NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants the execution to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency. Pike’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution.
Pike's attorneys said she experienced an exceptionally traumatic and abusive childhood.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at ages 11 and 17. He said Pike's lawyers at the penalty phase of her trial did not present the jury with what he said was critical information about her past or argue that her age should be a consideration.
Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack. In her clemency petition, Pike’s attorneys said her untreated mental illness and background made her unable to “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
Ferrell said more today is known about adolescent brain development and that Pike's death sentence is an outlier. He noted that Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age. He was denied parole last year. A third teen admitted to being an accessory and received probation.
In the modern death penalty era, Ferrell said, other 18-year-olds who were sentenced to death in Tennessee have since had their sentences reduced.
The Death Penalty Information Center said 275 people nationwide have been executed for crimes they committed at age 18, 19 or 20 in the modern death penalty era, but that death sentences for those in that age group have become increasingly rare.
“If Christa Pike was tried today, I do not believe a jury that knew about the documented sexual abuse and neglect she experienced as a child would sentence her to death,” Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said.
Speaking by telephone from Florida, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, also pointed to her daughter's age and said Slemmer never got a chance to grow up.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez said.
Martinez said her daughter volunteered with the Special Olympics, loved roller skating and wanted to pursue a career in computers.
“She was easygoing. She was a computer geek to begin with. She and my husband would build and tear apart the computers constantly,” Martinez said. “She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall.”
She said her daughter called her from Job Corps on the night of the murder, but the call was dropping because of bad reception. When Martinez called back, her daughter had already gone out.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst. Colleen’s birthday was last week. She would have been 51,” Martinez said.
The slaying rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. Shipp, Pike's boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.
If Pike’s execution proceeds as scheduled, it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820, Maher said.
Executions of female inmates are also rare in the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put a female inmate to death. Georgia executed a woman in 2015.
Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
FILE - This undated photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP, File)
PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) — Residents of Mexico’s Baja California Sur state boarded up homes and workers hauled dirt and rubble to shore up embankments as Hurricane Polo bore down on the peninsula Monday, threatening high winds, floods and mudslides. Meanwhile, Hurricane Nolo could still bring torrential rain to parts of Hawaii even as the storm edged away from the state.
In Puerto San Carlos, a fishing town of about 5,700 people, some feared high tides and pounding waves from Polo could breach barriers and send seawater into the community. Some families planned to head to shelters in Ciudad Constitucion, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) away, while dozens of people elsewhere in the state were evacuated.
“Civil Protection told those of us here in San Carlos to evacuate because this is a high-risk area. With the current tides, the expected waves and the wind, the earthen barriers they built (to prevent flooding) could give way,” Rocío Sánchez, a fisherwoman, said.
Polo was a Category 3 storm with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) Monday morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Forecasters said it would hit the Mexican mainland after lashing Baja California Sur with heavy rains, and that “life threatening winds and flash floods (were) expected to occur soon.” It could bring heavy rain and flooding to parts of the U.S. Southwest later in the week.
“Polo is forecast to be near major hurricane strength when it reaches Baja California Sur later today, and is anticipated to be a hurricane when it makes landfall in mainland Mexico late tonight or early Tuesday morning,” the center said.
By Monday morning, waves began to crash and flood coastal areas. Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Mexico’s Civil Protection Agency, reported that Polo would make landfall later in the afternoon.
At a Monday morning news briefing, she urged residents to stay off the streets and seek shelter if their homes are at risk. She said travel will be suspended in the area where the hurricane was expected to make landfall and that ports across the region would be closed.
Nolo, meanwhile, was well southwest of Hawaii and moving away from the Big Island as the weekend drew to a close, but a wind advisory and high surf advisory remained in effect for parts of the island through Monday morning. Nolo’s maximum sustained winds increased to near 155 mph (249 kph).
Storm activity in the Pacific has been above average during what is already the peak of hurricane season, according to National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec. He said that pattern is consistent with El Niño years, when the Pacific often sees more tropical storms and hurricanes.
With Polo approaching Mexico, the Mexican navy said it has gathered personnel and humanitarian aid in the ports of Guaymas and Mazatlan, on the Pacific Coast, and deployed three vessels that could ship aid to coastal communities isolated by the storm.
One of the towns in the hurricane’s projected path is San Juanico, a small fishing community on Baja’s Pacific coast. The town has only had full-time electricity for a few years, and still experiences frequent outages. There is concern that washed-out roads could block access to medical facilities.
“Our people are concerned about this event,” said Gloriely Robles Meza, a manager at a small hotel. “We haven’t faced such a worrying situation in many years.”
Robles Meza said Sunday that army soldiers arrived in San Juanico to prepare a shelter and provide support for possible emergencies.
Also Sunday, Tropical Storm Rachel formed well off Mexico's southwest coast. The hurricane center said Monday that Rachel had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was located about 225 miles (365 kilometers) south-southwest of Acapulco. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
Forecasters said Nolo’s outer bands could cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides, with parts of the Big Island possibly getting up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain. Heavy rain also was expected on the other islands.
More than 120 National Guard members were activated, part of roughly 400 statewide after the governor issued an emergency proclamation. U.S. President Donald Trump recently approved an emergency declaration, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate assistance and provide funding support.
National Hurricane Center specialist Elizabeth Adams said Monday that Nolo was closing in on Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a marine conservation area northwest of the islands.
“We are expecting conditions to rapidly deteriorate near that national monument,” she said.
Power outages persist on Maui, with over 10,000 households and businesses lacking electricity Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us, primarily on the west side of the island.
Most of the outages were related to storm damage, according to statements from Hawaiian Electric. High winds of over 60 mph (96.5 kph) Sunday prevented helicopters from flying over mountain ridges this weekend to assess transmission line damage, the utility said, adding that it expected the outages to persist until midday Monday.
The utility this weekend also de-energized lines around a brush fire that broke out Saturday, prompting evacuation orders several miles south of Lahaina town, the site of the 2023 deadly fires. Those evacuation orders were lifted Monday morning.
Hawaii residents are still recovering from Hurricane Lala, which produced heavy rain and winds strong enough to sweep about 100 homes off their foundations on the Big Island.
Photojournalist Eduardo Verdugo contributed from Puerto San Carlos, Mexico; reporter Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City; reporter Julie Walker reported from New York. Videojournalist Eugene Garcia and photographer Gregory Bull contributed from Hilo, Hawaii.
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Nolo, left, south of Hawaii; Hurricane Odalys, middle, and Hurricane Polo, right, off the coast of Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
Workers build a barricade to help keep water out of their town as Hurricane Polo approaches in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
A man boards up a house's windows as Hurricane Polo approaches in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Workers build a barricade to help keep water out of their town as Hurricane Polo approaches in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur state, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Peggy McKibbin looks at where floodwaters from nearby Hurricane Nolo run past widespread damage from last month's Hurricane Lala Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Naalehu, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Fire Captain Lui Sales of the Hawaii Fire Department looks for residents to help as rainwater from nearby Hurricane Nolo flood a section of Mamalahoa highway Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, near Naalehu, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A man rides with his son near where a home was destroyed during last month's Hurricane Lala, as floodwaters from Hurricane Nolo recedes Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Naalehu, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
