to reconsider imposing that sentence, arguing that Matthews would be in his eighties when released and 'no longer a danger to the public.'

'I am unwilling to take that risk,' Lazzara said, refusing to budge. 'I just want him to be in a very secure facility where he poses no more danger to anyone, including children.'

The judge expressed hope that Matthews never is released, but ordered that should he get out he serve life on probation.

When going over the standard conditions of probation, Lazzara noted mental health treatment was recommended. 'I think that's a waste of everybody's time and effort,' he said with disgust.

Watching in the courtroom spectator section were Matthews' sister and her daughter, Katie Mancera, who had brought her two children, ages 1 and 7.

Mancera said outside the courtroom that she had come to the sentencing 'so my mother can say goodbye to her brother.'

Mancera, 32, of Tampa, said she told authorities in 1999 that she had found child pornography in her uncle's room.

'This is the first time I've seen him since,' she said. 'I had to call the cops because something had to be done.'

According to court documents, Matthews' niece gave detectives a photo album containing nude and 'provocative' pictures of children as young as 4. In Matthew's bedroom, a detective found a computer and lists of Internet sites that had child pornography.

Mancera, who said she is a preschool teacher, said she hates what her uncle did and wants him put away. She thought, however, that a 35-year sentence would be better, long enough to give him 'one more chance' to be free.

She said Matthews denied some of the accusations against him. 'I don't believe he ever touched a child,' she said. 'I just believe he saw pictures.'

She shared a letter he wrote to her from prison last month.

'I have told you before that I did not like what I have done, once I find out I hurt them the way I did it,' he wrote. 'This time I was not going to do anything but take him over there. I did not want to take pictures of her so called little girl. I inside known there WAS NOT a little girl there! It was just to get me over there!'

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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