Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Christa Pike The Execution That Failed The Murder of Colleen Slemmer

Transcript

Christa Pike The Execution That Failed The Murder of Colleen Slemmer · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:21
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Into the Weeds podcast here on
0:24
Military Broadcast Radio. I'm Amber, and I thank you all
0:28
for joining us tonight. This is a recorded episode.
0:34
Just to be upfront. I've got a 50th anniversary to
0:39
go to, so that's why this is a recorded episode.
0:44
And so I thank you for being here nonetheless.
0:48
And I did want to address something that happened last
0:55
night. We found out that Ken Euchre and
1:01
Gypsy Rose Blanchard's boyfriend and the father of her child
1:08
passed away last night, or he was at least found yesterday.
1:12
And we just want to send our condolences to Ken's family and
1:19
friends. And we hope that we just hope
1:27
that people take this opportunity to really look at
1:32
why they make the content that they do and if it's useful to
1:41
society or not. I started the Gypsy Rose
1:46
Blanchard case out trying to preserve historical documents
1:51
and learn what happened. And I've never wanted to bully
2:02
or harass Gypsy or kin. As a matter of fact, I believe
2:06
that Ken was the one saving grace in that whole situation.
2:12
And so now I worry for their child.
2:17
And I just hope that one day she's able to look back at her
2:26
dad and, and realize who he really was.
2:32
And that that's not taken from her.
2:39
I know how I know how hard it is to lose a parent in that manner.
2:46
And so I understand how hard it can be.
2:52
And so I'm just praying for that little girl and her family to
2:57
keep her safe. And, and I hope that you join me
3:03
in that. And so that being said, I guess
3:10
we're going to get into tonight's episode.
3:16
I started researching it a couple of years ago, the Krista
3:22
Pike case and the murder of Colleen Slimmer, and I started
3:30
looking at it a few years ago because somebody had asked me to
3:37
and I haven't. I hadn't talked about it because
3:45
it was just another one of those cases that had been out there
3:49
for a while. But Joel asked me to look into
3:52
it because of Christa Pike's execution or failed execution
3:59
now. So that's what we're going to
4:02
get into. We're going to look into the
4:07
murder of Colleen Slimmer and the case against Krista Pike for
4:12
that murder. So I'm going to put this in
4:16
front of me so I don't lose my place and we're just going to
4:20
start from there. So on September 30th of 2026,
4:25
the State of Tennessee attempted to execute Krista Gale Pike for
4:30
the 1995 murder of 19 year old Colleen Slimmer.
4:35
Krista survived though, and the execution had already been
4:38
delayed by a last minute round of court action.
4:42
The 6th Court, I'm sorry, the 6th Circuit temporarily stopped
4:47
it. Tennessee went to the United
4:49
States Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court allowed the
4:52
execution to proceed. Later that day, when witnesses
4:56
were finally brought in, Krista was strapped to the Gurney.
5:00
She spoke and sang with her spiritual advisor, and that's
5:03
and said that she was at peace. And then things got bad.
5:09
So at about 7:34, Krista complained about her arm.
5:12
She said my arm feels like it's about to burst open.
5:15
She asked whether what she was feeling was normal.
5:19
And a few minutes later, witnesses saw the rock, an
5:23
actual rock, used as a visual sign during Tennessee's
5:27
execution process. The curtain eventually closed,
5:31
and when it reopened, Krista was still alive.
5:34
Later, that rock appeared again and but Krista was still
5:37
breathing. By the time witnesses were
5:42
removed from the area, they had spent close to an hour hearing
5:45
her breathe and snore after the process had begun, and Krista
5:50
was eventually taken from the prison to an ambulance.
5:54
We're going to come back to exactly what happened in that
5:56
room because there's a lot more to it.
5:59
But first we're going to talk about Krista Pike.
6:02
We need to talk about why she was on the Gurney in the 1st
6:05
place. And that means we need to talk
6:07
about Colleen. So Colleen Slimmer was a 19 year
6:12
old from Florida. And I'm actually going to put
6:16
her, her picture up here real quick.
6:25
Oh, it's Krista and Colleen. But OK,
6:42
sorry guys, I lost my OK. Colleen Slimmer was 19 years old
6:51
and from Florida. Her mother, Mae Martinez,
6:54
describes her as independent, outdoorsy, and somebody who
6:57
loved to roller skate, roller skate and love computers, and
7:02
she also volunteered with Special Olympics.
