Speaker 1: This episode maintained content of a graphic nature, including descriptions
Speaker 1: of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes
Speaker 2: and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
Speaker 3: Ain't Shannon, Hey Tanya?
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: I I love that dubious glee that I hear in
Speaker 2: your tone. Yeah, and that's right. I did use dubious
Speaker 2: glee lexicon lexicon adam. Oh, but I get it, girl.
Speaker 2: It's been a cold day and it's Sunday to start
Speaker 2: the new week. I love a Monday. I don't mind Mondays.
Speaker 2: What about you? Oh I hate Mondays?
Speaker 3: Well, actually I hate Sundays because tomorrow is Monday, and
Speaker 3: I feel like, you know, it's just the coming down
Speaker 3: from the weekend and you know whatever. But I had
Speaker 3: a really great Sunday, so I can't complain. I like
Speaker 3: a Sunday where I can sleep in a little bit
Speaker 3: but then also get some stuff done and then still
Speaker 3: also have time to myself. I know it's a la
Speaker 3: on a Sunday, but yeah, my Sunday's been great, so
Speaker 3: I can't complain. And I am looking forward to going
Speaker 3: back to work tomorrow. I guess I'd have a shit
Speaker 3: ton of stuff to do, so at least I'm busy
Speaker 3: in the day will go by and that'll be that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and then Monday, I'll have another one down
Speaker 2: in the books. Yeah. What do you got for us? Uh? Well,
Speaker 2: I got a story that you may or may not
Speaker 2: have heard. This happened before the turn of the century,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, and it involves a woman. Her name
Speaker 2: is Christine Marie Riggs. She was born Thomas so Christine
Speaker 2: Marie Riggs. She was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on September two,
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one. So that makes her virgo correct. I
Speaker 2: believe hergo. She had a pretty rough childhood, Christina did.
Speaker 2: She grew up in Oklahoma City. According to records, she
Speaker 2: had two sisters named Rosanna and Elizabeth, and her parents
Speaker 2: they separated when Christina was really young. She stayed with
Speaker 2: her mother, Carol, who was living with a man who
Speaker 2: had a son of his own. Christina said that between
Speaker 2: the ages of seven and thirteen, however, she was sexually
Speaker 2: assaulted by her stepbrother, and when she was thirteen, she
Speaker 2: said she was also sexually assaulted by her neighbor so
Speaker 2: around nineteen eighty five, when she was fourteen years old,
Speaker 2: that's when Christina she began drinking and smoking cigarettes and weed.
Speaker 2: Throughout her high school years, she was bullied for being overweight.
Speaker 2: She always thought that she would never have a boyfriend
Speaker 2: due to the way she looked. You know how it
Speaker 2: is in high school, you just think you're not ready
Speaker 2: to be on the cover of Vogue and a size zero.
Speaker 2: What's you're worth right right now? Terrible? She became quite promiscuous,
Speaker 2: sleeping with anyone who gave her attention or wanted to
Speaker 2: have sex with her, and that's you know, that's just
Speaker 2: sad to look at yourself that way. She later stated
Speaker 2: that she thought this was the only way she could
Speaker 2: ever get a boyfriend, and she never knew if she
Speaker 2: would ever get another chance. And that's that's how low
Speaker 2: her self esteem was. In January of nineteen eighty eight,
Speaker 2: she had become pregnant with a baby boy, who she
Speaker 2: gave up for a SIP because she was sixteen at
Speaker 2: the time. Now, she did finish her schooling, graduating high school,
Speaker 2: and she became a licensed practical nurse in LPN, but
Speaker 2: this line of work would eventually be your downfall. She
Speaker 2: worked a part time job as a home care nurse,
Speaker 2: and she would work a full time job in the
Speaker 2: Veteran Affairs hospital system. Hey, that's where I go throughout
Speaker 2: the gyptandle down the VA Hospital in Detroit. These types
Speaker 2: of hospitals provide health care for vets, which include mental health,
Speaker 2: primary care, and health assistants for their loved ones. Shortly after,
Speaker 2: she began a relationship with a man named Timothy Thompson,
Speaker 2: who was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base located in
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City. In October of nineteen eighty one, Christina became
Speaker 2: pregnant again with her son Justine. Oh, I'm sorry, thank you, No,
Speaker 2: this was we weregressed. We had the first child eighty eight.
Speaker 2: Then when he went back to a minute, okay, yep.
