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In the Headlines: Christa Pike · Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, all you true crime devers and dudes, Sarah here from your Deadly Deavas True Crime Podcast with your latest In the Headlines episode.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tina will be back for our next regular episode.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to talk to you guys about Krista Hike, who has been on death row for 30 years now and is scheduled to be executed next week on September 30th.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: If that goes ahead, she will be the first woman in 200 years to be executed in the state of Tennessee.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get started, I do want to do a quick content warning.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: This case involves torture, graphic violence, sexual assault, abuse, and discussions of suicide.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some details may be particularly disturbing, so please be careful while listening.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who do not know who she is or why she is incarcerated, let's back up a bit and look at her case.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So in 1996, when Krista was just 19 years old, she was found guilty of the murder of fellow Job Corps schoolmate 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: When together with her boyfriend Tadarrell Shipp and her friend, Shadola Peterson, they lured Colleen off campus and into nearby woods where Tadaryl and Krista tortured and beat her while Shadola kept look out.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The motive was an apparent affair between Colleen and Tadarrell and Krista's resulting jealousy.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Tadarrell was supposedly into witchcraft and Satanism and was very abusive to Krista throughout their relationship as well as unfaithful.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: On january twelfth, nineteen ninety five, they gave Colleen the impression that they wanted to make peace with her and invited her away from campus to smoke weed with them.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But today and Krista then spent thirty minutes beating Colleen and slashing her with knives and carving a pentagram into her chest, until eventually Krista smashed Colleen's skull in with a rock, choosing to even keep a piece of her skull as a trophy.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: It took less than two days for authorities to arrest the three of them when they made no secret of what they had done, even showing off the skull fragment at school.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: At first, all three of them were charged with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: However, Shadola made a deal with prosecution to testify against Krista and Tadarrell, and she was given probation and put in witness protection.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now on March 22nd, 1996, Krista Pike was found guilty of both charges and sentenced to death for the murder and 25 years on the conspiracy charge.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tadarrell Shipp was also found guilty on both counts and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after his jury could not unanimously agree on anything else.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: He was, however, denied parole in 2025 and is still incarcerated.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now Krista has filed appeals, retracted appeals, asked to be executed, been given previous execution dates, retracted those requests, and reinstated appeals a few times over the years, but has now run out of appeals within the state of Tennessee, and as a result, her lawyers have appealed to the federal court to reduce her sentence from the death penalty to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this appeal has now also been refused twice.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now in 2001, while incarcerated, Krista found herself charged with a new charge of attempted first degree murder, when along with her fellow inmate, she attempted to strangle another inmate, and 25 years was added onto her sentence.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also in 2011, Krista started a pen pal friendship with a man in New Jersey named Donald Cohat, who then started to visit Krista twice a month in jail, traveling from New Jersey to Tennessee each time.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he devised an escape plan by bribing one of the corrections officers to break Krista out of jail.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: When other prison staff became aware of the plan, it was nipped in the bud pretty quick, and although Krista could not be found guilty of any new charges, Donald was charged with bribery and conspiracy and sentenced to seven years in jail in Tennessee.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The corrections officer, after helping with the investigation, was fired from his job, but all charges against him were dropped.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: By 2022, all appeal processes had been exhausted for Krista.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: However, in November 2022, the Tennessee State Supreme Court ruled on another case that the law for juveniles automatically sentenced to life in prison was unconstitutional.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Krista's lawyers cited this case as a reason to reopen her appeals, even hoping to have her conviction completely thrown out.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But as Krista was 18 when she committed the murder and 19 when charged, the judge stated that it would not apply as it only applied to juveniles.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: As a result, on September 30, 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a death warrant for Krista Pike, dated one year later.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So her execution would be scheduled for September 30, 2026, and she would have the choice between electrocution or lethal injection.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now in August 2026, her legal team sought to have the execution stopped on the grounds that her current medical conditions would cause either method of execution to be inhumane, causing additional pain and suffering, but that was denied.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are, in the month of her scheduled execution.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And on September 2nd, Krista's legal team submitted a 226-page clemency petition titled Mercy for Krista: The Case for Life, to Governor Bill Lee, who will decide who will solely decide whether or not to grant Krista clemency.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: He does not have any time limit to give a decision other than before the date of execution.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: This document is backed by over a hundred advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, who believe that although it is not an excuse for the crime, Krista's childhood and mental state needs to be understood and taken into consideration before moving forward with an execution.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: The abuse that she suffered started in Utero, when her mother drank heavily and used drugs while pregnant with her, which contributed to frontal lobe brain damage linked to her later bipolar diagnosis and also caused seizures throughout her childhood.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then between the ages of two and five, she was sexually abused by her grandmother's boyfriend.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when she started school and started to draw pictures of men with large genitalia, the school contacted the family, but social services were never notified.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then at age 11, she was raped by a neighbor.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And her mother just didn't believe her until a teacher discovered that Krista had contracted a sexually related infection, and then that man was prosecuted.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: But he was offered a plea deal for a lesser charge and never got any jail time and continued to live in her very neighborhood.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Her mother also had a string of boyfriends who were abusive to both Krista and her mother, and then Krista failed seventh grade.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: During her horrific childhood, she even attempted suicide multiple times.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was not until after her death sentence that she was ever evaluated by a medical professional and was found to have bipolar disorder, PTSD from all the physical abuse and sexual abuse, and generally lived in a world of disassociation as a coping mechanism.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And on meeting todarrell after seeking a lifetime of love and acceptance, she was totally gullible to his abusive ways and his introduction to Satanism and the occult.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here's our bottom line.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: To Daryl got life in prison with the possibility of parole.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Shadola got probation.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Krista got the death sentence.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Krista has also gone on to attempt to kill another person while in prison.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Krista's brain damage, mental illness, and trauma from severe abuse have never been mentioned to a jury or taken into account during any sentencing.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we are now days from her scheduled execution date, and her fate is in the hands of one individual.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he could give her clemency today.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or on September 29th?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or not at all.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now did she do it?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Does she admit it?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Does she deserve life in prison without the possibility of parole?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Does she deserve to die?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in my opinion, no one has the right to take another's life.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not Krista, not the governor, not the state, not the justice system.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And did you know that doctors are not used to perform executions because it's against the Hippocratic oath, so it would forbid them from doing so?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That speaks volumes to me.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: But we are all entitled to an opinion, and the internet shows us how divided people are on this one.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we want you to tell us what you think should happen.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you can expect an update from us as soon as Governor Lee makes his announcement.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, B Divas, not Deadly