7:06
Computers were a big deal to Colleen.
7:08
Her stepfather taught her about them, and she could take them
7:12
apart and put them back together.
7:14
May remembers her wearing a shirt that basically announced
7:17
exactly what she was, a computer geek.
7:21
Colleen wanted training that could help her build a life for
7:24
herself. The program she wanted was not
7:27
available through Drop through Job Corps in Florida, so
7:30
Tennessee became the closest option for her family.
7:34
Her family wasn't thrilled about her going that far away, but
7:38
Colleen wanted the independence, she was quoted as saying.
7:42
Mom, I got to open my wings. Somehow I got to learn.
7:46
So when she went to Knoxville at the Job Corps, instructor Joe
7:50
Mode remembered Colleen as sweet, quiet and mild mannered.
7:55
She spent a lot of lot of time focused on school and in the
7:58
computer lab, but things were not going smoothly for her.
8:02
Colleen told her mother that people were bothering her coming
8:06
into her room and taking things like clothing, jewelry and
8:09
money. And she described 2 girls and a
8:12
guy, although she never gave May any names.
8:16
Krista Pike was 18 and to Darryl Ship was 17 and was Krista's
8:21
boyfriend. Somewhere in this group rumors
8:24
developed involving to Darryl and Colleen.
8:27
Whether every rumor was true is another question, but what
8:31
matters is is that Krista believed that there was
8:33
something going on and became focused on Colleen Kim Le Leo.
8:41
Sorry if I butchered that name. Kim later testified that Krista
8:45
talked about Colleen before the murder and according to Kim,
8:49
Krista said Oh my God, I'm going to kill her.
8:53
Kim told her to leave Colleen alone because she had not done
8:56
anything to her kids, and Kim said Krista smiled and winked.
9:02
There were warning signs around to Darryl too.
9:04
In the days before Colleen was killed.
9:06
Another Job Corps student later testified that to Darryl talked
9:10
about needing a human sacrifice because celestial bodies were in
9:13
alignment. Another statement attributed to
9:16
him was when we find her, she's dead.
9:20
Although there is some inconsistency in the record over
9:23
exactly who made that statement. But on January 12th, 1995,
9:29
Krista to Darryl and another girl named Girl Sorry named
9:37
Shadala Peterson and Colleen left the Job Corps together.
9:42
Kim later testified that Krista told her they were going out to
9:45
smoke weed and Kim watched as they signed out.
9:50
They went to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee's
9:54
agricultural campus, and that is where Colleen was attacked.
9:58
The confrontation became a prolonged beating.
10:01
Colleen tried to get away several times, and she even
10:04
begged them to stop. Accounts describe her offering
10:07
to walk all the way back to Florida and leave her belongings
10:10
behind if they would just let her go.
10:13
She was cut with a box cutter, beaten and stabbed, and part of
10:17
her clothing was removed. A pentagram was cut into her
10:21
body. The record contains different
10:23
accounts about who physically carved it in, so we're not going
10:27
to assign that particular act to one person when the evidence is
10:31
really not clean at all. But the attack lasted somewhere
10:35
between roughly half an hour to an hour, and the medical
10:39
evidence later showed that Colleen was alive through most
10:42
of it. May said Colleen was repeatedly
10:46
asked whether she knew who was doing this to her, and at some
10:51
some point, Colleen was struck in the head with pieces of
10:54
asphalt. Krista later admitted
10:56
participating in those blows, and when it was over, Colleen
11:00
was left there and Krista to Darrell and Shadala went back
11:04
without her. Now, when Krista came back,
11:07
according to Kim, she started talking.
11:11
Kim testified that Krista described what had happened and
11:14
said the bitch wouldn't die. Kim and Krista talked about
11:18
cutting Colleen's throat and stabbing her.
11:21
She also said Krista showed her a piece of Colleen's skull that
11:24
had been brought back from the scene and threatened Kim if she
11:28
told anyone. The next morning, January 13th,
11:32
a groundskeeper found Colleen's body shortly after 8:00 AM.
