Natasha Cornett

Last updated
Natasha Cornett
Born
Natasha Wallen

(1979-01-26) January 26, 1979 (age 44)
Betsy Layne, Kentucky, U.S.
Conviction(s) First degree murder (4 counts)
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without parole
Imprisoned at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center

Natasha Wallen Cornett (born January 26, 1979) is an American criminal currently serving a sentence of life without parole at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville for her involvement in the Lillelid murders.

Contents

In her book The Scarred Heart: Understanding and Identifying Kids Who Kill, forensic psychologist Helen Smith considers Natasha Cornett's troubled life as a warning of the failures of the school, mental health, and criminal justice systems in preventive treatment. [1]

Early life

Cornett was born into poverty in rural Pike County, located in Eastern Kentucky. Cornett's mother, Madonna Wallen, was not married to her biological father, a local policeman named Roger Burgess with whom Madonna was having an affair. When Natasha was a toddler, Madonna left her husband, Ed Wallen, and raised Natasha alone as a single mother [2] in a ram-shackle trailer [3] located in the outskirts of Pikeville, Kentucky. It is believed Natasha received little or no parental support (financial or social) from either her biological father or Madonna's ex-husband, whose name had been entered on her birth certificate. [2] According to Tennessee court records, she grew up with "the lack of a father figure, and an irresponsible mother". [4] By junior high school, Cornett was alienated from most of her fellow pupils because of her unconventional behavior. She suffered from anorexia and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which went largely untreated due to lack of health insurance. [2] By the time she entered high school, Cornett was being openly harassed and bullied by other students for her uncommon dress and conduct. Pleas for help by her were ignored by unsympathetic school authorities. [3] Sometime during her freshman year of high school, Cornett dropped out. [2]

Cornett married a long-time friend named Stephen Cornett on her 17th birthday. Natasha told Women's Entertainment Network interviewers in a 2009 documentary that, when Stephen ended the marriage after about six months, she "caved in" emotionally and was psychologically devastated. She also indicated this failed relationship exacerbated her existing mental health problems. [5]

By the time of her marriage, Cornett had firmly embraced the Goth subculture, wearing black clothing and listening to dark "doom-ridden music", as well as exhibiting interest in the occult and witchcraft. [2] [4] During this period, Cornett was abusing drugs and alcohol and practicing self-mutilation, all of which she had been doing since her early teen years. Young people who were similarly inclined were drawn to Cornett, and she became the informal leader of the group. [2] [5]

Lillelid murders

On April 6, 1997, Cornett, then 18 years old, and five friends/fellow disaffected youths: Edward Dean Mullins, 19; Joseph Lance Risner, 20; Crystal R. Sturgill, 18; Jason Blake Bryant, 14; and Karen R. Howell, 17—took to the road in Risner's beat-up Chevrolet Citation. They were hoping to start new lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Cornett had spent a few weeks visiting with a friend following the end of her marriage. [2] [5] While the overarching reason for leaving was the desire of the group to escape what they saw as the stultifying boredom of life and dispiriting poverty they were experiencing in Pikeville, there was a more immediate motivation. The previous night (and not for the first time), Cornett had rented a room in a local economy lodging establishment, the Colley Motel (no longer in business [6] ), for the purposes of drinking and smoking marijuana. The party got out of hand, and the next day, fearing possible criminal charges for damages done to the room, the group thought it best to leave town before possibly facing legal consequences related to property damage. [5] [3] [7]

Along the way, they met the Lillelid family at an interstate highway rest area in Greeneville, Tennessee: Norway-born Vidar Lillelid, 34; his Honduran-American wife Delfina, 28; their daughter Tabitha, 6; and son Peter, 2. The Lillelids were Jehovah's Witnesses, and they were dedicated to proselytizing their faith to others, including the young people they encountered at the rest area. Cornett and her friends wanted to steal the family's van, having already discussed possibly car-jacking a bigger and more dependable vehicle to replace their cramped and likely unreliable Citation. [2] [7]

At gunpoint, the family was forced back into their van and ordered to drive to a deserted road in nearby Baileyton, Tennessee, where they were shot execution style by 14-year-old Jason Bryant and possibly other male members of the group; later court testimony differs on which other male members of the group participated in the shooting. [7] After the shooting, the group abandoned their own vehicle and left in the Lillelid family's van. As a result of the murders, the group changed their plans, deciding to flee to Mexico instead of going to New Orleans. [7] Soon after they drove off, police found Vidar and Delfina dead at the scene; Tabitha died after being transported to the hospital. Peter, who was found lying in a ditch, was the only survivor. He had been shot once in the torso and once through the eye. As a result of the shooting, he was left blind in one eye and permanently disabled.