Speaker 2: This was October of ninety one. So Christina told Timothy
Speaker 2: about her pregnancy the day before. He was discharged from
Speaker 2: the Air Force and didn't want to accept the baby
Speaker 2: as his own. He didn't, so he then moved back
Speaker 2: to his hometown in Minnesota. Timothy later said that Chrissy's
Speaker 2: luck with men was about zero to nothing. I think
Speaker 2: he just wasn't attached to Christina in that way that
Speaker 2: Christina wanted a relationship, and when she found out she
Speaker 2: was pregnant, he really didn't care enough about her to
Speaker 2: be there for her or the baby when he was born. Now,
Speaker 2: after giving birth to her son, Justin on June seventh,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two, so he's a Jenini, Christina got back
Speaker 2: in touch with a previous boyfriend, a sailor named John Riggs,
Speaker 2: who was back home on leave. The two became romantically
Speaker 2: involved again, and she eventually moved in with him and
Speaker 2: brought along her little boy. According to Christina, their rekindled
Speaker 2: romance was great, and since he felt the baby's first
Speaker 2: kick when Justin sounds like that she may have been
Speaker 2: seeing Justin's dad and mister Riggs here. So John knew
Speaker 2: about Justin even though it wasn't his son, and he
Speaker 2: was the first to feel the baby kick. He was
Speaker 2: the father of the baby as far as he was concerned.
Speaker 2: He was the father of Justin, and he took care
Speaker 2: of Justin and stepped up as his father even though
Speaker 2: he wasn't biologically the dad. All that's nice, Yeah, that
Speaker 2: is really nice. Now. In July of nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 2: she and John were married. Christina became pregnant again, and
Speaker 2: in December of nineteen ninety four, she gave birth to
Speaker 2: a daughter named Shelby Alexis and Justin referred to her
Speaker 2: as Sissy, as did the rest of the family. What
Speaker 2: a great nickname, yeat cute. Christina and John were both
Speaker 2: so astatic when she was born, and the two of
Speaker 2: them cried happy tears together. Christina said, we were so happy.
Speaker 2: She was so beautiful. I didn't think things could get
Speaker 2: any better. John cried. I cried. There was so much love,
Speaker 2: so much love for her and the way he looked
Speaker 2: at her. The birth of their daughter brought Christina out
Speaker 2: of her depressive state. She suffered from depression, but the
Speaker 2: happiness died down, and depression was right there to rear
Speaker 2: its ugly head. Justin and Shall be adorable children. A
Speaker 2: few months later, Christina packed up her kids with John
Speaker 2: and they moved to Sherwood, Arkansas. That's how I call
Speaker 2: Arkansas because I spell it. When I'm spelling Arkansas, I'm
Speaker 2: with Arkansas. They moved to Sherwood, Arkansas, so that she
Speaker 2: could be closer to her mom and to get as
Speaker 2: much help as she could raising her two young children.
Speaker 2: Now she was able to find a job at Baptist
Speaker 2: Hospital in Oklahoma City. John ended up separating from Christina,
Speaker 2: Justin and Shelby, however, and once their divorce was finalized,
Speaker 2: the three of them were basically left to fend for themselves,
Speaker 2: with child support coming from John irregularly. Now. The two
Speaker 2: broke up after Christina accused John of punching Justin in
Speaker 2: the stomach. John always denied that accusation and it was
Speaker 2: never proven. I'm not saying either way, I'm just saying
Speaker 2: that was the cause of their the beginning of their
Speaker 2: and around this time, Christina was working as a nurse,
Speaker 2: but she found herself drowning in debt when she couldn't
Speaker 2: make ends meet with how much she was making and
Speaker 2: trying to feed two rapidly growing kids. As a car
Speaker 2: payment and Duran's bills were coming in along with all
Speaker 2: of her other bills. She fell back into a depression
Speaker 2: and was desperate to get out of the situation altogether,
Speaker 2: no matter what the cost and who she would have
Speaker 2: to hurt along the way. According to reports, she would
Speaker 2: drop off her kids at daycare so that she could
Speaker 2: work long shift at the hospital, but the cost of
Speaker 2: daycare was too costly for her to keep up with.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety seven, Christina would come up with a
Speaker 2: plan to end it all. On her last day of
Speaker 2: work at the hospital, November fourth, nineteen ninety seven, Christina
Speaker 2: stole a level elavil, which is an antidepressant. Some sources
Speaker 2: said that she stole the elevil from the hospital and
Speaker 2: some said that she brought it from a local drug store.
Speaker 2: Either way, she didn't use it the way it was meant.
Speaker 2: The main side effect of this drug is grogginess. The
Speaker 2: drug lasts anywhere from twelve to twenty four hours, and
Speaker 2: it's known to help patients with anxiety to sleep. Not
Speaker 2: only did she steal that, but she also stole syringes,
Speaker 2: potassium chloride, and morphine. When she returned home her kids
Speaker 2: were still awake around ten pm. To get her kids unconscious,
Speaker 2: she mixed the eleville with some water and gave it
Speaker 2: to both Justin and Shelby. After both children were out cold,
Speaker 2: their mother proceeded to inject Justin with the potassium chloride. Now,
Speaker 2: to make this more heartbreaking, Justin awoke from the injection
Speaker 2: and was screaming from the excruciating pain he was in.
Speaker 2: She injected this right into his veins and he suffered
Speaker 2: pretty severely and pretty severe burns from it. You know,
Speaker 2: he's only five. Yeah, And after hearing him crying in pain,
Speaker 2: she then injected him with the morphine to help shut
Speaker 2: him up. Oh my god, that didn't work. Yes, she's
Speaker 2: a problem solver, she's a tear worthm No, that didn't work.