11:36
She was eventually identified through dental records and
11:39
investigators went back to Job Corps and one of the simple
11:43
pieces of evidence was the sign in and sign out sheet.
11:47
Four people had left together, but only three had come back.
11:52
Now. The pentagram on Colleen's body
11:54
also sent police down a very strange side side Rd. involving
11:59
a local Wiccan priestess named Denise Calhoun.
12:03
Denise held meetings and seances at an old candy factory near Job
12:07
Corps, and students apparently attended.
12:11
There had been rumors about witchcraft and black magic, and
12:14
Denise had reportedly been banned from Job Corps campus
12:17
after a dispute involving occult material.
12:20
I think she even did a protest. So police interviewed her
12:24
because of the pentagram and Denise explained the meaning of
12:27
the pentagram in Wicca, denying knowing Colleen and denied even
12:32
being involved in the murder and denied that she had anything to
12:36
do with human sacrifices. Investigators found no evidence
12:40
connecting Denise to Colleen's murder.
12:44
The occult evidence that mattered was much closer to the
12:47
people who had actually gone out with Colleen than with Denise.
12:51
And investigators found material connected to Satanism into
12:54
Darryl's room, including a Satanic Bible.
12:58
And both to Darryl and Christa were associated with pentagram
13:01
jewelry. And we'll get into their into to
13:04
Darryl in a little minute, in a little bit.
13:08
There was also physical evidence Colleen's blood was found on
13:11
clothing connected to Krista and Tedaro, and a fragment of
13:15
Colleen's skull was found inside Krista's black leather jacket.
13:19
University of Tennessee anthropologist Dr. Murray Marks
13:23
later physically matched that fragment to the missing portions
13:26
of Colleen's skull. Krista also returned to the
13:30
crime scene, and Officer Harold Underwood later testified that
13:35
he asked whether the she asked whether the victim had been
13:39
identified and whether police had any suspects.
13:43
He then described her as appearing amused and giggling.
13:47
So on January 14th, Detective Randy York interviewed Krista
13:52
and she gave a detailed account of her involvement and
13:55
physically demonstrated portions of what happened.
13:58
He said she was very animated and ready to talk.
14:02
So on January 14th, Detective Randy York interviewed Krista,
14:06
like I said. And at that point, police were
14:08
no longer trying to figure out whether the three people who
14:11
returned to Job Corps knew anything.
14:13
The question became what each of them had actually done.
14:18
So calling to Daryl Shipps simply Krista's boyfriend really
14:23
doesn't tell you much about him. What we do know is to Darrell
14:28
was 17 when Colleen was murdered, murdered and days
14:31
before the murder, Tip O'Hara, another student at Job Corps
14:36
later testified that to Darrell talked to him about needing a
14:40
human sacrifice because celestial bodies were in in
14:43
alignment. The court also recorded
14:46
references of a Ouija board, a Satanic Bible recovered from To
14:50
Darrell's room, and pentagram necklaces associated with both
14:55
TO Darrell and Krista, and years later TO Darrell did acknowledge
14:59
that he practiced Satanism at the time and said Krista
15:02
practiced it with him. He's denied that Satanism was
15:07
the reason for Colleen's murder, though.
15:11
And there's another part of To Darrell's background that came
15:13
out later during Krista's post conviction proceedings.
15:17
To Darrell testified Underoath that he was a member of the
15:20
Gangster Disciples and that Shidala was also a member.
15:24
He said Krista wasn't. Now, there's no evidence that I
15:28
found that the gang ordered this murder or that Colleen was
15:32
killed as some kind of sanctioned gang hit, but it
15:36
tells us more about the relationships within this group,
15:39
not the motive itself. To Darrell was eventually
15:44
convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy and really
15:47
received a life sentence plus 25 years.
15:52
Shadala Peterson is harder to figure out because the accounts
15:56
of what she actually did that night don't match it all.
16:00
Shadala told police she thought the group was going out to smoke
16:03
weed. She admitted being there and
16:06
witnessing the attack, but denied physically participating,
16:11
She's quoted as saying. I didn't touch her.
16:13
I didn't know Colleen. I just witnessed it.
16:16
But that was not the only account.
16:19
Kim testified that Krista told her afterward that Shadala
16:23
helped beat Colleen and was supposed to provide the box
16:26
cutter. Kim didn't witness the murder.
