Do you know who murdered Angelina Pressley? On a Mother's Day in Louisville, Kentucky, a 27-year-old woman named Angelina Pressley was tragically killed. She was a devoted mother and a special education teacher who was deeply loved by her family. Her life was cut short in the early morning hours of May 8, 2016, a day that should have been filled with celebration.
Returning home to her Okolona apartment complex after a Kentucky Derby party, Angelina, her eight-year-old son, and her fiancé were ambushed in the parking lot.
A man approached their vehicle, pointed a gun at her young son, and then turned the weapon on her, firing multiple shots. The assailant fled the scene, leaving her to die in front of her child, who was clutching the Mother's Day gift he had been so excited to give her. Neighbors who heard the gunshots rushed to comfort the boy until help arrived. Angelina Pressley was pronounced dead at the scene.
For years, the case remained a painful mystery for her grieving family and the Louisville community. Investigators initially had little to go on, with the boy unable to provide a detailed description of the killer. The senseless violence of the act, especially on Mother's Day, shocked the city, and police pleaded with the public for any information that could lead to an arrest. The initial investigation described a possible suspect as an African American male who fled in a Pontiac Grand Prix.
Years later, a breakthrough in the investigation revealed a sinister plot. In November 2019, federal authorities announced the indictment of two individuals, Bobby Lee Smith and Cynthia Allen, in connection with Angelina's death. The investigation uncovered that her murder was not a random act of violence but a calculated murder-for-hire. Angelina had been a witness in a federal healthcare fraud case and had testified before a grand jury against Allen in 2014. Authorities alleged that Smith and Allen killed her to prevent her from testifying again. The case further unraveled in March 2021, when a third person, Lesa Andrade of Florida, was arrested and charged with orchestrating the plot by hiring Smith and Allen to carry out the murder as retaliation for Angelina's cooperation with federal investigators.