Speaker 2: So what did she do?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 2: She smothered him with a pillow to end his life.
Speaker 2: Good throughout the entirety, I know, throughout the entirety of
Speaker 2: his mother smothering him. He fought back as hard as
Speaker 2: he could. Terrible. Yeah, after what she had just experienced
Speaker 2: with Justin's injections, she was not about to go through
Speaker 2: that same ordeal with her two year old daughter. Christina
Speaker 2: opted to just end her life by smothering her with
Speaker 2: a pillow. Wow, I know, I don't. She later told
Speaker 2: her mother Carol, that Shelby only fought back song. Once
Speaker 2: both children were dead, she moved their bodies onto her
Speaker 2: own bed and she laid a blanket over them. Then
Speaker 2: she wrote out multiple suicide notes to her mother, her sisters,
Speaker 2: and her ex husband John She then proceeded to make
Speaker 2: an attempt on her own life, took a massive amount
Speaker 2: of the oliville and injected herself with potassium chloride. This
Speaker 2: amount of Eliville she took twenty eight tablets along with
Speaker 2: the potassium chloride made her pass out on the bedroom floor.
Speaker 2: So spoiler alert, She's she's gonna make it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, spoiler alert.
Speaker 2: So the following day, now now this is November fifth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven, her mother, Carol, was notified that Christina
Speaker 2: never showed up to work, so she drove over to
Speaker 2: her daughter's Sherwood home around four pm in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: Later that day, she led herself in the house and
Speaker 2: she knew that her daughter was home and wasn't answering
Speaker 2: the door, and she made her way through the home
Speaker 2: and found her two grandchildren in the bed and her
Speaker 2: daughter passed out on the floor. She later stated that
Speaker 2: she ran around the house screaming because she thought everyone
Speaker 2: was dead. She called nine one one and told the operator,
Speaker 2: my daughter and her babies are dead, and the EMT's arrived.
Speaker 2: Christina was taken to the hospital Baptist Memorial about an
Speaker 2: hour and a half later, and upon arrival Christina's stomach
Speaker 2: was pumped and she was stabilized. While she was at
Speaker 2: the hospital, the police alerted the hospital staff of what
Speaker 2: she had done to her two young children, and the
Speaker 2: staff was instructed to not let Christina have any visitors.
Speaker 2: Oh her family really had no idea what was happening
Speaker 2: and they were really not sure why they weren't allowed
Speaker 2: to see Christina. So around midnight they got in touch
Speaker 2: with the lawyer to represent her for when the police
Speaker 2: needed to speak with her. The attorney contacted the Sherwood
Speaker 2: police and said that they were not allowed to speak
Speaker 2: with her until he got to the hospital. The police
Speaker 2: stayed back and searched the home while Christina was in
Speaker 2: the hospital. While they were looking for evidence, the officers
Speaker 2: came across her suicide notes that she had left behind.
Speaker 2: Around nine twenty am on November sixth, detectives show up
Speaker 2: at the hospital to speak with her Christina. They mirandized
Speaker 2: her and she gave them a statement that went on
Speaker 2: for eight minutes. In the statement, she walked through every
Speaker 2: step she took to kill both of her children, and
Speaker 2: she told the detectives how she tried to kill herself
Speaker 2: along with Justin and Shelby. A couple of hours later,
Speaker 2: Christina was released from the hospital and was transported to
Speaker 2: Pulaski County Jail. She was charged with two counts of
Speaker 2: capital murder. Christina arrived at the Pulaski County Circuit Court
Speaker 2: in June of nineteen ninety eight, and she pleaded not
Speaker 2: guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Her defense
Speaker 2: attorney never once chose to deny that she had killed
Speaker 2: both of her children by drugging them and smothering them
Speaker 2: to death at the ages of five and two years old.
Speaker 2: Her defense team merely argued that the fact that their
Speaker 2: client was depressed and had quite a long history of depression,
Speaker 2: along with zero self confidence, being sure and a bit
Speaker 2: on the heavier side, she was a poor single mother,
Speaker 2: and in the court it became relatively clear that she
Speaker 2: did plan to kill herself after murdering Justin and Shelby.
Speaker 2: One of the witnesses for the defense, a psychiatrists, got
Speaker 2: on the stand to testify that her actions were nothing
Speaker 2: short of acts of love for her kids. Dont seeing me,
Speaker 2: I don't see it, yeah right. She thought that Justin
Speaker 2: and Shelby would be raised. The rest of their lives
Speaker 2: completely separate from one another, since they each had different fathers,
Speaker 2: and she knew that her mother would fight like hell
Speaker 2: to keep them for herself, but knew that the courts
Speaker 2: would award custody to their biological fathers. Obviously, it's not
Speaker 2: one hundred percent that that you wo would have been
Speaker 2: raised separately, right since John raised Justin straight out of
Speaker 2: the womb, and Justin's father left to go back to
Speaker 2: Minnesota without a second thought.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: According to records, Christina suffered from a hereditary chemical imbalance,
Speaker 2: which caused her depression to be at full force. And
Speaker 2: I'm not saying like that post part This is not
Speaker 2: even postpartum. Postpartum is after birth and her youngest Shelby
Speaker 2: is two. First I was like, oh postpartum can I'm
Speaker 2: not there. But from what I've heard, it's horrible as
Speaker 2: we've seen from women who've suffered it. This isn't that.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned earlier, According to Christina, she was sexually
Speaker 2: abused as a child by two different people, and this
Speaker 2: caused her to bottle all of her problems inside of her.