16:29
This is just Krista's account afterward.
16:33
She also said that to Darrow also implicated Shadala.
16:39
Prosecutors could establish that Shadala was there, and proving
16:42
exactly what she physically did was another matter.
16:46
The first degree murder charge against her was ultimately
16:50
dismissed as part of her plea, and she plead guilty to being an
16:55
accessory after the fact. She received a six year sentence
16:58
with roughly 460 days of jail credit and the remainder on
17:03
probation. May Colleen's mom did not
17:07
believe that outcome reflected everything Shadala knew or did.
17:11
And after the case, Shadala has largely disappeared from
17:15
reliable public reporting. There are people online with the
17:18
same name, but I have not found enough reliable information to
17:22
identify them as Shadala Peterson, so we're going to
17:25
leave it there now. Krista went to trial in Knox
17:29
County in 1996. By then, the prosecution had her
17:34
statement, the physical evidence, and multiple
17:36
witnesses. The major legal question was
17:39
whether the murder was premeditated first degree murder
17:42
or whether the state could prove the conspiracy charge.
17:47
Doctor Sandra Elkins performed Colleen's autopsy.
17:50
Her testimony gives us the clearest picture of what Colleen
17:54
physically endured without having to retell the entire
17:57
entire attack. There were so many injuries that
18:02
Doctor Elkins initially tried to identify them, eventually
18:06
individually with letters of the alphabet, but she eventually
18:10
stopped because she said she would have to re and she would
18:14
have to invent a whole nother alphabet.
18:17
Sorry guys. Colleen had defensive wounds on
18:20
her arm and fresh bruising on her knees that was very
18:24
consistent with crawling. There were numerous cuts and
18:27
stab wounds, including major injuries to her neck.
18:31
The conditions of the wounds showed that Colleen's heart was
18:34
still beating when many of them were inflicted.
18:38
The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
18:41
Colleen's skull had been extensively fractured, with bone
18:45
driven into the brain, and material consistent with asphalt
18:49
was found in the injuries. The jury also saw the
18:53
reconstructed skull. Doctor Murray Marks showed how
18:57
the fragment recovered from Krista's jacket fit the missing
19:00
area. And May Colleen's mother sat
19:04
through all of this while her daughter's body was being
19:07
discussed and physically reconstructed as evidence in a
19:11
courtroom. I can't even imagine how that
19:14
would feel. And yeah, I just can't imagine
19:21
defense. The defense presented
19:23
psychologist Dr. Ingham. He described Krista as highly
19:27
intelligent but with significant psychological and impulse
19:31
control problems. The defense challenged
19:34
premeditation and argued that the confrontation had escalated
19:38
rather than being a planned killing.
19:41
But the prosecution had the statements made before Colleen
19:44
ever went out with the group, including Kim's testimony that
19:47
Krista had already talked about killing her.
19:50
The jury convicted Krista of premeditated first degree murder
19:54
and conspiracy to commit first degree murder.
19:58
Then came the penalty phase. Krista's aunt, Carrie Ross,
20:02
testified about a childhood that was already clearly unstable.
20:07
Krista had been born prematurely, had little bond
20:11
with her mother and was largely raised by her her paternal
20:15
grandmother and then lost that grandma grandmother in 1988.
20:20
After that, she was moved along family members and homes where
20:25
among family members and homes where substance abuse and
20:29
dysfunctions were part of the regular picture.
20:32
But Ross was also a damaging witness for the defense because
20:37
on cross examination she acknowledged having described
20:40
Krista as a pathological liar and out of control from around
20:44
the age of 12 and said she had been afraid to have Krista
20:48
around her own children. So the jury found two
20:52
aggravating circumstances, that the murder was especially
20:56
heinous and atrocious or cruel and involved torture or serious
21:01
physical abuse beyond that necessary to cause death, and
21:06
that the murder was committed to avoid arrest or prosecution or
21:10
prevent Colleen from reporting what had happened.
21:14
Krista was sentenced to death, and she also received a
21:18
consecutive 25 year sentence for conspiracy.
21:24
Now, Chris Krista's direct appeals continued for years.
21:28
The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and
21:32
sentence in 1998, and the United States Supreme Court declined
21:38
review the following year. Then Krista started doing
21:41
something that would complicate her case.
