Latest / The Podcaster's Voice / Botched Execution of Christa Pike, the Convicted Murderer Accused of Torturing and Blugdeoning to Death Her Job Corps Room Mate!

Transcript

Botched Execution of Christa Pike, the Convicted Murderer Accused of Torturing and Blugdeoning to Death Her Job Corps Room Mate! · The Podcaster's Voice

• 0:16
  Do you feel sorry for Crystal Gail Pike? Do you
• 1:25
  know who she is? Well, she was the only woman
• 1:30
  on Tennessee's death row since the hanging of
• 1:35
  Eve Martin in 1820. Crystal was convicted at
• 1:44
  the age of 18 of murder. She was in Job Corps.
• 1:55
  and she was jealous of her classmate, Colleen
• 2:00
  Slimmer. Yes. So she convinced her boyfriend
• 2:07
  and I think two other people to find out of Job
• 2:14
  Corps and they all went in the woods and Krista
• 2:19
  said she was going to make amends by offering
• 2:23
  her some weed. Offering Colleen some weed. Weed.
• 2:29
  So they all went to the woods. They began torturing
• 2:34
  her and then they brutally beat her to death.
• 2:45
  Yes. Krista picked up a boulder and knocked Colleen
• 2:51
  in the head. She was executed last night, but
• 2:59
  it didn't work. They tried it twice. One needle
• 3:08
  she was stuck like seven times. One arm. Seven
• 3:12
  needles in one arm. I'm not sure how many in
• 3:15
  the other arm, but she said a couple times, is
• 3:19
  it supposed to feel this way? My arm feels like
• 3:23
  it's going to burst or my veins feel like it's
• 3:25
  going to burst open. Then she smiled real big.
• 3:31
  I don't know if she was trying to be funny, trying
• 3:33
  to be cute, but it did not work. So the first
• 3:41
  time it didn't work, they closed the curtains.
• 3:46
  They called the chaplain in again. They opened
• 3:49
  the curtains. Tried it again. Still didn't work,
• 3:56
  but the audience heard her breathing really loud
• 3:58
  and snoring. That's weird. So finally after about
• 4:05
  an hour, they caught it off and made everybody
• 4:07
  leave. I don't feel sorry for her. She's 50 now.
• 4:14
  She was 18 when she was sentence. She got what
• 4:20
  she deserved. She didn't feel sorry for Colleen
• 4:24
  when they were torturing her and when she hit
• 4:29
  her multiple times on the body and head. and
• 4:38
  bludgeon her to death. Yeah, Christa Gail Pike
• 4:43
  was born March 10th, 1976. She is incarcerated
• 4:49
  on death row in Tennessee. In 1995, when she
• 4:53
  was 18, she murdered 19 -year -old Job Corps
• 4:57
  classmate, Colleen Slimmer, in Knoxville. Pike
• 5:02
  and two friends led Slimmer into the woods where
• 5:05
  they tortured and killed her. In 1996, at the
• 5:08
  age of 20, Pike was sent into death. making her
• 5:13
  one of the youngest women to receive a death
• 5:16
  sentence and then in the United States. She was
• 5:24
  supposed to be the 19th woman executed nationwide
• 5:28
  since 1976 and the first woman executed in Tennessee
• 5:34
  in 206 years since the hanging of Eve Martin
• 5:39
  in 1920. Execution was scheduled yesterday September
• 5:51
  20th, I mean September 30th. But she remains
• 5:55
  alive after two failed lethal injections. As
• 5:59
  of today, October 1st, two of Pike's attorneys
• 6:03
  said that she is in critical condition and is
• 6:06
  receiving life -saving care at the local hospital.
• 6:10
  Isn't that ironic? She was put on death row.
• 6:14
  They tried to kill her. They couldn't kill her.
• 6:17
  Now they trying to save her life using our taxpayer
• 6:20
  dollars. The weapons they used... were a box
• 6:31
  cutter, meat cleaver, and a chunk of asphalt.
• 6:44
  That happened 31 years ago. So she was imprinted
• 6:49
  all the time. All this time. Why did it take
• 6:52
  so long to put people to death though? I can't
• 6:59
  fathom that. Her sentence remains controversial
• 7:05
  as some experts have stated that her legal defense
• 7:09
  failed to represent mitigating evidence. at the
• 7:13
  trial including the effect of a youth youth and
• 7:16
  childhood trauma on her decision making abilities
• 7:19
  she knew what the hell she was doing come on
• 7:22
  now they kill me they kill me she was wise enough
• 7:30
  to go to job corps she was wise enough to have
• 7:32
  a boyfriend she was wise enough to set colina
• 7:36
  up for death no excuse they say these factors
• 7:44
  should have been um considered She was born in
• 7:48
  Beckley, West Virginia. She was raped by a neighbor
• 7:52
  at age 11. She attempted suicide at age 12, and
• 7:56
  in 1991 she was sent to a juvenile evaluation
• 7:59
  center after being placed on probation for breaking
• 8:03
  into a community center distilled candy. The
• 8:09
  center was designated to reform troubled youth.
