I
got the information about this murderess from Wikipedia and several news
sources. I blog about her, in order to remember Colleen Slammer who was
murdered on this day (12 January 1995).
Born
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March 10,
1976
West Virginia |
Motive
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Jealousy
|
Conviction(s)
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Conspiracy
to commit murder,
Murder — March 22, 1996 |
Penalty
|
Execution
by electrocution
|
Conviction
status
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Awaiting
execution on death row
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Occupation
|
Student
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Christa Gail Pike (born March 10, 1976), is the youngest woman to be
sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was
20 when convicted for a torture and murder she committed at age 18.
According
to a piece published in Singapore's English language newspaper The Straits
Times on April 22, 2001, Pike lived a troubled life and dropped out of high
school. She joined the Job Corps, a government program aimed at helping
low-income youth by offering vocational training and career skills, and
attended the now closed Job Corps center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike fell for
a young man named Tadaryl Shipp, one year her junior. Together they
"dabbled" in the occult and devil worship.
Crime:
Pike
became jealous of fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19. She thought Slemmer was
trying to "steal" her boyfriend from her. Though friends of Slemmer
deny the accusations, Pike was set on a vendetta. Along with friend, Shadolla
Peterson, 18, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam
plant close by on the University of Tennessee Campus.
On
January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the
dormitory and proceeded to the woods where Slemmer was told they wanted to make
peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival at the secluded location
Slemmer was attacked by the other three. Per later court testimony, for the
next 30 minutes she was taunted, beaten, and slashed, and a pentagram was
carved in her chest. Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer's skull with a large chunk
of asphalt paving, killing her. Pike kept a piece of her victim's skull.
Pike
began to show off the piece of skull around the school and within 36 hours the
three were arrested. The log book showed that the four of them left together
and only three returned. They also found the piece of skull in Pike's jacket
pocket. Their rooms were searched and a Satanic Bible was found in Shipp's
room. Pike insisted they were merely trying to scare her and it got out of
control.
Trial:
There was evidence and a confession. Pike was
charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. On March 22, 1996 after
only a few hours of deliberation, Pike was found guilty on both counts. On
March 30, 1996, Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder
charge and 25 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. Shipp received a life
sentence with the possibility of parole. Peterson, who had turned informant,
received probation for pleading guilty to being an accessory.
Appeal
of conviction:
Following
the guilty verdict Pike “launched, canceled and then relaunched” an appeal of
her conviction in the Tennessee state courts. In June 2001, then again in June
2002, against the advice of her lawyers, Pike asked the courts to drop her
appeal and sought to be executed via electrocution. Criminal Court Judge Mary
Beth Leibowitz granted the request and an execution date of August 19, 2002 was
set. Pike soon thereafter changed her mind and on July 8, 2002 defense lawyers
filed a motion to allow the appeal process to continue. This motion was denied.
However on August 2, 2002 a three judge state appeals court panel ruled that
the proceedings should be continued and the execution was not carried out. In
December 2008 Pike’s latest request for a new trial was turned down and she was
returned to death row. This denied request is believed to be the final allowed
under the appeals procedures in the State of Tennessee. As of this writing
(December 2009) no execution date has been set and it is unknown whether or not
she has undertaken any appeal of her conviction in the federal court system.
Attempted
murder conviction:
On
August 24, 2001, Pike (with alleged assistance from inmate Natasha
Cornett) attacked and attempted to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones
with a shoe string, and nearly succeeded in choking her to death. She was
convicted of attempted first degree murder on August 12, 2004. Although it is
the position of the Tennessee Department of Corrections that Natasha assisted
in this crime, their investigators concluded there was insufficient evidence to
charge her with helping Pike attack Jones.
Attempted prison break
In
March 2012, it was revealed that Pike had made escape plans involving
corrections officer Justin Heflin and a New Jersey man named Donald Kohut.
Kohut had visited Pike in prison, but complete details of his relationship to
Pike were not immediately known. The attempted prison break was thwarted by a
joint investigation involving the Tennessee Department of Corrections, the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey State Police.
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Christa Gail Pike appears in court Thursday
to fight a conviction in a 2001 attack on annother inmate. Pike, 36, is on
death row for the 1995 torture, murder and mutilation of Colleen Slemmer. /
Dipti Vaidya / The Tennessean
|
 |
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Tennessee’s
only woman on death row spent much of her time in court Thursday smiling.
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Christa Gail Pike, on death
row, fights conviction in prison attack
1:55 AM, Apr. 13, 2012
Her
lawyer fought to overturn an attempted murder conviction, arguing that her
trial lawyers were ineffective and the evidence against her insufficient to
convict her of nearly murdering another prison inmate.
Christa
Gail Pike, 36, is on death row for the 1995 torture, murder and mutilation of
Colleen Slemmer at a Knoxville Job Corps Center.
But
she was in Davidson County Criminal Court on Thursday challenging her 2004
conviction for nearly strangling inmate Patricia Jones with a shoestring. The
two were housed in the Tennessee Prison for Women when Pike attacked Jones in
2001.
For
nearly an hour, Pike’s former defense attorney, John Ford, answered questions
from Pike’s current attorney, Graham Prichard, and prosecutor Kathy Morante in
Judge Randall Wyatt’s courtroom. At the end of the hearing, Wyatt said he would
release a written order in the case in the next two to three weeks.