Speaker 2: That's not all that affected her every day life. Christina
Speaker 2: alleged that when the Murray Federal Building located in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 2: was bombed by Timothy McVeigh in April nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 3: You remember that, Yeah, Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2: That was crazy.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: The hospital where she was working assigned her to work
Speaker 2: at the triage station not far from there to help
Speaker 2: those who were seriously hurt in the blast, and her
Speaker 2: defense attorney made it seem like she had been suffering
Speaker 2: from post traumatic stress disorder from helping at that triage
Speaker 2: with all those injuries. But when it was the prosecution's turn,
Speaker 2: they stated that there was no record of her ever
Speaker 2: working in the trio station and they believe that fact
Speaker 2: about her to be Alie. The defense team put her
Speaker 2: mother on the stand, and she told the court that
Speaker 2: her daughter specifically told her that when she injected justin
Speaker 2: with the potassium chloride, he began screaming and crying, saying
Speaker 2: it hurts, it hurts. She said that just hearing this
Speaker 2: retell the calmness of someone retelling the awfulness that they've.
Speaker 3: Done right, but like nothing happened, like you're telling a
Speaker 3: story about your grocery trip or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, and he said it hurts, it hurts. Well,
Speaker 2: if you came in on that conversation late. Well, why
Speaker 2: was he say that? Oh, the mom injected him with
Speaker 2: potassium chloride. It's heinous, disgusting. Yeah, yeah, she said she
Speaker 2: couldn't put Shelby through that, and she smothered her with
Speaker 2: a pillow. According to Christina, both were mercy killings. The
Speaker 2: witnesses for the defense also determine these killings to be
Speaker 2: out of pure love. When it was the prosecutions to
Speaker 2: turn at bat they painted a much different image of
Speaker 2: the murderous mother. They made Christina look like an evil
Speaker 2: mother who wanted nothing more than to be rid of
Speaker 2: her children from her own life, and to get rid
Speaker 2: of them she'd killed them. The state told the jurors
Speaker 2: that Christina thought of Justin and Shelby as an inconvenience
Speaker 2: more than anything else. She even went as far as
Speaker 2: to plan the murders at least two weeks in advance
Speaker 2: before she finally chose to go through with ending their
Speaker 2: innocent lives. There was evidence presented that Christina would leave
Speaker 2: her kids with her mother, Carol, so that she could
Speaker 2: go out to karaoke bars long in the early morning hours.
Speaker 2: Her eight minute long confession was admitted into evidence, and
Speaker 2: the court got a chance to hear every word that
Speaker 2: she told the two detectives on the mornings after the killings.
Speaker 2: This pulled up the juror's heartstrings as they held on
Speaker 2: to every word Christina was saying as she told the
Speaker 2: detectives how she had planned it for weeks. The suicide
Speaker 2: letters were presented to the court as evidence, and in
Speaker 2: the letter to her mother, Carol Thomas, she stated that
Speaker 2: she killed her children. In her letter to John Riggs,
Speaker 2: her ex husband and Shelby's biological father, she told them
Speaker 2: she took the lives of both children. On June thirtieth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, the jury deliberated for less than one
Speaker 2: hour to find Riggs guilty on both counts of first
Speaker 2: degree murder. The jury consisted of seven women and five men.
Speaker 2: This was a death penalty trial. When Christina heard the
Speaker 2: verdict run aloud to the courtroom, she collapsed onto the floor.
Speaker 2: When the trial next phase of sentencing took place, Christina
Speaker 2: looked at the jurors and spoke out and uttered three sentences.
Speaker 2: I want to die, I want to be with my babies.
Speaker 2: I want you to give me the death penalty. The
Speaker 2: jurors heard her, and that's exactly what they, along with
Speaker 2: the judge, agreed to death by lethal injection. When Christina
Speaker 2: heard her sentence, she squeezed her defense attorney's hand and
Speaker 2: she thanked the jury members for that decision. Her original
Speaker 2: execution date was set for August fifteenth that same year,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight. They weren't wasting any time. It did
Speaker 2: end up getting postponed, as many executions do, though, so
Speaker 2: her defense attorney, John Wesley Hall Junior, really had to
Speaker 2: talk her into filing emotion for retrial, which, as you know, Tanya,
Speaker 2: is just a certain parts that you get that conviction,
Speaker 2: and of course the next step is motion for a retrial,
Speaker 2: right right, yeah, he stated, we had to beg her
Speaker 2: to file an appeal for the conviction. Christina's team chose
Speaker 2: to move to have her statement to the detectives suppressed,
Speaker 2: and her reasoning behind that was due to her medical
Speaker 2: condition of being drugged and due to the fact that
Speaker 2: her family made the decision to get an attorney for her.