• 8:12
  Children earned or lost points based on compliance
• 8:15
  with rules, and their progress through the program
• 8:18
  depended on those points. was promoted as an
• 8:21
  alternative to more primitive forms of juvenile
• 8:25
  incarceration. By the 1990s the Center had become
• 8:29
  increasingly punitive relying on a uniform points
• 8:34
  and punishment system rather than behavioral
• 8:38
  changes. The program proved ineffective for Pike
• 8:44
  Krista and she repeatedly violated rules in minor
• 8:49
  ways and remained there for more than a year.
• 8:52
  far longer than most children. In the nine months
• 8:55
  leading up to her arrest, North Carolina Social
• 8:58
  Services removed her from her home after her
• 9:02
  mother's living boyfriends physically and sexually
• 9:06
  abused her. During her time at Sawant Noah, she
• 9:11
  became the teacher's assistant and earned her
• 9:15
  GED. She was released from the juvenile center
• 9:18
  in March 1993 and enrolled in Job Corps. in Knoxville,
• 9:23
  Tennessee. She was so cute and so innocent looking.
• 9:33
  Wow. While living at the Job Corps training campus,
• 9:39
  Krista became convinced that the fellow student,
• 9:41
  Colleen, was trying to steal her boyfriend. 17
• 9:44
  -year -old Taradale Shipp, along with her friend,
• 9:50
  18 -year -old Shadola Peterson, pipe plan to
• 9:54
  lure Slimmer to an isolated abandoned steam plant
• 9:58
  near the University of Tennessee. campus. On
• 10:03
  January 12, 1995, Pike, Ship, Peterson, and Slimmer
• 10:07
  signed out of the dormitory and went to the woods,
• 10:11
  where Slimmer was told they would want to make
• 10:13
  peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival
• 10:17
  at the location, Slimmer was attacked by Pike
• 10:20
  and Ship while Peterson acted as a lookout. According
• 10:24
  to court testimony, for the next 30 minutes,
• 10:27
  Slimmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed. Ship
• 10:31
  used a box cutter to carve a pentagram into her
• 10:35
  chest while she was still alive. Finally, Pike
• 10:39
  smashed Limmer's skull with a large chunk of
• 10:43
  asphalt, killing her. Pike kept, get this, Pike
• 10:48
  kept a piece of her skull and showed it off to
• 10:54
  people around the school and the three were arrested
• 10:58
  within 36 hours. The logbook showed that Pike,
• 11:05
  Ship, Peterson, and Slimmer left together and
• 11:07
  only three returned. Detectives found the piece
• 11:10
  of the skull in Pike's jacket pocket. She was
• 11:14
  sick. She was sick. I don't care. A rat's ass
• 11:20
  said she was tortured on the death table last
• 11:24
  night. Krista McRave her Miranda rights and confessed
• 11:33
  to the police how she had participated in Slimmer's
• 11:36
  killing. She confessed, so what are her defense
• 11:41
  attorneys arguing about? Even so, Pike insisted
• 11:44
  that she and her co -conspirators were merely
• 11:48
  trying to scare Slimmer and they planned it out
• 11:51
  of control. Whatever. Slimmer's mother, this
• 11:56
  is Colleen the victim, repeatedly asked Tennessee
• 11:59
  authorities to return the fragment of skull for
• 12:03
  proper burial, but it remained in the stake's
• 12:05
  possession as evidence. Authorities state Ed.
• 12:09
  it would not be returned while the case would
• 12:12
  remain open, awaiting Pike's execution. In a
• 12:24
  documentary called Dead Woman Walking, Pike vs.
