POLK COUNTY, Fla. – An Orlando woman is behind bars after investigators say she repeatedly poisoned a 69-year-old Haines City man she met on a dating app, culminating in an intentional drug overdose following a dispute over money and a car.
Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office took 39-year-old Samantha Adams into custody on Thursday, August 27, 2026, after boxing in her vehicle in the parking lot of the Posner Park shopping center in Davenport, where she had agreed to meet the victim.
Adams, whom the victim knew only by the alias “Nala,” faces multiple felony charges, including second-degree attempted murder and tampering with evidence.
“We refer to her as a black widow,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “She met our victim, who was 69, she’s 39, online for the purposes of sex… They developed a relationship for two or three months, and the longer they knew each other, the more profound she became with her request.”
According to an arrest affidavit, the investigation began on August 20 after the victim reported being hospitalized under suspicious circumstances three days earlier.
The victim told detectives that he had gotten into an argument with Adams at his Haines City home regarding a vehicle he had purchased for her. Following the dispute, Adams walked into the kitchen carrying her purse and returned with two glasses of whiskey. After the victim drank from his glass, the two began to engage romantically until Adams abruptly stopped and demanded $1,000 to continue.
When the victim refused to pay, Adams left the residence. Later that night, the victim lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital, where medical staff determined he had suffered a benzodiazepine overdose. The victim told investigators he had never been prescribed or taken benzodiazepine medications.
Detectives also discovered that the victim’s home security system had been tampered with, and the victim recalled seeing Adams in the area of the house where the equipment was housed prior to the incident.
The victim detailed several other suspicious episodes that occurred after having small amounts to drink with Adams earlier in the month. In one instance at her Orlando home, he became unsteady and fell. On another occasion, he passed out inside his vehicle shortly after leaving her home. During an August 15 incident, he reported feeling unusually groggy after leaving Adams’ residence and backing into another vehicle, which investigators noted was an Osceola County deputy sheriff’s car.
When deputies arrested Adams at the Davenport shopping center, they searched her belongings and recovered a prescription bottle issued to another person. Inside, investigators found 19 Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen pills, 2.5 Oxycodone Hydrochloride pills, nine Sertraline pills, a partial Adderall pill, and a partial Alprazolam (Xanax) pill.
“She slipped him benzodiazepine and that’s right, tried to kill him,” Judd said. “She tried to kill him. She tried to overdose him. She tried to extort him. So we’ve locked her up for attempted second-degree murder, and there’s lots of investigation still to go.”
“It is possible that there could be more people out there who have been victimized by Samantha Adams,” Judd added in a release. “Her motivation is money, and as we have seen with this case, she is willing to go to great lengths to get money– including murder.”
Adams was booked into the Polk County Jail on charges of second-degree attempted murder, tampering with evidence, three counts of possession of a controlled substance (Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Alprazolam), possession of a new legend drug without a prescription, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting an officer without violence, and offering to commit prostitution.
READ: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd Says Body-Cams Far More Invasive Than License Plate Readers
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