21:44
For years at different points she tried to stop fighting her
21:48
execution. In 2001 she asked to withdraw
21:52
her post conviction case and have an execution date set.
21:56
The court made sure she had counsel and understood what she
22:00
was asking for, but she later put the request in writing.
22:04
Now, that same year there was another violent incident inside
22:08
of the prison and on August 24th, 2001, Krista was in a
22:14
recreation cage with Patricia Jones and Natasha Cornett.
22:20
And Natasha Cornett is from the Lily Lid Family murders.
22:26
Because apparently the story, you know, wasn't strange enough.
22:29
And I don't know enough about that, but I guess it's a very
22:35
well known case. Cornett and Jones got into an
22:38
argument and Cornett swung at Jones and missed.
22:41
And as Jones prepared to fight, Krista came up behind her with a
22:44
heavy shoelace or boot lace, wrapped it around Jones's neck
22:48
and choked her until she lost consciousness.
22:51
When the and then the officers intervene.
22:55
Now, Chris's Christa's defense was is that she had been trying
23:00
to protect Cornett Correctional Officer Justin Heflin.
23:05
Kohut and Heflin were charged in connection with the alleged
23:08
plan, and Krista never escaped. But by this point, the legal
23:12
fight over where where Krista herself wanted to continue
23:16
challenging her death sentence had already become its own
23:18
story. So I mean, she's in and out of
23:23
legal battles and doing the most in prison.
23:26
So now we get to into Krista's childhood and the later
23:30
mitigation evidence. Now this matters because a death
23:35
penalty jury is not only deciding whether somebody
23:38
committed the crime, but after guilt is established, the jury
23:42
has to decide whether that person should live or die, and
23:46
mitigation is part of that decision.
23:51
From what we know, Krista was born in West Virginia in 1976.
23:55
Her early life was unstable and her paternal grandmother became
24:00
her primary caregiver. And when her grandmother died,
24:03
Krista was around 12 years old. And after that she moved among
24:07
relatives and homes until she went to Job Corps.
24:13
Later post conviction proceedings developed a much
24:15
broader picture than the jury heard in 1996.
24:19
Witnesses described neglect, substance abuse within the
24:23
family, physical abuse and allegations of repeated sexual
24:26
abuse. And not every allegation was
24:29
accepted by every family member. Some of the claims came from
24:33
Krista herself and some from relatives and other witnesses,
24:38
and some from family members disputed and some family members
24:42
disputed portions of that history.
24:45
So not everybody believed everything Krista said about her
24:49
past, which is understandable because people in these
24:53
situations lie. So the original defense team had
24:57
hired mitigation specialist Doctor Kathleen McCoy, and
25:01
mitigation information had been gathered.
25:04
She did not testify at the penalty phase.
25:08
Krista's later attorneys argued that the original defense should
25:12
have investigated much more deeply into the family's
25:14
history, sexual abuse institutions and she had been
25:20
in, and mental health evidence and possible neurological
25:23
issues. The original lawyers defended
25:26
the choices they made. Some of the same witnesses who
25:29
could provide sympathetic information about Krista could
25:33
also give the prosecution damaging information about her
25:36
behavior, and later experts expanded the mental health
25:41
evidence beyond what Doctor Ingham had presented at trial.
25:46
Her attorneys also raised modern research about adolescent brain
25:50
development and the significance of Krista having been only 18
25:55
when the crime occurred. The courts considered that
25:59
additional mitigation, but did not overturn the death sentence.
26:03
The state courts concluded that the original representation had
26:07
not prejudiced the outcome enough to require a new
26:12
sentencing hearing. Those arguments would keep
26:15
coming back as Krista moved closer to execution.
26:20
Now, Krista's first execution date was October, sorry, August
26:24
19th, 2002. By then she had asked to stop
26:29
her post conviction litigation, but she changed her mind.
26:33
In a sworn statement that July, she said she was still
26:37
conflicted, but at that moment felt continuing the legal
26:41
challenge was the only logical decision, and on August 1st, the
26:47
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution.
26:52
The fight over where whether Krista could abandoned her
26:55
appeals and then restart them eventually reached the Tennessee
26:59
Court Supreme Court and in 2005 the court allowed the post
27:04
conviction case to continue and the state post conviction case
27:08
continued through hearings and appeals.