Speaker 2: According to Christina, the detectives completely violated her right to
Speaker 2: counsel and her right to do process. Now here's something, Tanya.
Speaker 2: You know, they come in and you know, she's in
Speaker 2: the hospital room and she's kind of drugged from herself
Speaker 2: trying to kill herself with that e a little, so
Speaker 2: she's doped up and they come in. Can you miranderize
Speaker 2: a person who is not fully in their capacity?
Speaker 3: You're not supposed to, they're supposed to be able to,
Speaker 3: you know, they're not under the influence of anything, because
Speaker 3: I mean, all of that can be challenged. You have
Speaker 3: of a sound mind. Some people will claim, you know,
Speaker 3: the insanity defense, whatever, but you can't be under the
Speaker 3: influence of drugs or alcohol.
Speaker 2: You can't while you're being interviewed or while you're just moran.
Speaker 2: And I'm wondering that sounds like something because if they interviewer,
Speaker 2: who knows what she took and how long she's going
Speaker 2: to be under the effects. Just because she's up and
Speaker 2: awake doesn't mean she has.
Speaker 3: All of her safe you know, right, that is about
Speaker 3: her you yeah, no, you can't, You can't.
Speaker 2: It can be challenged.
Speaker 3: And then do you really want to mirandize someone who
Speaker 3: is drunk and then have it be challenged and then
Speaker 3: have it for you know, all of the evidence that
Speaker 3: you collected, including any type of confession or whatever comes after, like,
Speaker 3: do you really want that all thrown out and have
Speaker 3: no case? No?
Speaker 2: No, You'd rather wait the twelve hours for the drug
Speaker 2: whatever is in their her system to metabolize and be
Speaker 2: out so you can get a sound talking an interview.
Speaker 2: On the recording, the detectives stated the time, time of day,
Speaker 2: and they introduced themselves. They then asked Christina if she
Speaker 2: understood the fact that her statement was being recorded, and
Speaker 2: she said back, yes, I do. One detective then told
Speaker 2: her that they needed to start off the entire conversation
Speaker 2: by advising her of her rights, and throughout the entire
Speaker 2: reading of the Miranda Rights, Christina bowed her eyes out.
Speaker 2: At the end of the reading, the detective specifically asked
Speaker 2: do you understand your Miranda Rights, Christina, to which she responded, yes,
Speaker 2: I do. Sorry. The detectives then stated they were running
Speaker 2: an investigation into the quote unquote death of your two
Speaker 2: babies and asked her if she wanted to tell them
Speaker 2: what happened to Justin and Shelby. She said, flat out,
Speaker 2: through their tears, I killed them, and then she talked
Speaker 2: about how she got bottles and stuff from the very
Speaker 2: hospital that she was in at the time of her hospitalization,
Speaker 2: and then she stated she needed a cigarette. She went
Speaker 2: into the detail about how she wanted to get Justin
Speaker 2: out of the way first, since he would quote unquote
Speaker 2: give me more problem. She tried to give him the
Speaker 2: injection because she thought it would just stop his heart,
Speaker 2: but then he started screaming because of how much pain
Speaker 2: he was in. When the injection didn't work, Christina said
Speaker 2: that he kept yelling, Mama, Mama, mama. She then said
Speaker 2: that there was no turning back at this point and
Speaker 2: explained that she had wiped out her checking account completely
Speaker 2: and gave all of her money to her mom. The
Speaker 2: detectives asked Christina why she did all of this, and
Speaker 2: she said that she did everything because she wanted to die,
Speaker 2: but she didn't want to die and just leave her
Speaker 2: children behind quote unquote to be a burden to somebody else.
Speaker 2: She refused to just kill herself because she just didn't
Speaker 2: want her children to think she did it because she
Speaker 2: didn't love them. She also said that she didn't want
Speaker 2: them to grow up apart from one another because Justin
Speaker 2: and Shelby again had two different fathers. I knew if
Speaker 2: I passed away that they would be fighting. My mother
Speaker 2: for custody, and I didn't want that for nobody, she said. So,
Speaker 2: not only does she fail at committing suicide, but she
Speaker 2: killed both of her children. The detectives then asked her
Speaker 2: if she did it for the sake of her children,
Speaker 2: and she said that she did it for her own
Speaker 2: quote unquote peace of mind. She felt it was better
Speaker 2: to kill herself and her children due to her own
Speaker 2: financial stability, because she felt she couldn't go on anymore.
