DAYTONA BEACH (MN) — A man shot and killed his ex-wife as they were trying to reconcile, then he led law enforcement on a high-speed chase that ended in his death, Florida authorities said.
Samuel and Ashley Vaia divorced about a year and a half before the March 31 incident, but they had an on-and-off relationship, deputies with the Volusia Sheriff’s Office wrote in an arrest affidavit.
A week before 33-year-old Samuel Vaia was accused of killing his ex-wife, he was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from an incident at the woman’s Deltona home, records show.
Samuel Vaia, 33, led law enforcement on a chase in Florida before he crashed and shot himself, dying at a hospital, deputies said. (Photo courtesy of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office)
Ashley Vaia, 38, told deputies Samuel had accused her of cheating on him, then he pushed her into a bathroom, covered her mouth with his hand and “continued to berate her” as he refused to let her out, according to investigators.
She yelled for her phone to call 911, then she yelled for one of her daughters, and that’s when her ex-husband ran out, deputies said.
Samuel Vaia had a key to the home and went over often because they shared custody of their 2-year-old daughter, deputies said.
After bonding out, he went over the following weekend around the early hours of March 31, then he shot and killed his ex-wife, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a news release.
One of her children found her dead shortly before 2:30 a.m., and law enforcement tracked down the ex-husband driving over 100 mph on Interstate 95 while wearing body armor, according to the sheriff’s office.
Law enforcement pursued him and followed him from the air until they put out stop sticks and he wrecked in a rollover crash in Palm Coast, deputies said.
A Flagler County SWAT team pulled him out of the SUV about two hours later.
He was hospitalized for his injuries and pronounced dead later in the morning, deputies said.
“Our hearts go out to Ashley’s children, and all her family and friends who have to deal with losing her to such a senseless act of violence,” Chitwood said. “Time and time again, we see that domestic violence situations can escalate quickly and dangerously, with tragic consequences.”
Volusia County includes the Daytona Beach metropolitan area.
By OLIVIA LLOYD/McClatchy News
Olivia Lloyd is a National Real-Time Reporter for McClatchy covering the Southeast. She is based in South Florida and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Previously, she has worked for Hearst DevHub and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.