27:11
Federal habeas litigation followed and by 2020 the
27:15
ordinary direct post, state post conviction and federal habeas
27:20
path had largely run its course. Meanwhile, Tennessee had its own
27:25
problems carrying out executions and with its execution
27:29
protocols. Krista's next execution date was
27:33
eventually set for September 30th, 2026.
27:37
Her attorneys returned to the mitigation evidence and argued
27:41
that the state itself now acknowledged the severity of
27:44
abuse and sexual assault in Christa's childhood.
27:48
The state's position was that acknowledging or expressing
27:52
sympathy for that history did not mean the earlier proceedings
27:56
were legally defective. There were also challenges
28:00
involving Tennessee's lethal injection protocol and concerns
28:03
about IV access. And on September 30th, only
28:07
hours before the execution, a divided 6th Circuit panel issued
28:12
a temporary stay. Tennessee immediately went to
28:15
the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court vacated
28:19
the stay with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson
28:24
dissenting. So after spending the day not
28:27
knowing whether the execution what happened, Krista was taken
28:31
to the execution chamber that evening.
28:35
Now, at the beginning, I gave you the short version.
28:37
Now, let's go through the what would.
28:40
Sorry. Now, let's go through what the
28:42
witnesses actually saw. The curtain opened at 7:27 PM.
28:48
Krista was on the Gurney with her spiritual advisor nearby.
28:51
Witnesses could see an IV in her right arm and later another on
28:55
the left. Krista gave a final statement
28:58
about love, peace and being ready to be free.
29:02
Her spiritual advisor saying to her told her she loved her and
29:06
touched her head while Krista was still awake.
29:09
And at about 7:34, Krista began complaining about her arm.
29:15
She said. My arm feels like it's about to
29:17
burst open. She described a particular area
29:20
throbbing and asked whether what she was feeling was normal.
29:24
Her advisor told her to relax and Krista answered.
29:28
I'm trying now. I don't know if any of you guys
29:32
have ever had a bad IV experience where it goes into,
29:37
you know, the tissue, but that stuff hurts really bad and it is
29:42
uncomfortable for a while and you can have all kinds of
29:45
complications from that, including necrosis and all kinds
29:51
of stuff. So.
29:54
So over the next few minutes, witnesses saw her moving her
29:57
head towards her left arm and moving her feet under the sheet.
30:01
At about 7:41, a rock appeared. The rock is a physical visual
30:07
signal used during Tennessee's execution process.
30:12
The media witnesses were not given a precise official
30:15
definition of every appearance of it, but from prior executions
30:20
they understood it as a signal that the process had reached the
30:24
stages where officials were waiting for the death.
30:28
Normally, by that point the prisoners would be unconscious,
30:31
but Krista wasn't, and at about 7:46, the curtain closed.
30:37
It reopened around 749. Krista was alive, and witnesses
30:41
could hear her snoring. At around 754 she made a sound
30:46
and lifted her head. Before 756 one witness described
30:51
her body rising into AV shape, and at about eight O 1 the rock
30:57
appeared a second time while Krista was still breathing.
31:00
The snoring became louder and witnesses saw more movement, and
31:05
at about eight O 5 Krista flexed or gassed and the clerk and the
31:09
curtain closed again. Now, this time, it stayed closed
31:14
for close to another 50 minutes. The witnesses could hear
31:17
breathing and snoring. They heard people moving in and
31:20
out. Attorneys and Krista's spiritual
31:23
advisor were involved, and witnesses asked for the curtain
31:26
to be reopened. But it wasn't.
31:29
And at about 8:53, the microphone was turned off and
31:33
the witnesses were told to leave, Krista to leave.
31:37
And Krista was alive. Tennessee had gone through the
31:40
execution protocol twice. What the media witnesses could
31:44
not determine was exactly what was happening with the IV lines
31:49
or whether the drug was entering Krista's bloodstream the way it
31:52
was supposed to be. And now we know more about what
31:56
happened before the witnesses ever saw her.
32:00
The day after the execution attempt, Krista's attorney
32:04
attorneys Randy Spivey and Steven Farrell, spoke publicly
32:09
about what they had seen and what they had been told.
