The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the conviction and death sentence of Christa Gail Pike for the 1995 Knoxville murder of a 19-year-old Job Corps student who was kicked, stabbed, slashed and beaten as she begged for her life and struggled to escape.
Also, in an order filed Monday, the court denied a post-conviction appeal by Cecil C. Johnson, sentenced to death for killing a 12-year-old boy and two men during the robbery of a Nashville convenience store in 1981. The court rejected Johnson’s allegations that the outcome of his trial and sentencing hearing were affected by legal errors
Johnson was convicted of three counts of first degree murder for the shooting deaths of Bobbie Bell, the convenience store owner’s son; cab driver James E. Moore; and Charles House, a passenger in the cab which was outside the market. He also was convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit murder for shooting and wounding store owner Bob Bell, Jr. and Lewis Smith, who was inside the store when it was robbed.
In the Pike opinion, Justice Frank Drowota, writing for the court, said none of the alleged errors raised in her direct appeal have merit. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed her convictions and sentences on direct appeal, resulting in the automatic review by the state Supreme Court.
Pike, who boasted about the crime to several friends and provided details to police, was convicted of premeditated first degree murder, for which she was sentenced to death, and conspiracy to commit first degree murder, for which she received a 25 year sentence. The
Supreme Court heard oral arguments Sept. 9 in Knoxville concerning issues raised by Pike in her appeal.
Pike, 18 years old at the time of the crime, lured Colleen Slemmer into an isolated area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus where she assaulted her with a box cutter, miniature meat cleaver, rocks and asphalt. Pike also kicked the victim and carved a pentagram on her chest while Slemmer was alive and conscious. The torture continued for 30 minutes to an hour, Pike told authorities following her arrest.
After murdering Slemmer, Pike returned to the Job Corps campus where she showed other students a piece of the victim’s skull she had taken as a “souvenir.” She also told a friend the victim had begged “them” to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike said she “did not stop because the victim continued to talk.” Witnesses testified at her trial that Pike laughed and danced as she described the torture and murder of Slemmer.
In a profanity-laced letter to her boyfriend and co-conspirator, Tadaryl Shipp, Pike complained about her sentence, writing that she was “trying to be nice to the hoe.”
“I went ahead and bashed her brains out so she’d die quickly instead of letting her bleed to death and suffer more...,” she wrote.
In the court’s decision, Drowota said the letter to Ship showed “Pike’s total lack of remorse.” He also said she displayed a “stunning lack of remorse for committing this horrific crime” as she recounted details to authorities.
“Pike showed no mercy; instead, she exhibited a total disregard for human life and human suffering when she committed this unprovoked and unjustified premeditated murder,” Drowota wrote for the court.