Two days after the shootings, the six perpetrators in the Lillelid family's stolen van were taken into custody by US Customs and Immigration officials in Arizona, having been ordered by Mexican police to return to the United States for entering Mexico without proper papers. [8] [9]

The trial

Cornett and the others were transported to Greeneville, Tennessee, where they were booked into the local county jail awaiting trial on charges of first degree murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping. [2] [4]

Cornett accepted the volunteered pro bono legal services of attorney Eric Conn, a lawyer specializing in Social Security disability cases, not criminal defense. [5] At Conn's instruction, Cornett made public statements in which she called herself the "Daughter of Satan" and claimed involvement with devil worship in preparation for an insanity defense. The judge overseeing the trial felt that this was not in the best interests of the defendant, so he ordered Conn removed and replaced before the trial started. [2] [5] [7]

The trial began and proceeded, but before the case could go to the jury, the district attorney, Berkeley Bell, decided to offer a deal to the defendants: plead guilty and receive life without parole instead of risking execution if the jury found them guilty and then imposed the death penalty. [5] On March 13, 1998, Cornett and her co-defendants pleaded guilty to all charges against them, thereby avoiding the possible death sentences for her and the three others who were 18 or older. Due to their status as minors, Howell and Bryant were already ineligible for the death penalty, but they accepted the deal on advice of counsel. [5] [10] Although Cornett took the plea bargain, court testimony established that she did not do the actual shooting of the four victims. [2] During her own testimony, Cornett claimed she tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the deaths. [11] In accordance with the agreement she had entered into, Cornett received three sentences of life without the possibility of parole and two additional sentences of 25 years—one each for attempted murder and kidnapping. [4]

Life in prison

Since her arrival at the prison in Nashville, Cornett has earned her GED and a certification in cosmetology. In a 2007 article published in the Knoxville News Sentinel , Madonna Wallen stated that her daughter serves as a mentor for some fellow inmates as they work to earn their GEDs. [8]

Involvement in attempted murder

On August 24, 2001, Cornett and death row inmate Christa Pike allegedly attacked fellow prisoner Patricia Jones, nearly strangling Jones to death with a shoe lace, after Pike and Jones were placed in a holding cell with Cornett during a fire alarm. [12] Although the Department of Corrections believed that Cornett was involved, investigators found insufficient evidence to charge her with helping Pike, who was subsequently found guilty of attempted murder. [13]

Related Research Articles

Yolanda Saldívar is an American former nurse who was convicted of the murder of Selena in 1995. Saldívar had been the president of Selena's fan club and the manager of her boutiques, but she lost both positions a short time before the murder, when the singer's family discovered that she had been embezzling money from both organizations.

Lee Boyd Malvo, also known as John Lee Malvo, is an American convicted murderer who, along with John Allen Muhammad, committed a series of murders dubbed the D.C. sniper attacks over a three-week period in October 2002. Malvo was aged 17 during the span of the shootings. Currently, he is serving multiple life sentences at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, a supermax prison. Muhammad was executed in 2009.

A thrill killing is premeditated or random murder that is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act. While there have been attempts to categorize multiple murders, such as identifying "thrill killing" as a type of "hedonistic mass killing", actual details of events frequently overlap category definitions making attempts at such distinctions problematic.

Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term of imprisonment for certain crimes, commonly serious or violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are instituted to expedite the sentencing process and limit the possibility of irregularity of outcomes due to judicial discretion. Mandatory sentences are typically given to people who are convicted of certain serious and/or violent crimes, and require a prison sentence. Mandatory sentencing laws vary across nations; they are more prevalent in common law jurisdictions because civil law jurisdictions usually prescribe minimum and maximum sentences for every type of crime in explicit laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston courthouse shooting</span>

The Kingston courthouse shooting was a fatal shooting that took place on August 9, 2005, at the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee, United States. It resulted in the death of a Tennessee Department of Correction transport officer, and the wounding of another officer. The perpetrator, Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte, began shooting immediately after her husband, George, pleaded guilty to a robbery charge in the courthouse.

A school shooting occurred on November 8, 2005 at Campbell County Comprehensive High School in Jacksboro, Tennessee, United States, when a 15-year-old freshman student shot the school principal and two assistant principals. One assistant principal, Ken Bruce, died as a result of the shooting.

Murder is an offence under the common law of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another with the intention to cause either death or serious injury unlawfully. The element of intentionality was originally termed malice aforethought, although it required neither malice nor premeditation. Baker, chapter 14 states that many killings done with a high degree of subjective recklessness were treated as murder from the 12th century right through until the 1974 decision in DPP v Hyam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom</span> 2007 carjacking, rape, and murder of a couple in Knoxville, Tennessee

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Dennis Reid</span> American serial killer

Paul Dennis Reid, Jr., known as The Fast Food Killer, was an American serial killer, convicted and sentenced to death for seven murders during three fast-food restaurant robberies in Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee and Clarksville, Tennessee between the months of February and April 1997. At the time of the murders, Reid lived with roommate Brian Fozzard at a boarding house, and he was on parole from a 1983 conviction in Texas on charges relating to the aggravated armed robbery of a Houston steakhouse. He had served seven years of a 20-year sentence, and was paroled in 1990. Originally from Richland Hills, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, Reid went to Nashville to pursue a career as a country music singer.

