Christa Pike
American convicted murderer (born 1976)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christa Gail Pike (born March 10, 1976) is an American convicted murderer who is incarcerated on death row in Tennessee. In 1995, at the age of 18, Pike murdered her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike and two friends lured Slemmer into the woods where they beat, tortured, and killed her. Pike was sentenced to death at 20 years old in 1996, one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period.[1] She is scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026.[2] If carried out, she would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over two centuries.[2]
March 10, 1976
Christa Pike | |
|---|---|
2012 mug shot of Pike | |
| Born | Christa Gail Pike March 10, 1976 |
| Known for | Torturing her classmate Colleen Slemmer to death |
Criminal status | Awaiting execution on death row |
| Motive | Jealousy |
| Convictions | First degree murder Conspiracy to commit first degree murder Attempted first degree murder (March 22, 1996) |
Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims |
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| Date |
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| Country | United States |
| State | Tennessee |
| Locations | |
| Killed | 1 (outside of prison) |
| Injured | 1 (inside of prison) |
| Weapons |
|
Date apprehended | January 14, 1995 |
| Imprisoned at | Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, Nashville, Tennessee |
Background
Christa Gail Pike was born prematurely on March 10, 1976, to Carissa Hansen and Emil Glenn Pike in Beckley, West Virginia, where she and her elder half-sister were raised initially.[3] Emil claimed Carissa regularly drank alcohol and used tobacco while pregnant with Pike, allegations Carissa denied.[4] Her parents had a tumultuous relationship, having been married for two years, divorced for a year after Hansen was found to have been cheating, and remarried for another two years after Hansen attempted suicide.[3] An aunt reported how Pike would be found crawling on floors that were littered with "piles of dog stool", and the aunt also said she often fed Pike and her sister due to neglect from Carissa and Emil.[4] Pike's paternal grandmother would also frequently help care for her.[3] Pike's mother testified how Pike had attempted to overdose on acetaminophen when she was in third grade; thereafter Pike received psychiatric treatment, followed by psychological care and therapy at different times.[3] Pike states that she was sexually assaulted several times, including as a child.[4] Pike also says she created sexualized drawings in elementary school which were influenced by the abuse she experienced.[4]
Pike's early life was marked by instability and violence. As a preteen, Pike was sexually assaulted by Claude Davis, who lived in the same trailer park as her. Davis was found guilty in a jury trial and sentenced to two years imprisonment.[5][6] Though Pike told her mother about the rape, Hansen did not believe she had been raped. After her grandmother's death in 1988, at age 12, Pike attempted suicide. She received little mental health support afterwards.[7] On another occasion, one of her mother's boyfriends punched her in the face after Pike chased him with a butter knife; criminal charges were filed, then settled.[3] On another occasion, while staying with her father's new family, one of her younger half-sisters said she was molested by Pike, though her father denied this.[3] Her mother said that a man named Kenny Clyde threatened by telephone that he was going to rape her. In response, Pike and a friend beat him with a stick in a parking lot.[3] At 17, Pike said she was raped again, this time by a stranger who dragged her into the woods.[8] Pike escaped after hitting the assailant with a rock[4] and had a rape kit collected at a nearby hospital, but the perpetrator was never caught.[8]
Christa's unstable home life caused her to frequently change schools, which significantly affected her academic performance.[6] Pike acted out frequently; she skipped school and ran away from home on occasion.[3] In tenth grade, she was sent to a juvenile facility for a year, where she became interested in the Job Corps, a government program aimed at helping low-income youth by offering vocational training and career skills. Pike reportedly completed her GED program and aspired to train as a nursing assistant.[3] In late 1994, Pike attended the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee (no longer in operation).
Murder of Colleen Slemmer
While Christa had joined the Job Corps program in the hopes of becoming a nurse, the environment turned out to be unsafe. Students would carry around razor blades or box cutters to protect themselves, and gangs were common.[9] During her junior year, she began dating a boy named Tadaryl Shipp. Shipp was obsessed with witchcraft, and he taught Pike about the occult and satanism.[9] Shipp was abusive and feared by the other students in the job corps program.[9] He would hit and kick Pike and forbade her from speaking to other boys.[9] Shipp cheated on Pike and had an affair with Colleen Slemmer.[4]
At a certain point, Pike became jealous of Slemmer, who she believed was trying to "steal" her boyfriend.[8] Around the same time, Pike caught Slemmer in her room, going through her belongings.[9]
Along with her friend 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee campus.[10] 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.[10] Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to later court testimony, for the next thirty minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed. Shipp carved a pentagram into her chest.[11][12][6] Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer's skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull.[10]
Pike began to show off the piece of skull around the school, and the three were arrested within 36 hours. The log book showed that Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer left together, and only three returned. Detectives found the piece of skull in Pike's jacket pocket. Soon after her arrest, Pike waived her Miranda rights and confessed to the police how she had participated in Slemmer's killing.[3] Even so, Pike insisted she and her co-conspirators were merely trying to scare Slemmer and their plan got out of control.[10]
Slemmer's mother repeatedly asked Tennessee authorities that the skull be returned to her for proper burial, but it remained in possession of the state as evidence. Authorities stated it would not be returned while the case remained open, awaiting Pike's execution.[13]
Trial and appeals
Trial
Pike, Shipp, and Peterson were all charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Shipp, who had turned 17 two months before the murder, was tried as an adult. Peterson, who agreed to become a witness for the prosecution, received probation after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact.[12] The prosecution sought a death sentence for Pike and life in prison without parole for Shipp.[14]
During Pike's trial, the prosecution was aided by evidence and Pike's confession. Pike was charged with first-degree 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, Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder charge and 25 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. In January 1997, Shipp was also found guilty on both counts. However, after the jury could not unanimously agree whether to sentence him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the judge sentenced him to life in prison with parole eligibility.[10] Describing Shipp as a dangerous individual, the judge imposed a consecutive 25-year sentence for his conspiracy conviction, ensuring that he would not become eligible for parole until he was in his late 40s or early 50s.[15] Shipp was denied parole in October 2025 and remains incarcerated at Northwest Correctional Complex under minimum supervision.[16]
Appeals
Following the guilty verdict, Pike "launched, cancelled and then re-launched" an appeal of her conviction in the Tennessee state courts.[17] 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.[18] In December 2008, Pike's latest request for a new trial was turned down, and she was returned to death row.[17] With this denial, Pike's allowed appeals under the rules and procedures of the State of Tennessee's criminal justice system were exhausted.[19]
In May 2014, Pike's lawyers entered an appeal in the federal court system.[20] Her lawyers sought a commutation of the sentence from death to prison on the following grounds: ineffective assistance of counsel; mental illness; and the unconstitutionality of the death penalty as administered in Tennessee. In a 61-page ruling by US District Judge Harry Sandlin Mattice Jr. issued on March 11, 2016, all grounds were rejected, and the requested commutation was denied.[21][22] On August 22, 2019, having heard the same appeal by Pike's lawyers on October 1, 2018, the three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unanimously upheld the lower court ruling and denied relief.[7]
Attempted murder of Patricia Jones
On August 24, 2001, Pike and inmate Natasha Cornett were accused of attacking and attempting to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones with a shoestring.[1] Jones had been serving a life sentence for the 1994 murder of 84-year-old Alberta Coker in Knoxville at the time of the attack.[23] Pike was convicted of attempted first degree murder on August 12, 2004.[24] Although the Tennessee Department of Corrections maintained that Cornett assisted in this crime, their investigators concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge her with helping Pike attack Jones. In 2003, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and received a 25-year sentence for the attack on Jones.[25]
Attempted prison escape
In March 2012, it was revealed Pike had made escape plans involving corrections officer Justin Heflin as well as Donald Kohut of New Jersey.[26] Kohut, a personal trainer in his 30s, had entered into a letter-writing correspondence with Pike around the beginning of 2011. By July of that year, Kohut was making the nearly 1,700 mi (2,700 km) round trip from Flemington, New Jersey, to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit Pike in person once or twice a month. Eventually, Kohut communicated an escape plan to Pike and enlisted the help of corrections officer Heflin, who agreed to participate in return for cash and gifts.[27]
Because of security concerns, the Tennessee Department of Corrections has not provided many details about the plan. However, the indictment laid out a scenario where a prison key would be traced and then a duplicate created.[28] Early in 2012, prison personnel received information about the escape plot.[27][29] This led to the attempted prison break being thwarted by a joint investigation involving the Tennessee Department of Corrections, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the New Jersey State Police.[26] According to the TBI, the plan was not very far along when uncovered, and "the jailbreak was not imminent".[27]
In March 2012, Kohut was arrested and charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit escape, while Heflin was arrested and charged with bribery, official misconduct, and conspiracy to commit escape.[30] Pike was not charged and it was unclear to the investigators if she was a participant in the conspiracy beyond her awareness of the scheme.[27]
On May 31, 2012, Kohut was sentenced to seven years in prison to be served at the Tennessee State Northeast Correctional Complex.[31] Heflin, who cooperated with authorities after his arrest, served no prison time, but was terminated from his job with the Tennessee Department of Corrections.[27]
Scheduled execution
On August 27, 2020, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery's office requested the Tennessee Supreme Court to set an execution date for Pike. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee and various other factors, Pike's attorneys were granted extensions by the court, allowing them more time to argue as to why Pike should not be executed. The state did not oppose the extensions. On June 7, 2021, Pike's attorneys filed a motion to oppose the execution date and request a Certificate of Commutation. The motion was denied.
Before November 2022, Pike had completely exhausted all appeals processes. However, in November 2022, the state Supreme Court found the state's law for juveniles automatically sentenced to life in prison without a chance at parole was unconstitutional. (See Knoxville case State v. Booker for the complete ruling.) On August 30, 2023, lawyers for Pike used this ruling in an attempt to reopen her bid to have her 1996 conviction and sentence thrown out. Pike's lawyers argued her young age and mental health struggles at the time of the killing should spare her from execution.
In October 2023, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green denied Pike's request, saying the November 2022 Supreme Court ruling did not apply to her. "The Booker case addressed only juvenile offenders in Tennessee," Judge Green noted. "The high court, in the opinion written by now retired Justice Sharon Lee, specifically addressed the question of juveniles, not adults. This ruling applies only to juvenile homicide offenders – not to adult offenders," the decision states, and Pike was legally an adult, Green wrote.[32]
On September 30, 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a death warrant for Pike, scheduling her execution to take place exactly one year later, on September 30, 2026.[33] Pike can choose between electrocution and lethal injection.[33]
If Pike is executed, she will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in roughly two centuries.[34][35]
In popular culture
The murder of Colleen Slemmer was featured on the TV shows Deadly Women, For My Man, Killer Kids, Martinis and Murder, Death by Gossip with Wendy Williams, Snapped: Killer Couples, and Mean Girl Murders.[36] Christa Pike was also featured in a season one episode of World's Most Dangerous Criminals. Patricia Springer wrote A Love To Die For, a book about the murder.[37]