Christine Paolilla

Last updated

Christine Paolilla
Born
Christine Marie Paolilla

(1986-03-31) March 31, 1986 (age 38)
Long Island, New York, U.S.
Criminal status Incarcerated
Spouse
Justin Rott
​
​
(m. 2005;div. 2009)​
MotiveRobbery
Conviction(s) Capital murder
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment (minimum of 40 years)
Partner(s)Christopher Snider
(committed suicide before apprehension)
Details
VictimsRachael Koloroutis
Tiffany Rowell
Marcus Precella
Adelbert Sanchez
DateJuly 18, 2003
Country United States
State(s) Texas
Location(s) Clear Lake City
Weapons9mm semi-automatic pistol
38-caliber revolver
Date apprehended
July 19, 2006
Imprisoned at Christina Melton Crain Unit

Christine Marie Paolilla (born March 31, 1986) is a convicted American mass murderer who is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting four people, including two of her friends, in their Clear Lake City, Texas, home on July 18, 2003. The killings, which came to be known as the Clear Lake Murders, made national headlines.

Contents

Paolilla, who was 17 years old at the time of the murders, was accompanied by her then-boyfriend, Christopher Snider. She was arrested on July 19, 2006, three years and one day after the murders were committed. Paolilla was convicted in October 2008 and sentenced to life in prison. Snider, having been alerted that authorities had a warrant for his arrest, committed suicide at some point in July 2006.

Early life

Paolilla was born on Long Island, New York to Lori, a stay-at-home mom, and Charles Paolilla, a construction worker. She has one older brother. When Paolilla was two years old, her father was killed in a construction accident. Following the death of her husband, Lori Paolilla began abusing drugs and eventually lost custody of her children to her parents. [1] When Paolilla was in kindergarten, she was diagnosed with alopecia, which caused her to lose her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. As a result of the hair loss, Paolilla was forced to wear wigs. She also had poor vision and wore thick glasses. Paolilla was frequently ridiculed and bullied by her classmates for her appearance, which affected her self-confidence. [1]

Paolilla was eventually reunited with her mother, who had overcome her drug addiction and remarried. The family then moved to Clear Lake City, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Paolilla enrolled at Clear Lake High School. She was befriended by two popular students, Rachael Koloroutis and Tiffany Rowell, who helped her improve her appearance and fit in with the other students. In 2003, Paolilla was voted "Miss Irresistible" by her school's student body. That year, she also began a relationship with 21-year-old Christopher Lee Snider. [1] Paolilla's mother and stepfather disapproved of Snider, as did Koloroutis and Rowell, because of his frequent drug use and extensive criminal record. These fears would be substantiated, as Paolilla would increasingly use various drugs during the year she and Snider were in a relationship. [1]

Lori Paolilla later recalled that Snider isolated her daughter from her friends and family and indicated that she had been raped and that the relationship was both abusive and dysfunctional. Snider's family also said the relationship was tumultuous and that Paolilla was prone to jealousy. After one particular fight with Snider, Paolilla spent the night on the front lawn of his family's home and threatened to kill his family. [2]

Murders

On July 18, 2003, Paolilla and Snider went to her friend Tiffany Rowell's home in Clear Lake City. Also at the home were Rachael Koloroutis; Rowell's boyfriend, Marcus Precella; and Precella's cousin, Adelbert Sanchez. According to Paolilla, she and Snider planned to steal the drugs that were kept at the house, but Snider reportedly got into an argument with Precella, which led to the shootings of Rowell, Koloroutis, Precella, and Sanchez. [3] All four victims were shot multiple times, with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a 38-caliber revolver. [4] Rachael Koloroutis attempted to crawl to a phone to call 911 after she was shot, but Paolilla struck her in the head multiple times with the butt of the revolver, bashing in her skull. Koloroutis and Rowell were both shot in the groin, a sign of sexual jealousy. [ citation needed ] Snider and Paolilla left little evidence at the crime scene, leading police to suspect that the killings were drug related, as Marcus Precella was said to have sold drugs from the home. Adelbert Sanchez had moved to Clear Lake to get away from violence on the north side to change his life around and he had only been in Clear Lake for about a week or two before losing his life. The only evidence police had were descriptions of the suspects, who were seen walking to and from the home by neighbors. [5] An hour after the murders, Snider drove Paolilla to Walgreens, where she was scheduled to work the makeup counter. [2]