32:12
Spivey said that the execution team spent close to an hour
32:15
trying to establish IV access. That's crazy.
32:20
He said he counted at least 7 needles used in Krista's left
32:24
arm alone. He also said that one of the
32:26
needles appeared bent when it was pulled out after an
32:30
unsuccessful attempt. According to her attorneys,
32:37
Krista was trying to help the execution team find a usable
32:41
vein. She suggested places they could
32:44
try and ask them to try higher on her shoulder.
32:48
When they apparently believed they had established Ask Access,
32:52
she thanked them. Excuse me, sorry about that.
33:05
That happened before the media witnesses heard her complaining
33:09
that her arm felt like it was going to burst open.
33:13
Her attorneys had raised IV access concerns before September
33:17
30th. After the failed execution.
33:20
They questioned whether the phenobarbital, Oh no, sorry,
33:25
pentobarbital, had entered Christa's bloodstream correctly
33:29
or whether some of it could have gone into the surrounding
33:32
tissue. That has not been established as
33:35
the cause of the failure, but it sounds like it.
33:39
Spivey also describes seeing blistering and burning around
33:42
areas of Krista's arms where attempts had been made.
33:47
He described the media witnesses being left in a darkened room
33:50
while they still could hear Krista breathing, choking and
33:53
struggling behind the closed curtain.
33:56
And Krista's legal team is now asking asking Governor Bill Lee
34:00
to commute her sentence to life in prison.
34:03
Governor Lee has halted Tennessee's remaining scheduled
34:06
execution for 2026 and ordered a third party review of what
34:11
happened. There's one question, though,
34:14
that everybody wants answered right now.
34:17
How is Krista Pike now? At the time I'm recording this,
34:21
her attorneys say that they have very little information about
34:25
her current medical condition or prognosis.
34:28
But I did hear that she was on life support.
34:32
They said she is receiving medical care.
34:34
But one thing we know for sure is is that Krista Pike is still
34:38
alive. So that's where we're going to
34:41
leave her medical status for and for now.
34:45
And we'll see what happens later on.
34:48
Now, while all of this was happening, Mae Martinez was in
34:52
Tennessee watching it. Getting there had taken a
34:56
considerable amount of help. A GoFundMe was organized to help
34:59
May and her husband, Raul, travel from Florida to Tennessee
35:04
so that they could be present for the execution.
35:07
They ultimately made the roughly 11 hour drive, and May waited
35:12
more than 30 years for this. She watched Krista closely
35:15
throughout the execution attempt and afterwards, she said.
35:19
I did not take my eyes off of her.
35:21
And when it was over, May said, I didn't get justice for my
35:25
daughter. This isn't justice for Colleen.
35:31
And there's another piece of this case May has had to carry
35:34
for years, the fragment of Colleen's skull that became
35:37
evidence. That fragment was found in
35:40
Christig's jacket and matched back to Colleen's skull.
35:43
May spent years trying to get all of her daughter's remains
35:46
returned to her, and in one documentary, she talked about
35:50
the fact that a piece of Colleen was still being held as evidence
35:54
and that to her, it meant her daughter was not completely
35:57
buried. It's easy to lose a court file,
36:05
but to the state it's evidence and to May, it's part of her
36:14
child. There will be an investigation
36:17
into what happened on September 30th, and there will be more
36:20
legal arguments about Krista Pike and what Tennessee did and
36:25
whether that state can ever try to execute her again.
36:29
We're going to deal with all that whenever we figure out what
36:33
happened. But this case did not begin in
36:36
an execution chamber in 2026. It began in January of 1995 when
36:43
Colleen Slimmer was murdered, May once said.
36:50
I am Colleen's voice and I always will be.
36:53
Her name was Colleen Slimmer and I'm Amber from Into the Weeds
36:58
podcast. And I hope that the story is a a
37:07
reminder that there are evil people out there and they will
37:10
do whatever they want to get whatever they want.
37:18
I hope you have a good week and please do something good to
37:20
change the world for the better. Bye everybody.
37:27
Hi, I'm Beaker with Military Broadcast Radio TV.
37:31
We're your virtual MWR bringing veterans radio, podcasts,
37:36
gaming, animation, 3D printing and a community that never
37:40
leaves you behind. Download our Roku or mobile app
37:44
today.