Ex-gym owner beat neighbor to death with a baseball bat and watched her house burn down in argument over a fence

A MAN beat his neighbor to death and burned her house down — all because of an argument about a fence.

Pavel Samsinak, 48, was convicted Friday of murdering his 66-year-old neighbor Alice Hale following a dispute about a fence that he was building between her home and his vacant lot in Springfield, Missouri.

According to court documents, after an argument about which side of the property line the fence was built on, Samsinak beat Hale to death with a baseball bat in September of 2020.

Samsinak, who owned a now-closed personal training gym called Czech Us Out, then set Hale’s house on fire with her body inside to destroy the evidence and watched the house burn from a nearby convenience store parking lot, according to testimony at the trial.

When first responders arrived at the house fire, they located Hale’s body but found the circumstances surrounding her death to be suspicious.

Upon conducting a death investigation, Samsinak was identified as a suspect in the homicide.

According to the Green County Prosecutor’s Office, the evidence shown to the jury at the murder trial included testimony from other neighbors that placed Samsinak at the scene arguing with Hale, a retired elementary school janitor who was a “strong single mother.”

The jury was also presented with surveillance video from the convenience store, as well as evidence from Samsinak’s cell phone, and evidence of Hale’s blood found on the driver’s seatbelt in his pick-up truck.

The jury deliberated for 45 minutes before finding the Springfield man guilty of all four charged offenses: second-degree murder, armed criminal action, second-degree arson, and tampering with physical evidence.

Judge Becky Borthwick set a sentencing hearing for May 11, where Samsinak will also receive a sentencing assessment report by the Department of Probation and Parole.

Samsinak, who is from the Czech Republic according to his Facebook, could face a life sentence for second-degree murder.