Apprehension

In 2004, Paolilla and Snider ended their relationship after Snider was jailed in Kentucky for car theft. Shortly thereafter, Paolilla entered rehab in Kerrville, Texas. It was there that she met Stanley Justin Rott, a heroin user with whom she began a relationship. The couple married in March 2005. Around that time, Paolilla came into a $360,000 trust fund left to her by her father. Paolilla used a portion of the money to buy an apartment. In July 2005, the second anniversary of the murders, Paolilla saw a newscast on television about the still unsolved case. She became upset after seeing sketches of the suspects given by neighbors and confessed to Rott that she and Snider had committed the murders. The couple then went into hiding. By November 2005, Paolilla and Rott were living in a motel room in San Antonio. For the next eight months, the couple holed up in the room, shooting heroin and cocaine. [2]

On July 8, 2006, police received an anonymous tip via Crimestoppers regarding the murders of Rowell, Koloroutis, Precella, and Sanchez. The male caller told police that he had been in rehab with Paolilla who had admitted to being a participant in the crime (it was later reported that Justin Rott was not the man who called in the tip). [2] Police tracked Paolilla down in San Antonio and arrested her on July 19, 2006. [3] [6] (Paolilla's husband was also arrested as police found 70 vials of heroin in the couple's room.) After their arrests, Rott told police that Paolilla had confessed to him that she had been an active participant in the murders. He stated that Paolilla had gone back into the house and beat Koloroutis to death with a gun, after finding her still clinging to life and attempting to summon help. [1] Paolilla initially denied killing her friends, but eventually admitted to participating in the murders but placed all the blame on her ex-boyfriend, Christopher Snider. [6] On July 21, 2006, Paolilla and Snider, who had not yet been apprehended, were charged with capital murder. [7] Paolilla's bail was set at $500,000 as she was considered a flight risk. [8]

In June 2006, Christopher Snider had moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where he was living with a woman he met online. After Paolilla's arrest that July, one of Snider's family members called to inform him that police had issued a warrant for his arrest in relation to the murders. Acting on a tip that Snider may have committed suicide, police went to Greenville and searched near an area where Snider was reported to have been seen. His decomposing body was found in a heavily wooded area on August 5, 2006. [9] It was later determined that Snider had overdosed on prescription medication. [10]

Conviction

Christina Melton Crain Unit, where Paolilla is imprisoned as of 2023 Crain Unit Sign.jpg
Christina Melton Crain Unit, where Paolilla is imprisoned as of 2023

On October 13, 2008, Paolilla was convicted of four counts of capital murder. As she had been a juvenile offender at the time of the killings, she was spared the death penalty. [11] The following day, she was sentenced to life in prison. [4]

Paolilla filed an appeal on November 29, 2008, on the grounds that "the trial court abused its discretion in setting [Paolilla's] amount of bail at $500,000". An appeals panel decided that the court did not abuse its discretion and affirmed Paolilla's original sentence. By 2011 she had filed additional appeals, which were also denied. [12]

As of June 2023, [lower-alpha 1] Paolilla is incarcerated at the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas, and will be eligible for parole in July 2046, when she will be 60 years old. [14]

The case has been profiled on the documentary crime series 20/20 , [15] Snapped , [16] Killer Kids , [17] Forensic Files , [18] Deadly Women , [19] and Redrum. [20]

Notes

  1. ↑ incarcerated at Christina Melton Crain Unit since, at least, December 2015 [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Yates</span> American murder defendant (born 1964)

Andrea Pia Yates is an American woman from Houston, Texas, who confessed to drowning her five children in their bathtub on June 20, 2001. The case of Yates—who had exhibited severe postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia leading up to the murders—placed the M'Naghten rules, along with the irresistible impulse test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Rader</span> American serial killer (born 1945)

Dennis Lynn Rader, also known as BTK, is an American serial killer who murdered at least ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although Rader occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, he typically targeted women. His victims were often bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either suffocated with a plastic bag or manually strangled with a ligature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Durst</span> American murderer (1943–2022)

Robert Alan Durst was an American real estate heir and convicted murderer. The conviction is now vacated due to California law. The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he garnered attention as a suspect in the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack; the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman; and the 2001 killing of neighbor Morris Black. Acquitted of murdering Black in 2003, Durst did not face further legal action until his participation in the 2015 documentary miniseries The Jinx led to him being charged with Berman's murder. Durst was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He was also charged with McCormack's murder shortly after his sentencing, but died in 2022 before a trial could begin.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken murders were an armed robbery and mass murder which took place at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas, in 1983. For over two decades, it was unsolved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownstone Lane murders</span> 1992 mass murder case in Houston, Texas