Speaker 2: Christina told the detectives that both Justin and Shelby were
Speaker 2: already dead when she decided to take the eleville and
Speaker 2: inject herself with a potassium chloride. After they were dead,
Speaker 2: she waited about twenty minutes before ingesting anything. She further
Speaker 2: explained that she drank a lot of alcohol and smoked
Speaker 2: a cigarette. She went back into the bedroom and sat
Speaker 2: for a moment before getting enough courage to kill herself.
Speaker 2: Her whole thoughts was that since she had already killed
Speaker 2: both of her kids, there was no turning back. After
Speaker 2: she killed Justin, she smoked a cigarette, then she suffocated
Speaker 2: Shelby with the pillow. She gave her kids the eleville
Speaker 2: and a glass of water since it would help them
Speaker 2: sleep better and they wouldn't wake up to their mother
Speaker 2: killing them. What the f right? Right? Seriously, this is
Speaker 2: this thinking process. I love to hear people's thinking process,
Speaker 2: just to dissect it and see that this must have
Speaker 2: been the only choices they thought they had, or made
Speaker 2: themselves believe that they only had, you know. Terrible. So
Speaker 2: when the police asked Christina how long she had been
Speaker 2: thinking about killing her children, her response was that she
Speaker 2: was thinking about it for two or three weeks prior.
Speaker 2: The detective asked what made her decide to go through
Speaker 2: with everything, and she said that she couldn't take it
Speaker 2: anymore and she felt that she was completely losing control
Speaker 2: over her whole life. She told the detectives that she
Speaker 2: had tried to talk to people about her losing control,
Speaker 2: but she said that whatever she would try, nobody had
Speaker 2: time for her. The detective asked if she had anything
Speaker 2: else to say about what she did, and Christina said,
Speaker 2: I wish I hadn't done it now. She then started
Speaker 2: rambling about old people getting on and off escalators, just gibberish.
Speaker 2: This statement had been transcribed before the hearing to suppress it,
Speaker 2: and the court had a statement from the emergency room
Speaker 2: doctor at the time that Christina was admitted. Doctor Buford
Speaker 2: testified that Christina was showing results of a drug overdose,
Speaker 2: which is why her stomach was pumped. Then said that
Speaker 2: Christina had been given a dose of charcoal so that
Speaker 2: any leftover drugs could be absorbed. On the morning that
Speaker 2: she spoke with the detectives, Christina was alert and her
Speaker 2: vitals were stable. Doctor Buford said that whenever he asked
Speaker 2: her questions, she answered a probately to all of them,
Speaker 2: and she never showed any signs of being incoherent, nor
Speaker 2: did she show any signs of hallucinating. Another doctor, a
Speaker 2: registered nurse named Karen Styles, was working in the ICU
Speaker 2: on the night that Christina came into the hospital on
Speaker 2: the night of November fifth. She stated at the time
Speaker 2: that Christina came in, she was being confrontational and was
Speaker 2: extremely confused. Styles then said that the following morning, Christina
Speaker 2: was stable and coherent as she answered all the questions
Speaker 2: she was asked. While testifying at the motion to suppress hearing,
Speaker 2: she looked at the note she had made in Christina's chart.
Speaker 2: Around seven point thirty the following morning, November six, she
Speaker 2: was alert and focused. She also testified that when she
Speaker 2: would ask Christina questions that she answered quickly and was
Speaker 2: talking very fast, but not fast enough to where she
Speaker 2: couldn't understand. A test was done on Christine using the
Speaker 2: Glos Glascow coma scale, and this was to measure her
Speaker 2: level of consciousness at eight am that same morning. Christina
Speaker 2: got the highest grade of fifteen that can be achieved
Speaker 2: using this test, so she was alert while while Nurse
Speaker 2: Karen was being cross examined, she stated that Christina signed
Speaker 2: the discharge papers, but her signature wasn't legible now. The
Speaker 2: detectives who handled the initial interview with Christina also testified
Speaker 2: at the suppression hearing, and they both testified to the
Speaker 2: fact that that once didn't she attempt to stop the
Speaker 2: interview as it was happening, even though her lawyer wasn't present.
Speaker 2: They also did not at all force her to provide
Speaker 2: a statement of her confessing to the murders of her
Speaker 2: two children and her own attempted suicide. One detective, detective
Speaker 2: James Harper, he testified that while sitting in Christina's hospital
Speaker 2: room on the morning after the murders, he heard her
Speaker 2: say I had to do it so I wouldn't leave
Speaker 2: them behind. Christina called a few people to testify at
Speaker 2: her own suppression hearing, and her team called an er
Speaker 2: doctor who told the court that she was not making
Speaker 2: any sense and was utterly incoherent when she was brought
Speaker 2: into the er on the evening of the murders of
Speaker 2: her children. Yeah. I can see, yeah, she's doped up
Speaker 2: on the evening, but these questions are in the morning
Speaker 2: where everything's worn off, you know, and she's made it,
Speaker 2: even though more doctors testified to the same fact on
Speaker 2: the night of the killings, but later testified that she
Speaker 2: was completely fine the following morning. The defense called another nurse,
Speaker 2: Julia Brown, who testified that Christina was confused and combative
Speaker 2: up until at least worry. On the following morning, the
Speaker 2: same nurse testified that she wasn't all surprised when the
Speaker 2: nurse at Ship Change said that Christina was alert and
Speaker 2: completely fine. She ended her testimony by saying that it
Speaker 2: wasn't unusual for a victim of an overdose to be
Speaker 2: fine the next morning or within a couple of hours.