At
the heart of Prichard’s argument for ineffective counsel was the fact that Ford
declined to call an expert witness to speak about a brain injury Pike had
received. But, during cross-examination by Morante, Ford admitted that the doctor’s
testimony would have hurt the defense more than it would have helped.
“You
know that the particularly depraved and brutal details surrounding the crime
for which she is on death row would have come out?” Morante asked Ford. “The
jury would have heard that Ms. Pike had hit Ms. Slemmer’s head so hard with
asphalt that pieces of asphalt were embedded in it, that she took a part of Ms.
Slemmer’s skull and danced and sang with it, that she was (accused of) sex
abuse ... and that she wrote a letter after her conviction saying she couldn’t
believe she had gotten the death penalty for killing (Slemmer.)”
From
the stand, Ford said, “Yes, that would not have helped the defense.”
According
to court records, Pike had an ongoing feud with Jones, whom she accused of
continually crossing her and snitching. In phone calls recorded by the prison
to her mother, Pike laughed and bragged about the attack and vowed to finish
the job the next time.
“I
betcha if she gets near me, I’m gonna do it again,” she told her mother in
2001.
On
Thursday, security at Wyatt’s courtroom was beefed up because of a foiled
escape attempt involving Pike in March. The inmate made headlines when, the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says, she tried to break out of jail with the
help of a Tennessee Prison for Women guard and a friend from New Jersey. The
TBI says the pair planned to copy prison keys.
Security
officers lined Wyatt’s courtroom, and another guard sat just outside the locked
courtroom doors. Before people were allowed inside, the officer would search
their bags or perform a pat-down search of their clothing.
Contact Nicole Young at 615-259-8091 or nyoung@tennessean.com. Contact Brian
Haas at 615-726-8968 or bhaas@tennessean.com.
Youngest woman to be put on death row denies trying to kill fellow inmate
By Daily Mail ReporterPUBLISHED:| UPDATED:
Tennessee’s only woman on death row - and the youngest woman ever to be sentenced to death in the U.S. - has denied trying to kill a fellow inmate.
Christa Pike was 20 when she was given a death sentence for torturing and murdering classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19, out of jealousy in 1995.
Now the killer, 36, is hoping to overturn an attempted murder conviction after she tried to strangle another prisoner using a shoe string in 2001.
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Killer:
Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee, is fighting an
attempted murder conviction that stemmed from her attack on an inmate
|
 |
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Fresh-faced: Pike, pictured as a teen, was
placed on death row after she tortured and murdered a classmate in 1995 - when
she was just 18
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She was convicted in 2004 after attacking Patricia Jones when the two were in a maximum security cell block at Tennessee Prison for Women.
Even though she is already was on death row, the state still has to prosecute her for trying to kill again, authorities said.
She appeared in Davidson County Criminal Court on Thursday in an attempt to overturn the ruling, The Tennessean reported.
Her attorney claimed her previous lawyers were ineffective and the evidence against her was not strong enough to convict her.
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Attack: Natasha Cornett, left, allegedly
assisted Pike in trying to kill fellow inmate Patricia Jones, right, by
strangling her with a shoelace in 2001
|
 |
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Fight:
Pike, pictured in court this week, claims there was not enough evidence to
convict her of attempted murder and that her lawyers were ineffective
|
Pike's former defense attorney, John Ford, answered questions from her current attorney, Graham Prichard, and prosecutor Kathy Morante.
WHY HAS SHE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH?
Christa Pike was 18 when she became jealous of fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19, who she believed was trying to steal her boyfriend.With the boyfriend and a friend, Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area by the University of Tennessee Campus saying they were going to smoke marijuana.
The three attacked Slemmer over a 30-minute period, beating her, slashing her neck and carving a pentagram into her chest.
Pike smashed the girl's skull with a chunk of asphalt and killed her. She kept a piece of Slemmer's skull which police later found in her pocket.
Pike showed off the skull around school and all three were arrested.
She was sentenced to death by electrocution in 1996.
Prichard accused Ford of failing to call an expert witness to talk about a brain injury Pike had received.
But Ford admitted that the doctor's testimony would not have helped the defense, as the grisly details surrounding the original murder would have been discussed.
Morante suggested 'the jury would have heard that Ms Pike took a part of Ms. Slemmer’s skull and danced and sang with it', among other details.
Ford admitted: 'Yes, that would not have helped the defense.'
Pike had been fighting with Jones before the attack and claimed she had been crossing her repeatedly, The Tennessean reported.
She carried out the attack with another inmate, Natasha Cornett.
In phone calls recorded by the prison in 2001, Pike bragged about the attack and vowed to finish the job as she spoke to her mother.
'I betcha if she gets near me, I’m gonna do it again,' she said.
When the hearing finished, Judge Randall Wyatt said he would release a written order in the next two or three weeks, The Tennessean added.
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Victim: Pike and two friends killed
19-year-old Christine Slemmer, pictured, in 1995 as Pike believed the student
was trying to steal her boyfriend
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Sick: Pike, pictured during the trial,
tortured the girl, slashed her throat and carved a pentagon on her chest,
before crushing her skull with asphalt
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Locked
up: Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution in 1996.
|
There was heavy security at the courtroom following an attempted escape from prison by Pike in March.
She tried to break out with the help of a Tennessee Prison for Women guard and a friend from New Jersey who planned to copy prison keys.
Last month, authorities said the two men were indicted in the plot.
On Thursday, security officers lined the courtroom and another guards at outside the locked courtroom doors, The Tennessean reported.
Check
this video to see Christa Pike’s profile:
Check
this video to see her escape attempt:
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