The Brownstone Lane murders were the mass murders of four people at a residence on Brownstone Lane in Houston, Texas. On June 20, 1992, three men tied up six people and shot all of them in the head execution-style. Four of the six victims died. The perpetrators: Marion Butler Dudley, Arthur "Squirt" Brown Jr., and Antonia "Tony" Lamone Dunson were convicted of capital murder. Dudley and Brown were sentenced to death, while Dunson was sentenced to life in prison.

Carlos Coy, known professionally as SPM, is an American rapper and convicted sex offender. His stage name was incorporated from his Mexican heritage and the South Park neighborhood in Houston, Texas, where he was raised.

Ivory Brandon Harris, known as B-Stupid, is an American gangster from New Orleans, Louisiana, who gained notoriety when police accused him of committing murders in Houston and New Orleans. Following a 2006 arrest and 2007 plea deal, he is incarcerated in the federal prison system as of 2024.

Deborah L. Turbiville operated the Vivian's Friends brothel and escort agency in Houston, Texas under the pseudonym Vivian. On March 10, 2009, after an investigation that began in October 2007, Deborah was arrested and charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution and money laundering. Turbiville is a native of Belize and was raised in England. She has a master's degree in psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 Lake Waco murders</span> Killing of 3 victims in Texas

The 1982 Lake Waco Murders refers to the deaths of three teenagers near Lake Waco in Waco, Texas, in July 1982. The police investigation and criminal trials that followed the murders lasted for more than a decade and resulted in the execution of one man, David Wayne Spence, and life prison sentences for two other men allegedly involved in the crime, Anthony and Gilbert Melendez. A fourth suspect, Muneer Mohammad Deeb, was eventually released after spending several years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of John Goosey and Stacy Barnett</span> American double murder over drugs

The murders of John Forest "Johnny" Goosey and Stacy Marie Barnett occurred on July 21, 2009, in the West Campus area of Austin, Texas, when a man, who had two accomplices, shot to death two recent graduates from the University of Texas at Austin who originated from the Greater Houston area. This event is sometimes called the West Campus murders. Police stated that the murder was the result of a drug deal debt. The murder resulted in media attention on the marijuana trade among young, college-educated people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Killing Fields</span> Location in Texas, scene of 30+ murders

The Texas Killing Fields is a title used to roughly denote the area surrounding the Interstate Highway 45 corridor southeast of Houston, where since the early 1970s, more than 30 bodies have been found, and specifically to a 25-acre patch of land in League City, Texas where four women were found between 1983 and 1991. The bodies along the corridor were mainly of girls or young women. Furthermore, many additional young girls have disappeared from this area who are still missing. Most of the victims were aged between 12 and 25 years. Some shared similar physical features, such as similar hairstyles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Basso</span> American criminal (1954–2014)

Suzanne Margaret "Sue" Basso was an American woman who was one of six co-defendants convicted in the August 1998 torture and murder of 59 year-old Louis "Buddy" Musso, a mentally disabled man who was killed for his life insurance money. She was sentenced to death in October 1999. Basso was executed by lethal injection on February 5, 2014. Prior to her execution, Basso had been held at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where all of the state's female death row inmates are incarcerated. At the time of the crime, Basso lived in Jacinto City, Texas, a Houston suburb.

On July 9, 2014, a mass shooting occurred in a home located in northern Harris County, Texas, near the Spring census-designated place, a suburban area of the Greater Houston area, leaving six family members dead, four children, and a lone survivor. Ronald Lee Haskell, 34, was apprehended after a standoff that lasted several hours. Haskell was related to the victims via his ex-wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Gabriel Granillo</span> 2006 murder in Houston, Texas

On June 6, 2006, a teenage boy named Gabriel Granillo also known as Pelón was stabbed to death at Ervan Chew Park, in the Neartown district in Houston, Texas. His killer, Ashley Paige Benton, underwent a criminal murder trial which resulted in a hung jury. Benton's lawyers and the assistant Harris County district attorney agreed to give Benton probation in exchange for Benton pleading guilty to aggravated assault. Her probation was ended early in 2009, and her criminal charge was to be dismissed as part of terms of successfully completing her probation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Chubasco Wilkins</span> American spree killer (1968–2017)

