CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — A former college football player, wanted for murdering a young mother in her Chesterfield home, was taken into custody in Florida.
Tevin James McGougan, 23, was arrested Tuesday night by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, according to Chesterfield Police.
McGougan was wanted for the November 11 stabbing death of Nishae A. Samms.
Police called Samms’ murder “a domestic-related homicide.”
Samms’ mother found her daughter’s body inside the bedroom of the Samms’ Statute Street home.
Her four-year-old daughter was inside the home with her grandmother at the time Samms’ body was discovered, law enforcement sources told CBS 6 Crime Insider Jon Burkett.
McGougan, wanted for first-degree murder, was being held at “medical facility,” according to police.
Police have not yet say why McGougan was at a medical facility and not in jail.
“Police continue their investigation into this homicide,” a Chesterfield Police spokesperson said. “Anyone with information should contact the Chesterfield County Police Department at 804-748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 804-748-0660.”
A violent past
Samms had recently moved to Chesterfield County from Richmond, law enforcement sources told Burkett.
On September 29, there was a domestic abuse call at Samms’ then Richmond apartment, those law enforcement sources added.
Samms was strangled, thrown on the couch, and a man she knew tried to suffocate her with pillows.
That man, sources said, was later arrested in Hampton after he tried buying a gun at a pawn shop.
Chesterfield Police have not officially commented on those details.
McGougan attended Phoebus High School in Hampton and went to play college football at Chowan University in North Carolina from 2011 – 2014, according to the school’s website.