Christa Gail Pike is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, which she committed at age 18.

The Lillelid murders were a series of killings that took place in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. Three members of the Lillelid family were killed on April 6, 1997. Vidar Lillelid, Delfina Lillelid, their daughter Tabitha, and son Peter were shot on a deserted rural road near Baileyton after a carjacking committed by a group of youths. Vidar and Delfina were found dead at the scene, while Tabitha died after being transported to the hospital. Peter survived, but, as a result of the shooting, was left with disabilities. Six young people from Kentucky, including two minors, were convicted of felony murder for the three deaths. Each received three life sentences, and an additional sentence of 25 years for the attempted murder of Peter.

Since the 1994 film Natural Born Killers was released, several attacks suspected to be copycat crimes have been committed by fans of the film, mostly by high school students within the age range of 15 to 18. Though apparent links have been claimed between the film and most of the incidents described below, certain causality has not been proven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheshire home invasion murders</span> 2007 triple-murder in Cheshire, Connecticut, US

On July 23, 2007, Linda Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky invaded the residence of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut. Though initially planning only to rob the house, Hayes and Komisarjevsky murdered Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, 17-year-old Hayley Petit and 11-year-old Michaela Petit. Their father, Dr. William Petit, escaped with severe injuries.

The Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women, is a Tennessee Department of Correction prison for women located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rick and Suzanna Wamsley were murdered on December 11, 2003 in their home in Mansfield, Texas, as part of a conspiracy involving their son Andrew and two others.

The FEAR militia was an American terrorist group of between four and eleven individuals that the State of Georgia alleged in 2012 to have planned to destroy a dam and poison apple orchards in Washington State, set off explosives in Forsyth Park in Savannah, Georgia, and assassinate President Barack Obama. Four of the individuals charged were soldiers stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The group killed two people in an attempt to prevent them from revealing their plans to the public. The group used the Army to recruit militia members, who wore distinctive tattoos that resemble an alpha and omega symbol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyntoia Brown</span> American author and speaker

Cyntoia Brown Long is an American author and speaker who was convicted of murder and robbery at the age of 16. Brown, who was a victim of child sex trafficking at the time of the incident, claimed that Johnny Allen had paid her $150 to have sex with him, and that she feared for her life during their encounter, leading her to shoot him. Prosecutors argued that Brown killed Allen while he was sleeping in order to rob him. Brown was found guilty of robbing and murdering Allen and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Antonio Santiago</span> Murder of an infant during an attempted robbery

One-year-old Antonio Santiago was murdered on March 21, 2013, during an attempted robbery in Brunswick, Georgia, United States. As Santiago and his mother, Sherry West, were returning home from the post office, they were confronted by two youths, 15-year-old Dominique Lang and 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins. Elkins, who had previously shot another victim he tried to rob, pointed a gun at West and demanded money. When she did not comply he fired two .22-caliber bullets, one of which grazed her head, and the other of which went through her leg. He then shot Santiago in the face, killing him. The murder received national as well as international attention due to the victim's young age.

On June 2, 2020, David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired police captain, was fatally shot after interrupting the burglary of a pawn shop in The Ville, St. Louis. The incident occurred on the same night as riots in St. Louis, Missouri over the murder of George Floyd. Stephan Cannon, who was 24 years old at the time of the incident, was convicted of his murder on July 20, 2022.

References

  1. ↑ Helen Smith, The Scarred Heart: Understanding and Identifying Kids Who Kill, Callisto, 2000, ISBN   978-0615112237.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jesse Fox Mayshark, "A Blackened Rainbow: How do we make sense of the Lillelid murders?", Weekly Wire, 20 April 1998.
  3. 1 2 3 Six, Documentary released 2003
  4. 1 2 3 4 Cornett vs State of Tennessee, Original Filed August 20, 2002
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Women's Entertainment Television Network (WETV) Women Behind Bars Series, Original Airdate June 16, 2009
  6. ↑ Yellow Pages Online
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Lillelid Murders Still Haunt East Tennessee, MSN News, April 3, 2017
  8. 1 2 Routine Call, Horrific Crime, Knoxville News, April 1, 2007
  9. ↑ Town of Greeneville TN Website, July 17, 1997
  10. ↑ Town of Greeneville TN Website, March 13, 1998
  11. ↑ Town of Greeneville TN Website, March 12, 1998
  12. ↑ Women on Death Row, Tennessee Department of Correction.
  13. ↑ Love and Hate on Death Row, The Tennessean July 6 2003, Available on Prison Talk Online
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.