• 12:32
  Tennessee, I have to watch that one, Colleen's
• 12:37
  mother, Mae Martinez, confirmed that after 16
• 12:42
  years of fighting and writing letters, she had
• 12:44
  received the skull from the state of Tennessee,
• 12:48
  but has still not received the last piece of
• 12:52
  her daughter's skull. Pike, Ship, and Peterson
• 13:00
  were all charged with first -degree murder and
• 13:03
  conspiracy to commit first -degree murder. Ship,
• 13:06
  who had turned 17 too much before the murder,
• 13:09
  was tried as an adult. Peterson, who agreed to
• 13:12
  become a witness for the prosecution, received
• 13:15
  probation after proving guilty to be necessary
• 13:18
  after the fact. The prosecution prosecution sought
• 13:23
  a death sentence for Pike and life in prison
• 13:26
  without parole for Shipp. On March 30, 1996,
• 13:36
  Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution
• 13:41
  for the murder charge and 25 years in prison
• 13:44
  for the conspiracy charge. In January 1997, Shipp
• 13:50
  was also found guilty on both counts. However,
• 13:53
  after the jury could not unanimously agree on
• 13:58
  whether to sentence him, to life imprisonment
• 14:00
  without the possibility of parole, the judge
• 14:04
  sentenced him to life in prison with parole eligibility.
• 14:08
  Describing Shipp as a dangerous individual, the
• 14:11
  judge imposed a consecutive 25 -year sentence
• 14:15
  for his conspiracy conviction, ensuring that
• 14:19
  he would not become eligible for parole until
• 14:22
  he was in his late 40s or early 50s. Shipp was
• 14:27
  denied parole in October 2025, good, and remains
• 14:32
  incarcerated at Northwest Correctional Complex
• 14:35
  under minimal supervision. Following the guilty
• 14:45
  verdict, Pike lost and counseled, Pike, Krista,
• 14:53
  launched counsel, then relaunched an appeal of
• 14:56
  conviction in the Tennessee State Courts in June
• 15:03
  2001 and 2002 against the advice of her lawyers.
• 15:08
  Pike asked the courts to drop her appeal and
• 15:12
  sought to be executed via electrocution. Criminal
• 15:19
  Court Judge Mary Bev granted the request and
• 15:24
  the execution date of August 19, 2002 was set.
• 15:29
  Pike sued there after a change of mind and on
• 15:33
  July 8, 2002, defense lawyers filed a motion
• 15:38
  to allow the appeal process to continue. The
• 15:42
  motion was denied. However, on August 2nd, 2002,
• 15:47
  three judge state appeals court panel ruled the
• 15:50
  proceedings should be continued and the execution
• 15:55
  was not carried out. Okay, she requested a new
• 16:03
  trial in December of 2008. It was turned down.
• 16:13
  May 2014. Crystal's lawyers enter an appeal in
• 16:17
  the federal court system. They sought a communication
• 16:21
  commutation of the sentence from death to prison
• 16:25
  on the following grounds an effective assistance
• 16:29
  counsel mental illness and a unconstitutionality
• 16:34
  of the death penalty as administered in Tennessee
• 16:41
  in a 61 page ruling issued on March 11th 2016
• 16:46
  a US District Judge rejected all grounds and
• 16:51
  denied the request for commentations. August
• 17:04
  22, 2019. Same appeal. Three -judge panel upheld
• 17:11
  the lower court ruling and denied relief. So
• 17:25
  after Pike's sentence, the Tennessee Department
• 17:31
  of the Corrections adopted a policy requiring
• 17:33
  deaf rail inmates to be held in maximum security
• 17:37
  conditions. As such, Krista had been held in
• 17:42
  solitary confinement since 1996. Wow. Krista
• 17:47
  sued the Tennessee Department of Corrections
• 17:50
  in 2022 alleging that her conditions of confinement
• 17:54
  were unequal to those of similarly situated male
• 17:59
  inmates. While male death row inmates were allowed
• 18:03
  to socialize and work together, Krista was subject
• 18:06
  to more restrictive conditions. the state set
• 18:11
  a lawsuit in september 2024 agreeing to equalize
• 18:16
  pipe treatments Krista Krista's treatment with
• 18:21
  men on death row okay get this Krista august
• 18:30
  24 2001 she attacked and attempted to strangle
• 18:37
  a fellow inmate patricia jones with a shoestring
• 18:43
  jones had been serving life sentence for the
• 18:46
  1994 murder of 84 year old aborted coca coca
• 18:52
  kerker in noxville pike claims she was trying
• 18:57
  to protect another inmate pike is krista pike
• 19:04
  was convicted of first degree murder on august
• 19:08
  12 2004 that's krista who she murdered pike so
• 19:25
  she murdered somebody else in prison that's crazy
• 19:32
  Jones Letters testified that Krista had intervened
• 19:35
  to protect other inmates before the 2001 incident.