Christopher Chubasco Wilkins was a Texas spree killer who was sentenced to death and executed for a 2005 double murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Mark Kilroy</span> 1989 kidnapping and murder in Mexico

On March 14, 1989, University of Texas at Austin student Mark James Kilroy was kidnapped in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, while vacationing during spring break. He was taken by his abductors to a ranch where he was tortured and sodomized for hours before being murdered in a human sacrifice ritual. Kilroy was killed with a machete blow and then had his brain removed and boiled in a pot. His killers then inserted a wire through his spinal column, amputated his legs at the knees, and buried him at the ranch along with 14 other people who had been killed there before him. Adolfo Constanzo, the leader of the cult, told his followers that human sacrifice granted them immunity from law enforcement for their drug smuggling operations. The killing drew worldwide media attention and initiated an international police manhunt because of the unusual circumstances of the crime.

In 2002, a crime spree involving the murders of two women and one teenage girl occurred in the East End area of Houston, Texas. The three perpetrators were two adult men and one teenage boy: Edgardo Rafael Cubas Matamoros, a Honduran citizen; Walter Alexander Sorto, a Salvadoran citizen; and Eduardo Navarro, a 15-year-old boy at the time of the crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Irsan</span> Jordanian-American convicted murderer

Ali Mahmood Awad Irsan is a Jordanian-American convicted murderer held on Texas death row. He was sentenced for the murders of Iranian-American activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh, a friend of one of his daughters; and his son-in-law, Coty Beavers, in Greater Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Ogg</span> American lawyer and prosecutor

Kimbra Kathryn Ogg is an American lawyer and prosecutor. She is the Harris County District Attorney in Texas and assumed office on January 1, 2017. Her current term ends on December 31, 2024. As part of her role as District Attorney, she is the top law enforcement official who oversees all prosecutions in Harris County. She was previously the City of Houston’s first appointed Anti-Gang Task Force Director, and the executive director of Crime Stoppers of Houston. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Fulginiti, Mary; Pisarcik, Kristin; Sancho, Miguel (September 25, 2009). "What Made Houston Teen Kill Her Friends?". ABC News . Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Getlen, Larry (February 26, 2012). "'Psycho' 17-year-old shot, beat classmates to death". New York Post . Archived from the original on January 15, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Fulginiti, Mary; Pisarcik, Kristin; Sancho, Miguel; McCarthy, Tom (September 24, 2009). "'Miss Irresistible' Denies Killing Friends". ABC News . Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  4. 1 2 Lezon, Dale (October 14, 2008). "Paolilla gets life in 4 Clear Lake slayings". Houston Chronicle . Archived from the original on January 12, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  5. ↑ Lezon, Dale; Rogers, Brian (September 30, 2008). "Investigator: Clear Lake killings "a gory scene"". Houston Chronicle . Archived from the original on December 16, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Rendon, Ruth (July 24, 2007). "Husband shocked by wife's tale of killings". chron.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kilday, Anne Marie (July 21, 2006). "Two charged in 2003 Clear Lake slayings". chron.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  8. ↑ "$500,000 bail set for slaying suspect". chron.com. May 11, 2007. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Greenville Police Find Body". The Item. August 6, 2006. p. 2A. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Cold case file: Persistent Houston police investigators deserve the public's thanks for solving three-year-old murders". chron.com. August 7, 2006. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Woman found guilty of Clear Lake murders". KTRK-TV . Associated Press. October 14, 2008. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  12. ↑ Phelps, M. William (2011). Never See Them Again. Pinnacle Books. p. 403. ISBN   978-0-786-03055-2 . Retrieved June 19, 2023– via Google Books.
  13. ↑ "State Identification Number 07188577". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. December 27, 2015. Archived from the original on December 27, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Offender Information Details | Paolilla, Christine Marie". Texas Department of Criminal Justice. June 19, 2023. Archived from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  15. ↑ "'Miss Irresistible' Accused of Killing Friends". ABC News. September 24, 2009. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Snapped | Episode 5: Christine Paolilla". Oxygen Official Site. February 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Killer Kids". TVGuide.com. May 5, 2014. Archived from the original on February 17, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Social Circle - Forensic Files". Forensic Files. January 31, 2011. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Deadly Women: Best Friend's Betrayal". Investigation Discovery. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Watch Redrum Season 3 Episode 1 S3E1 The In Crowd". OVGuide. March 17, 2015. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.