Speaker 2: They usually are. Christina actually said to nurse Julia, I
Speaker 2: killed my kids. She's probably in some sort of shock
Speaker 2: at her own telling the nurse. She's telling the detective
Speaker 2: Christina's prod. You can't believe what you did. I'm sure yes,
Speaker 2: And hearing your own self say it, That's that's the
Speaker 2: vibe I'm getting too. Christina's mother, Carol, she got on
Speaker 2: the stand to testify for her daughter, and she told
Speaker 2: the court that her daughter was confused even after she
Speaker 2: gave her statement to the detectives. Apparently, Christina was claiming
Speaker 2: that she was confused on whether Shelby was even dead.
Speaker 2: She literally told the detectives that she suffocated her with
Speaker 2: a pillow and she barely fought because she was so little.
Speaker 2: Now she doesn't even now, she's talking like she's still here.
Speaker 2: So Carol told the court that Christina was confused because
Speaker 2: she hallucinated conversation that she had had with her dead daughter.
Speaker 2: Christina's sister, Rosanna, testified to the same thing. She said
Speaker 2: that her sister was confused following the statement that she
Speaker 2: had given the detectives, and she told her that she
Speaker 2: had played with Shelby. After the statement, Christina's aunt took
Speaker 2: to the stand and testified that Christina was hallucinating her
Speaker 2: dead kids. Her other sister, Elizabeth, took the stand and
Speaker 2: said that her sister was very dazed, confused, and was
Speaker 2: seeing things and was able to describe things that weren't
Speaker 2: even there. The last thing mentioned when it was Christina's
Speaker 2: turn to present witnesses and evidence was the fact that
Speaker 2: she was rambling on about escalators at the conclusion of
Speaker 2: the interview with the detectives. Even after all of this,
Speaker 2: her motion to suppress the confession was denied. The court
Speaker 2: found that her statement was completely voluntary and was not
Speaker 2: at all a result of hallucinations. Many doctors testified that
Speaker 2: before she gave any statement to law enforcement, she was
Speaker 2: completely alert and not at all confused or dazed. Prior
Speaker 2: to any of these court proceedings, Christina received a mental
Speaker 2: evaluation from doctor John Anderson, a licensed psychologist from the
Speaker 2: Arkansas Division of Mental Health and Sciences. He determined that
Speaker 2: she was able to understand what she did was wrong
Speaker 2: and against the law when she killed Justin and Shelby
Speaker 2: on November fourth, nineteen ninety seven. The court fully relied
Speaker 2: on his evaluation when the time came to make this
Speaker 2: decision to not suppress her statement, Christina tried to further
Speaker 2: escalate her motion by stating that she was never told
Speaker 2: that her family had retained legal representation for her. Before
Speaker 2: making the statement, the lawyer who was retained by Christina's
Speaker 2: family did call the police department and he told him
Speaker 2: that he would be acting as her legal counsel. The
Speaker 2: attorney was then told by law enforcement that Christina wouldn't
Speaker 2: be interviewed about the murders until the following day, but
Speaker 2: only a few hours later police questioned Christina when she
Speaker 2: confessed to killing her children. So to make their argument
Speaker 2: even more complicated, her attorney argued that the prosecution made
Speaker 2: some damaging notes during the opening remarks to the jury members,
Speaker 2: and then he accused the jurors of not taking their
Speaker 2: roles an oath seriously enough for his liking. The ruling
Speaker 2: was not reverse and her death sentence was upheld. She
Speaker 2: was told that she had the right to remain silent.
Speaker 2: She waived her right. She was then deemed competent to
Speaker 2: be executed, so after all the bullshit, Christina was taken
Speaker 2: to the Correction Department McPherson's unit in Newport, Arkansas, and
Speaker 2: she was the only inmate in the three cell woman's
Speaker 2: death rope facility. She was provided some off white prison
Speaker 2: clothing along with sneakers. According to her reports, she was
Speaker 2: taken good care of as she awaited her execution date.
Speaker 2: The food was pretty decent, and she even made a
Speaker 2: comment about putting on at least thirty pounds since she
Speaker 2: had been at that death row facility. She was actually
Speaker 2: allowed to see visitors at times within a visitation room
Speaker 2: that wasn't far from the death row cell. Whenever she
Speaker 2: was not in her cell, she was handcuffed, and when
Speaker 2: she spoke with her visitors, she talked to them through
Speaker 2: a window. She was allowed to use makeup and curl
Speaker 2: her hair for when she had people come see her.