• 19:45
  A 2025 episode of the podcast Unrestorable, which
• 19:50
  examines Krista's years in prison, Solitary Environment,
• 19:55
  reported that Jones had attempted to kill at
• 19:57
  least three other women and that Krista had intervened
• 20:01
  in each incident, including pulling one woman
• 20:04
  away from a cell pulling another wig from a toilet
• 20:09
  and intervening when Jones was strangling another
• 20:13
  woman with the telephone cord. In a reporting
• 20:25
  on Christa's scheduled execution WTVF TV report
• 20:34
  that Jones letters testified that Christa had
• 20:40
  intervened in a fight between Jones and another
• 20:42
  inmate. and likely save the other woman's life.
• 20:47
  However, at Krista's trial, the judge noted her
• 20:56
  stated intention was to protect convicted killer
• 21:00
  Natasha Cornett and there was ample evidence
• 21:05
  by her actions in Krista's own words that contradicted
• 21:10
  this position. Okay, Krista. In March 2012, she
• 21:19
  had made a state escape plans involving corrections
• 21:23
  officer Justin Heflin as well as Donald Kohout
• 21:27
  of New Jersey. Kohout, a personal trainer in
• 21:31
  his 30s, had started to write Krista around 2011.
• 21:43
  By July of that year, Kohout was making a nearly
• 21:49
  1 ,700 mile round trip from Flemington, New Jersey
• 21:54
  to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Krista in prison
• 21:58
  once or twice a month. What the actual hell.
• 22:08
  What the actual hell. Hell. Eventually, Kohu
• 22:19
  communicated an escape plan to Krista and enlisted
• 22:23
  the help of Corrections Officer Heflin, who agreed
• 22:26
  to participate in return for cash and gifts.
• 22:33
  Because of security concerns, the Tennessee Department
• 22:36
  of Corrections had not provided many details
• 22:39
  about the plan. However, the document laid out
• 22:42
  a scenario where a prison key would be traced
• 22:46
  and then duplicated. Early 2012, prison personnel
• 22:53
  received information about the escape plot. This
• 22:56
  led to the attempted prison break being thwarted
• 23:00
  by a joint investigation involving Tennessee
• 23:03
  Department of Corrections. the Soonsee Bureau
• 23:07
  of Investigation, and the New Jersey State Police.
• 23:15
  In March 2012, Kohu was arrested and charged
• 23:18
  with bribery and conspiracy to commit escape,
• 23:22
  while Heflin was arrested and charged with bribery,
• 23:25
  official misconduct, and conspiracy to commit
• 23:29
  escape. Christa was not charged in connection
• 23:34
  with alleged conspiracy. Investigators said it
• 23:38
  was unclear whether she was a participant in
• 23:42
  the conspiracy but are beyond her awareness of
• 23:44
  this game. Oh please, she knew. On May 31st,
• 23:50
  2012, Kohu was sentenced to seven years in prison
• 23:53
  to be served at the Tennessee State Northeast
• 23:59
  Correctional Complex. Heflin, who cooperated
• 24:02
  with the authorities after his arrest, served
• 24:06
  no prison time but was terminated from his job
• 24:09
  with the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
• 24:11
  How dumb can you be? How dumb can you be? How
• 24:20
  dumb can you be? How dumb can you be? Oh my goodness.
• 24:44
  So I don't feel sorry for that bitch. She got
• 24:47
  exactly what she deserved on that death row table.
• 24:54
  And they're using our taxpayer dollars to save
• 24:57
  her life after attempting to kill her twice.
• 25:02
  Okay. Okay. In 2026. September, Colleen's mother
• 25:30
  expressed support for Krista's execution saying
• 25:34
  she did the crime. I think she's to pay for it.
• 25:37
  I will feel better that she felt the same pain
• 25:40
  that Colleen did. Actually, it's not the same
• 25:44
  pain. Colleen suffered more. She didn't know
• 25:47
  what was going to happen and she was tortured
• 25:50
  alive. I just want Krista down so I can end it.
• 25:58
  Relieve my daughter so she finally can be resting.
• 26:03
  After the attempt to execution of Tony Carruthers
• 26:09
  in June, 2026, Christa challenged the execution
• 26:13
  protocol alleging that the state could not guarantee
• 26:18
  a constitutionally compliant execution. I have
• 26:23
  to look up and see what happened to Tony Carruthers.
• 26:26
  Oh, another execution failed on Tony Carruthers.
• 26:33
  They failed to kill him and they gave him a one
• 26:36
  -year extension. and they tried to execute him
• 26:39
  in June 2026. She argued that her thrombocytosis
• 26:48
  would complicate IV placement and increase her
• 26:51
  risk of suffering, and that our all -male execution
• 26:55
  team would force her to relive past sexual assault
• 27:00
  trauma. In August 2026, a special master for
• 27:08
  the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to intervene.
