Portia L. Rowland

Almost a week after a Collinsville woman was shot dead while warming up her car, authorities on Monday charged the husband of her girlfriend in a $10,000 murder-for-hire scheme. Sammy J. Shafer Jr., 36, of Caseyville, was charged with first-degree murder and soliciting the murder. Authorities also charged two others in the crime. “This was a calculated and cold-hearted murder-for-hire scheme based on a personal grievance,” Madison County State’s Attorney Thomas Haine said at a news conference Monday. The three men were arrested separately, and without incident, across the metro area over two days, authorities said. Collinsville police Lt. Eric Owen said police were not searching for any additional suspects. Portia Rowland was gunned down last Tuesday morning outside her home on Olive Street in Collinsville, the first homicide there in more than a year. She was 32. Rowland was dating a woman named Sarah Shafer — Sammy Shafer’s estranged wife. Sarah Shafer couldn’t be reached Monday, but she previously told the Post-Dispatch about Rowland, her upcoming divorce from Sammy Shafer and her relationship with Rowland. Rowland worked as a mechanic at the Metropolitan Sewer District in St. Louis. She was an athlete who played several sports, including volleyball and flag football. The women met at a pool hall and started dating. They were planning to get engaged in the spring and have Shafer’s children come live with them. Sammy Shafer is president of Shafer Excavating in Pontoon Beach. He has retained defense attorney Scott Rosenblum. Gary D. Johnson, 45, of East St. Louis, is the accused gunman. The third man, Marty Shaw, 33, is accused of driving Johnson to and from the murder scene. Shaw, of Collinsville, was arrested at a home in Spanish Lake. Johnson and Shaw are cousins, authorities said, and Shaw worked for Shafer. Johnson admitted being hired to shoot Rowland and being driven to Rowland’s home, authorities said. He then walked down an alley and waited for her to come outside, police said. Rowland came out to start her car, then went back inside her home. When Rowland came out the second time, Johnson ran at her and shot her, court records said. Johnson then ran off. He eventually changed his clothes at his home and went to a casino with Shaw, prosecutors said. The driver, Shaw, got paid $10,000 the next day and gave $6,500 to the gunman, Johnson, according to a court petition to deny the men pretrial release. Rowland was found dead outside, near the garage. A neighbor reported hearing gunfire across the street, then saw a man in dark clothing run off. Sarah Shafer said she was asleep in the house and never heard gunshots or any commotion. She woke to the sounds of police banging on her door, she said. Authorities activated the Major Case Squad, a rotating group of detectives on loan from neighboring police agencies for short-term investigations. About 30 detectives worked on the case. But in the day or two after the killing, the investigation moved slowly, police said at the news conference on Monday. A break came when a license-plate reader found a vehicle Shaw had been driving. Shaw led police to Johnson, who in turn said Shafer had hired them. Collinsville police Chief Brett Boerm said the detectives were relentless. The squad executed 30 search warrants and followed about 200 leads. “Investigators here have unraveled a complex case with a lot of moving parts,” Haine said. “This was a horrific act of violence, truly shocking.” Shaw was charged with murder, Johnson with murder and being a felon in possession of a weapon — authorities found a 9 mm handgun at his home. Johnson has a previous conviction from a 1997 murder in St. Clair County. Just 17 then, he and two other teens attacked Dairryonne Woods, 19, with a bat and beat him unconscious in East St. Louis, according to a Post-Dispatch article. The three left but were afraid Woods, who was still alive, might later identify them, so they returned, crushed his skull with a parking block, doused the body with lighter fluid and set it on fire, police said. Johnson was sentenced to 40 years in prison, according to St. Clair County court records, and was paroled in 2017. Shafer, Shaw and Johnson will go before a judge, likely on Tuesday, and hearings would follow later to determine if they would be held in jail until trial. Rowland died days before her 33rd birthday.