It’s been almost eight full years since Samona Remy emerged from the darkness outside a Ruskin mobile home, knocked on the door and set off a chain of events that ended two lives.
Her long legal journey through courts, prisons and mental hospitals ended Friday in Tampa, where she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Ramey, 40, pleaded guilty nearly five years ago to his role in the 2018 killings of Alexis Martinez and Juanita Solorzano. Two people were shot to death during a robbery she helped commit. Solorzano was pregnant at the time of her death.
Remy said nothing as he stood before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Barbara Twine Thomas on Friday.
“Unfortunately, in cases like these, the victim loses and the defendant loses,” the judge told Remy. “As a result of these events and the loss of life, your life will be forever changed. I hope you find peace.”
Remy’s sentence was part of a deal with prosecutors that required her to testify against her one-time lover Mackenzie Lyons, one of two men involved in the robbery.
She testified at his trial last month, helping the state secure a conviction. The jury denied Lyon the death penalty and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Remi was sentenced to 10 years of probation after serving 35 years in prison.
The sentence, while lengthy, was much lighter than what she should have received. As well as the murders, she also admitted a series of robbery charges. If she doesn’t cooperate, the state could seek a life sentence.
Last month, Remi explained what happened on the night of January 24, 2018, in front of the jury in Lyon’s trial.
She identified herself on a surveillance video that was recorded by a camera installed outside a mobile home on 14th Avenue Southeast in Ruskin. Lamy said she had been there before to buy drugs.
In the dark, she walked out onto the porch and knocked on the front door.
Alexis Martinez replied. She asked him for a ride. When he returned briefly to the house, two men approached the home crouched in the corner. Both men were armed with firearms.
Remy recognized one of them as Leon. Several other people who knew him also testified that they recognized him in the video.
Video shows Martinez walking back outside and following Remy toward a parked car. As he prepared to get into the driver’s seat, a gunman approached from behind.
They started beating him. he screamed. They chased him as he ran across the yard and back to the porch.
As the beating continued, Remy used his cell phone light to search the ground. She said she was looking for drugs he might have dropped.
As the men ransacked the house, Martinez was forced back inside. The gunman disconnected the security camera before Martinez and Solorzano were forced into the bathroom and shot to death.
In the days after the robbery, Remi checked into a Sun City Center hotel. Lyons later met with her there and talked about what had happened.
At the trial, she was asked what he said.
“He killed both of them,” she said.
Remy’s case dragged on in court for nearly eight years, delays caused in part by the state’s imposition of the death penalty on Lyon and subsequent changes to the law. But concerns about Remi’s mental health also caused delays in the case.
Months after her arrest, she was declared incompetent to stand trial and was treated at a state hospital before returning to court.
In his testimony, Remy acknowledged that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and said he was mentally and emotionally deficient. She said she takes medication to control hallucinations and avoid nightmares.
She also said she was addicted to drugs at the time of the crime. She drank. She took methamphetamine. She used Xanax and other prescription drugs.
She admitted to lying to Hillsborough Sheriff’s detectives multiple times after her arrest. She said she did this to protect Leon. She said she loved him.
Remy, handcuffed and wearing a red uniform and orange jacket, stood stoically as he listened to the victims’ families. The typed letters echo words spoken at Lyons’ sentencing hearing earlier this month.
Solorzano’s daughters recalled a woman whose abiding love instilled a sense of security in her children. They spoke of being plagued by anxiety, flashbacks, depression and an ever-present sense of loss.
Martinez’s father speaks from the heart of a young man who is not perfect but strives to be better.
“The defendant knew he was a good man, which is why she planned (the robbery) and killed my children,” he wrote.
Judge Tewin Thomas spoke directly to Solorzano’s daughters, who were seated in the courtroom.
“You speak volumes here about your love for your mother and the meaning of her life,” the judge said. She encouraged them to seek comfort through faith, family and other relationships and to emulate their mother’s love for them.
Before the hearing ended, the judge told Remy it was “a degree of honor” for her to agree to help prosecutors.
“I hope this brings you some closure as well,” she said.
