Friday, March 23, 2012

Plot to free woman from death row is busted

AP

This 2009 photo provided by Tennessee Department of Correction shows death row inmate Christa Gail Pike.

By msnbc.com staff

A man and a guard who allegedly plotted to break out the country's youngest female death row inmate have been charged and arrested, the Tennessean reported.

Officials say that Donald Kohut, Jr., a 34-year-old personal trainer from New Jersey, struck up a relationship with Christa Gail Pike, 36, the only womanon Tennessee's death row, according to the state's department of correction. They wrote letters and Kohut visited Pike, who is incarcerated at the Tennessee Prison for Women, twice since July.

In January, authorities learned that Kohut, wanting more than the occasional, shackled face-to-face visit, sought to free Pike and had enlisted the help of a guard, Justin Heflin, 23.


AP

This undated photo provided by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General shows Donald Kohut, 34, who was arrested in a plot to break out Tennessee's lone female death row inmate.

Pike was sentenced to death for killing a friend from school in 1995, when she was 18. She and two friends lured another woman into the woods and beat her to death, according to Tennessee?s state department of correction. Pike delivered the final blow, crushing her skull with a rock. She kept a piece of the girl?s skull in her pocket and showed it off to others in the days following the murder.

Heflin was indicted on charges of bribery, official misconduct and conspiracy, NJ.com reported. He was fired on March 5, the Tennessean reported.

Kohut was arrested this week in New Jersey, NJ.com reported and charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit escape.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/21/10800601-plot-to-free-woman-from-tennessee-death-row-busted

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