WOODLAND — Although she suspected her fiancé was cheating on her, it wasn’t for revenge that she took her 19-day-old infant into the frigid waters of Ridge Cut Slough, Samantha Green told a detective shortly before he arrested her on suspicion of murder.
Rather, Green said, Frank Rees had convinced her during a weekend-long methamphetamine binge that the apocalypse was near, and it was her duty to protect baby Justice Rees from the Illuminati.
“I feel like I was a puppet,” Green answered when Yolo County Sheriff’s Detective Mike Glaser asked who was responsible for Justice’s death. “I feel like he’s been trying to get me out of the picture.”
And even though she acknowledged the actions in the slough were hers, Green insisted she’d been trying to do the right thing.
“I thought that I was saving that baby’s life,” Green said. “I know Justice would be proud of how much I fought for him.”
A video recording of the interview was aired over two days this week in Yolo Superior Court, where Green, 24, is being tried on a second-degree murder charge in connection with Justice’s Feb. 24, 2015, death. She has pleaded not guilty.
Taped on the night of Feb. 27, the nearly three-hour statement was the last of several Green gave investigators that week after she emerged, disheveled and distraught, from the slough three days earlier.
Searchers found Justice’s body the following morning, dead of exposure to the cold water and overnight temperatures that dipped into the low 30s.
Initially, Green told authorities she had been the victim of a kidnapping and sexual assault, that a friend of Rees’ had appeared near the slough and chased and groped her, forcing her to swim across the canal with Justice in her arms.
By the time Glaser interviewed her, however, Green admitted that “never happened.”
Drug abuse
Green also became more forthcoming about her drug abuse, which had resulted in an intervention by child welfare workers when Justice tested positive for methamphetamine at birth. A safety plan was created that called for the new parents to test clean and seek treatment for their addictions.
That plan didn’t last long.
Overwhelmed with her newborn baby, Rees’ frequent, extended absences from the house and caring for his four other children from a previous marriage, Green relapsed when Justice was about two weeks old.
Meanwhile, Rees’ behavior grew more and more bizarre, Green said. He suggested to her that there were cameras installed throughout the house and people living in the attic, and pressured her to engage in “threesomes” with other women.
One of them was “Monica,” a woman who sent Rees a Facebook message seeking a ride from Knights Landing to Woodland on Monday, Feb. 23.
Green said she and Rees used methamphetamine throughout that prior weekend, and that Rees gave her several “butt shots” — rectal injections of meth mixed with water — to arouse her for sexual activity.
The final shot, taken about 3 a.m. Monday, was larger and affected her differently than the others, leaving her “in a haze,” she recalled. Rees, meanwhile, continued his mind games.
“He told me that I’m a triplet, and he’s an octuplet,” and that Justice had a twin named Felony who was taken away at birth, Green said. “You’ll see him in time,” Rees said when Green demanded to know where he was.
“Everything sounded so real,” Green said. “I had no reason not to believe him.”
According to Green, Rees had wanted her to pick up Monica in Knights Landing, but the couple argued while fueling up their cars at a Woodland gas station, and Rees left to run the errand alone.
Rees’ character has taken a beating during the three-week trial, as witnesses have described him as a long-unemployed financial drain on his parents, with whom he lives, who showed little interest in Justice and his other children.
Initially subpoenaed as a prosecution witness, Rees is expected to appear in court next week as part of the defense case.
‘On my way’
Green told Glaser she had a change of heart, texting “I’m on my way” to Rees and heading north after stopping home to get Justice a bottle. In Knights Landing, she drove around looking for Rees, eventually parking by a levee road at around 11 a.m.
Earlier, Rees “said something was going to happen that night, and I needed to protect that baby with my life,” Green said. “He told me that all the major companies were going to be taken down” and that Justice was at risk of sacrifice.
Carrying Justice, her purse and a diaper bag, Green descended the steep embankment and swam across the slough, believing she’d find Rees on the other side. She said her head went under water at one point, and when she came up, Justice was floating away. She grabbed his arm and continued on.
After reaching the shore, Green said she wrapped Justice in her cotton pea coat and walked through the thickets and trees, following a row of white dots she thought Rees had left for her, but which turned out to be bird droppings.
As the day wore on, Green saw houses, cars and people on the other side of the slough, but “I was trying to avoid all that, because he (Rees) told me to avoid all people,” she said. “I thought all those people were there to destroy everything.”
Exhausted and unable to walk any further, Green said she sat against a tree, laid Justice on her chest and passed out. When she awoke the next morning, her baby was next to her, cold and quiet.
“I knew that Justice was dead,” Green said, weeping. “I did kiss him and I told him that I’d be back for him. He was so peaceful.”
Placing blame
Asked who should be held accountable for Justice’s death, Green blamed Rees, saying she believed he should have seen her car parked near the slough.
“He left me out there with his son. He is the devil. He knew where I was,” Green said. “But if you don’t let me walk out of here, I understand.”
Moments later, Glaser handcuffed Green and took her to jail.
It turned out Green had more to say on March 11, when she summoned sheriff’s Sgt. Hernan Oviedo to offer yet another statement.
Wearing her jail-issued green-and-white striped jumpsuit, Green urged investigators to take a closer look at Rees’ role in her case because “I feel like Frank had something to do with it.”
Green said she believed she was drugged by more than just meth the day she went missing, and “I really think it was Frank. I have a feeling he just needed me out of the way.”
She also told Oviedo there was a possibility that Justice was not Rees’ son, as she’d slept with a longtime friend around the same time she hooked up with Rees, and insisted her new statement was no bid for leniency in her court case.
“I will take whatever charges you want to give me, but I want to find out what happened,” she said. “I want to do it for my son.”
The video and further testimony continued today in Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene