Ex-police chief recalls Christa Pike as 'almost giddy' describing 1995 murder

Right · 2Former Knoxville police chief Phil Keith said Christa Pike was "ruthless, without any remorse, almost giddy" when she described the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer to investigators. 1 2 Right · 2Keith made the remarks in a New York Post documentary, "No Mercy: Christa Pike Unravelled". He added that she seemed to be bragging, and later told Fox News Digital the comments were "spot on" and described Pike as "Pure evil." 1 2 Right · 1In the documentary Keith also said Pike boasted about the killing after returning to the Job Corps, and showed classmates shoes with blood on them, according to Fox News. 2

Right · 2Keith said the crime scene shocked even experienced homicide detectives, telling the Post, "I was accustomed to seeing that kind of gore, if you will, but the brutality was different." 1 2 Right · 2Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for killing Slemmer, 19, a fellow Job Corps participant, in January 1995 on the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus. The Post says she was jealous because she suspected Slemmer wanted her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. 1 2 Right · 2The outlets describe the attack in different detail. The Post says Slemmer was tortured with a meat cleaver and box cutter for about half an hour while a friend kept lookout. Fox says her throat was cut several times and that Shadolla Peterson, 19, was charged alongside Pike and Shipp. Both say she was struck with a chunk of asphalt and a pentagram was carved into her chest, and the Post adds that Pike kept a piece of the skull. 1 2 3

Right · 2Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 and the Tennessee Supreme Court later affirmed her convictions and sentence, Fox reports. It also says she confessed to her role, according to court records. Shipp, a minor at the time, received life with the possibility of parole, according to the Post. 2 3 Right · 2Tennessee's attempt to execute Pike by lethal injection on Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville failed after she received two doses of pentobarbital. She was taken to hospital and was described as the first US inmate to survive lethal injection. 1 2 Right · 2She stayed unconscious for days, and her lawyers believed at one point that she was brain dead. She then regained consciousness, was discharged about 10 days after the attempt and returned to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. Her lawyers say she can now walk and speak in full sentences. 1 2

Right · 1Gov. Bill Lee halted Tennessee's remaining executions for the year and ordered an independent review. Prison chief Frank Strada resigned, saying it was "in the best interest of Tennesseans." 1 Right · 2Lee said on Wednesday, "I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before unless determined otherwise by the courts," according to Fox. Pike's lawyers are asking him to commute the sentence. They say she has "endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty." Fox adds that a 2021 filing already sought commutation, citing her age at the time, childhood trauma, mental illness and brain damage. 2 1