Speaker 2: Her mom sent her some books to read and she
Speaker 2: was able to watch TV. Since she had literally nothing
Speaker 2: else to do with her time as she waited for death,
Speaker 2: she would crank out multiple books per week. She was
Speaker 2: allowed to exercise in a tiny outdoor yard that was
Speaker 2: right next to her prison cell. She did an interview
Speaker 2: and when asked with how she was dealing with everything mentally,
Speaker 2: she stated that she struggled constantly with what she did
Speaker 2: to her children. She stated that God punished her by
Speaker 2: letting her live without them. She told the person interviewing
Speaker 2: her that she was impatient and excited to die. I'll
Speaker 2: be with my children and with God. I'll be where
Speaker 2: there's no more pain. Maybe I'll find peace. The governor
Speaker 2: of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, took a look at Christina's case,
Speaker 2: but did not overturn it. He set her execution date
Speaker 2: to May second, two thousand and Her sentence was to
Speaker 2: be carried out between the hours of eight and nine
Speaker 2: pm in the Commons Unit, Arkansas. Three days prior to
Speaker 2: her execution, she was transferred to the Commons Unit from
Speaker 2: McPherson and it's a two and a half hour drive.
Speaker 2: The execution was delayed by eighteen minutes due to difficulties
Speaker 2: finding viable veins for the catheters.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, isn't I know.
Speaker 2: Christina eventually agreed to have them placed into the veins
Speaker 2: on her wrist. And I have that problem too with veins,
Speaker 2: Like sometimes they can't my veins roll. They're not good
Speaker 2: juicy veins. So she's not him veins. Yeah, I have
Speaker 2: good juice veins. I never have a problem with mine.
Speaker 2: She was the first woman to be executed in the
Speaker 2: state of Arkansas since the state began performing them eighty
Speaker 2: seven years prior. In nineteen thirteen. He was the fifth
Speaker 2: woman executed in the entire country since the death penalty
Speaker 2: was reinstated back in nineteen seventy six, and she was
Speaker 2: only twenty eight years old when her heart stopped. Potassium chloride,
Speaker 2: the same drugs she ejected into her son and into herself,
Speaker 2: is one of the three drugs used when carrying out
Speaker 2: her death sentence by lethal injection.
Speaker 3: Oh, the irony, isn't it.
Speaker 2: When I found out that she had done that to
Speaker 2: her son with the potassium chloride. I don't know much
Speaker 2: about death by lethal injection, but I know there's more
Speaker 2: than one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you get like a not a I
Speaker 3: think you get a painkiller maybe, or something something that
Speaker 3: sedate to you.
Speaker 2: I think is one of them, something like a heavy xanax.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't feel the if she's with her her
Speaker 2: kids again, and it's just one of those sad.
Speaker 3: It's just sad all around, Like who.
Speaker 2: Nobody, This is a terrible case. She's young, her kids are.
Speaker 3: Young, I know, and of course what she did was
Speaker 3: wrong and absolutely I just don't even understand why she
Speaker 3: did it. It's just depression. I guess you know, the
Speaker 3: depression and the pressure of life, and I guess, yeah.
Speaker 2: And you want the mom to be healthy because healthy
Speaker 2: moms are happy kids and could have been done to
Speaker 2: help her not done. Be so fatalistic and so final
Speaker 2: on everything. Desperate, it has to be desperate. Well, won't
Speaker 2: people do when they're desperate?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I kill your five year olds and your two
Speaker 3: year old.
Speaker 2: I hate stories like this.
Speaker 3: I hate all of our stories.
Speaker 2: They're just so yeah, Like I like to tell them
Speaker 2: just so people are aware, you know, this is really right.
Speaker 2: But yeah, at the same time, these absolutely suck. And
Speaker 2: if I drank, If I was a drinker, this would
Speaker 2: be a problem for me definitely, But thank god I'm not. Yeah,
Speaker 2: got job once in a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank goodness. I don't have addiction to any kind
Speaker 3: of substances because, yeah.
Speaker 2: Be happy. It's just so sad.
Speaker 3: The psychology of behind why people do things is always
Speaker 3: so interesting to me. So when we tell when you're
Speaker 3: telling me the story, I'm trying to figure out, like,
Speaker 3: why would.
Speaker 2: She do that? You know what was?
Speaker 3: Yes, the same with like when we tell a story
Speaker 3: about a serial killer, I'm like, why why is this person?
Speaker 3: You know, feel this compulsion to murder people, So I
Speaker 3: just it's just craziness. I guess I don't know, and
Speaker 3: as just a sad, sad story, but thank you for
Speaker 3: telling it.
Speaker 2: As always my pleasure to brand.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thank you everyone for listening to this week's episode.
Speaker 3: If you haven't done so already, please hit subscribe or
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Speaker 3: information about our episodes and all of that good stuff,
Speaker 3: and I think that's probably all the business.
Speaker 2: I think it is all right you until next time,
Speaker 2: my friends, I love you.
Speaker 3: Until next time, I'll talk to you.
Speaker 2: Bye.