Women gets 20 years in prison in shooting death of Alabama church burglary accomplice

A woman convicted of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of her accomplice in a botched burglary of an Alabama church has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Samanatha Malasig, 30, of Phenix City, was convicted last month by a Russell County jury in the death of Christopher Roper, whose body was found behind the Uchee Pines Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Seale in January 2021.

At the time, authorities said Roper had been fatally shot and was believed to be an accomplice of Malasig’s in an attempted church burglary gone wrong, according to WRBL.

The station also reported Wednesday that Malasig was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum punishment allowed.

Her sentence was not yet in court records as of early Wednesday evening.