Bio 

Samuel Lee Ivery was born in 1957. Some reports described him as a drifter from Loma Linda, California. Before the murder in Alabama, Ivery had reportedly been released from a California mental facility. During his trial, his mental condition became the main issue. Defense experts diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic and argued that he could not appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions at the time of the killing. State experts disagreed and testified that he could understand that his conduct was against the law.

Ivery was also known by the nickname “Ninja of God.” Later crime references connected that nickname to claims that he targeted young women, but only the murder of Deborah Lewis in Mobile, Alabama, is confirmed by the reviewed court record.

Murder Story

On August 15, 1992, Deborah Lewis was working alone at a Shell gasoline station and convenience store in downtown Mobile, Alabama. Samuel Lee Ivery entered the store carrying a travel bag that concealed a hatchet, a knife, and a hammer. Court records state that Ivery waited more than 30 minutes for the store to empty. After the customers left, he locked the doors from inside the store. He then robbed Lewis of about $302 from the cash register.

After taking the money, Ivery forced Lewis to the floor. He bound her hands, eyes, and mouth with duct tape. He then killed her by decapitating her with a hatchet. The store’s surveillance camera recorded major parts of the robbery and attack. The evidence against Ivery was strong. A hardware store clerk identified him as the man who bought the hatchet on the morning of the murder. Witnesses placed him inside the store before the killing. Another witness saw him running nearby with what appeared to be blood on his shirt while carrying a travel bag.

Later that day, Ivery went to a shopping area north of downtown Mobile. A security guard at a Winn-Dixie saw him washing his shirt in the restroom. The guard noticed what appeared to be blood on the shirt. Ivery claimed he had cut his foot. He also had a travel bag containing weapons. Ivery then went to a Big B drug store in the same shopping area. There, he exchanged $200 in small bills for larger bills.

Police arrested Ivery the next day, August 16, 1992, after an officer saw him walking on Government Street in downtown Mobile. When the officer tried to question him, Ivery ran. Officers chased him on foot and caught him. On August 27, 1992, police searching abandoned houses found a travel bag, hatchet, and knife in an abandoned house. Fingerprints on a knife scabbard matched Ivery’s known fingerprints.

At trial, Ivery entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The defense argued that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed he had a divine reason for his actions. The prosecution presented mental health experts who testified that Ivery was malingering or exaggerating symptoms and could understand that murder was against the law.

On January 6, 1994, Ivery was convicted of capital murder for killing Deborah Lewis during a robbery. The jury unanimously recommended a death sentence. The trial court sentenced him to death by electrocution. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction in 1996. After remand for clarification of mitigating circumstances, the same court affirmed the death sentence. The court found that the death sentence was supported by aggravating circumstances, including the robbery, a prior violent felony, and the especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel nature of the crime.

Ivery later died before execution. Some secondary sources state that he died by suicide while on death row, but the exact date and official death record were not fully confirmed in the reviewed sources.