had a borderline personality disorder
that made her impulsive, and she could
become so angry that she would lose all
self-control.P
rosecutor Helm reminded the jury
of what Christa had told Detective
York in describing the last moments of
Colleen’s life.
“She said, gloating, ‘Colleen, do you
know who’s doing this to you?’ How cruel
and calculating that was, to make sure
that Colleen heard her killer’s voice, and
especially that question, just before she
died. It was nothing less than torture.
“They slashed her throat. She was still
alive. So to make sure she couldn’t report
anything they beat her repeatedly with
heavy rocks. She was beaten until her
brains showed through her skull. Could
there be any doubt that this was cruel,
heinous and atrocious? Can there be any
doubt about the measure of suffering
Christa Pike and her friends sought to
inflict?
“My only wish for poor Colleen
Slemmer is that she had died much
sooner. I wish that this innocent young girl
had lost her will to live an hour earlier.”
The defence painted Christa as a
victim – of Shipp, described as a master
of manipulation, of mental illness and of
mob violence. The jury were unconvinced
about that, and after considering Christa’s
fate for just over an hour, they came back
to the courtroom with a guilty verdict.
When she heard the foreman say the
word, Christa turned to her mother and
told her to remain calm, although she
herself was sobbing.
Relatives of Colleen said they were
satisfied with the verdict, but justice would
be done only if Christa was put to death.
One said: “I would like her to fry. I’m
sorry, but that’s how I feel about it.”
The jury agreed, and recommended the
death penalty. That propelled Christa Pike
into criminal history – at 18 she became
the youngest female on Death Row in
America.
Her boyfriend and accomplice, Tadaryl
Shipp, having reached 17, was convicted
of first-degree murder in a separate trial
and jailed for life.
Judge Sharon Liebowitz told him: “All
you tried to do throughout your trial was
to shift the blame on to others. Had you
been a year older, you would have been
tried as an adult and would have received
a far more severe punishment.”
Shadolla Peterson, who had agreed
to give evidence for the prosecution,
was given a suspended six-year prison
sentence plus 10 years’ probation for
being an accessory after the murder.C
hrista Pike was taken to a women’s
prison in Nashville for the long wait
that is characteristic of American death
sentences. Since the death penalty was
reinstated in the US in 1976, no women
and only two men have been executed in
Tennessee.
In prison she became a regular
correspondent of female killer Karla
Tucker, until Karla was executed. “I missBut 23 years on from her death
sentence, Christa is still alive and well on
Death Row, although finding Jesus does
not seem to have solved her problems.
Dissatisfied with the verdict and
sentence inflicted upon her, she launched
an appeal. Then she cancelled it,
brushing away the advice of her lawyers
and dropping the appeal. An execution
date of August 19th, 2002, was duly
fixed.
Again she changed her mind. A
few weeks before she was due to be
electrocuted her lawyers filed a motion to
have the appeal reinstated. That cancelled
out the execution date.
There were more problems ahead of
her. In August 2001, she had a violent
row with a fellow-inmate, Patricia Jones.
Together with another inmate, Natasha
Cornett, she jumped on Patricia and
tried to choke her to death with a
shoelace. According to prosecutors, she
very nearly succeeded.
She had been fighting with Patricia
Jones before the attack, complaining that
Patricia had been crossing her repeatedly.
In phone calls recorded by the prison,
Christa spoke to her mother and bragged
about the attack.
“I betcha if she gets near me, I’m
gonna do it again,” she said.
For that, she was convicted three years
later of attempted first-degree murder
and was sentenced to another 25 years.
This was the subject of another appeal
and again the protracted procedure was
set in motion and is still rolling today.
Meanwhile Christa was planning to
escape from the jail. She hatched the
plan with two men – Justin Heflin, 23,
of Chattanooga, a prison officer at the
women’s prison, and Donald Kohut, 34,
of New Jersey, one of her acquaintances,
who intended to copy prison keys.
The police were tipped off about the
planned escape. Heflin was sacked from
the prison service and charged with a
raft of offences. Kohut was arrested on
similar charges.
The police alleged Heflin received
money and gifts for his role in the
planning. Kohut, they say, joined him
in the conspiracy after meeting him on
frequent trips to visit Christa.
As for Christa, she didn’t escape.
Today, now 42, she lives in a grey
concrete cell on Death Row. It is full of
stuffed animal toys, family photos and
trinkets depicting angels. She is allowed
one hour a day for exercise.
The spartan 3-by-3.5-metre cell, at the
maximum-security prison for women
in Nashville, is almost certainly her last
home. There is virtually no chance that
she will ever leave prison alive.
The occasional visitor is still
nonplussed by her unspeakably
horrific crime, because Christa has
a face that beguiles easily. A US
TV commentator described her as
having “a sweet voice and a childlike
manner.” A juror at her trial,
however, put it a different way: “She
has an angel ’s face and a devil’s
heart.”her terribly,” Christa said in an interview,
adding: “I can’t pinpoint where my life
went wrong. Nothing at all in my life is
worth where I am now.”
But the former Satanist now revealed
that she was no longer a disciple of the
Devil. “I have found salvation in Jesus,”
she said. “I know that on Judgment Day I
will be forgiven.”
Colleen’s mother wanted none of that.
She said contemptuously: “When Christa
Pike dies, the Devil will be there to meet
her, not the Lord. Why should taxpayers’
money go to keep her alive, with three
hot meals a day and her own TV?
“Why should she have the privilege to
live while my daughter didn’t? It may be
a long walk, but I’ll be there when the
needle goes into her veins.”Above, Christa remains
incarcerated. Below, aged 36 –
back in court 18 years after her
murder trialAfter she was convicted and
sentenced to die, Christa Pike
wrote a letter to her boyfriend,
complaining about the treatment
she got from the court. Part of it
read:“Ya see what I get for trying
to be nice to the hore? I went
ahead and bashed her brains out
so she’d die quickly instead of
letting her bleed to death and
suffer more, and they f---ing FRY
me!!! Ain’t that some shit”