• 27:11
  stating that Christa's nicotine had not convinced
• 27:14
  him of the legacy risk related to her PTSD and
• 27:21
  blood clotting disorder. Her attorney argued
• 27:25
  that these conditions could complicate the execution
• 27:28
  and cause pain and suffering, violating her constitutional
• 27:31
  right. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. And it did
• 27:37
  happen. Whatever complicated her execution, she
• 27:41
  deserved that suffering. also asked to be executed
• 27:46
  by hanging. Believing a botched hanging would
• 27:51
  be less painful than a botched lethal injection.
• 27:59
  What do you guys think? If you own death row
• 28:03
  would you want to be hanged? Lethal injection.
• 28:13
  The state denied the request because hanging
• 28:15
  is not an approved execution method in Tennessee
• 28:18
  and the death chamber is not equipped for it.
• 28:27
  After her turners challenged this they lost it.
• 28:30
  Obviously. Today, her execution failed. Yesterday,
• 28:50
  Krista declined to select a last male. She declined
• 29:03
  a last male. Yesterday. What do you guys think?
• 29:17
  Do you feel sorry for Krista? After reading how
• 29:20
  she executed Colleen? And tortured her? And she
• 29:26
  killed somebody else in prison? She crazy. She
• 29:35
  nuts. Witness will - Witnesses were led into
• 29:41
  the execution chambers at 641. The blinds opened
• 29:44
  at 726 but closed at 746. The blinds reopened
• 29:48
  three minutes later and Krista's executioners
• 29:51
  began administering the lethal injection. After
• 29:57
  two of the surrenders of the lethal drug were
• 29:59
  injected, attorney Amon Harwell filed emergency
• 30:06
  motions with the Tennessee Supreme Court, the
• 30:11
  Sixth Circuit Court and the U .S. District Court
• 30:15
  for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Pipe's
• 30:19
  lawyer, Kelly Gleason, stated that while she's
• 30:25
  alive and snoring, she needs immediate medical
• 30:27
  care. Under the Tennessee Department of Corrections
• 30:33
  lethal injection protocol, a second set of backup
• 30:36
  drugs is to be administered five minutes after
• 30:39
  the first. The curtains were drawn a second time
• 30:42
  at 8 .05, 8 .06. Before the lethal injection
• 30:47
  was administered, Krista made what was expected
• 30:51
  to be her final statement, saying, I just want
• 30:53
  to say that I'm going to leave this world the
• 30:56
  way I've spent most of my life, and that is with
• 30:59
  love. Girl, bye. She said that she loved both
• 31:04
  her supporters and those who hated her and stated,
• 31:10
  I'm at peace and I'm ready to go. Krista then
• 31:13
  sang, I love you so much. with her spiritual
• 31:17
  advisor. During the procedure, she said the vein
• 31:21
  in my arms feels like it's about to bust. She
• 31:24
  let her blink, smiled, and laughed, and lifted
• 31:26
  her head and looked toward her left arm. Oh,
• 31:31
  God. At 853, she was still alive, snoring for
• 31:45
  40 minutes. Snoring for 40 minutes after the
• 31:48
  second dose of Penobarbital was administered.
• 31:55
  She did not lose consciousness. maintaining a
• 31:58
  heartbeat during the attempted execution and
• 32:00
  the procedure was declared botched. She was taken
• 32:05
  away from prison in an ambulance. The next day
• 32:10
  her lawyer confirmed she was still alive in the
• 32:11
  hospital. This was the second failed execution
• 32:15
  of the year in Tennessee. After the same doctor
• 32:19
  administering the lethal injection failed to
• 32:22
  secure a central line for the execution of convicted
• 32:26
  murder Tony Carruthers. Following This attempt
• 32:38
  failed attempt one execution Tennessee governor
• 32:43
  Philly halted all scheduled executions for the
• 32:47
  remainder of 2026 and he ordered a concert comprehensive
• 32:55
  review to determine Exactly what occurred? Do
• 33:04
  you feel sorry for Christa? Do you think? They
• 33:09
  should have attempted to save her life after
• 33:11
  they Try to kill her after she was on death row
• 33:20
  since 1996? Hmm. I don't feel sorry for her.
• 33:28
  She didn't get half of what she gave to Colleen.
• 33:34
  Watch out who you hang around. Watch out who
• 33:36
  you call your friends. Because it's more evil
• 33:40
  people out there than good. Until next time.