A Mississippi middle school teacher could face the death penalty after she was found guilty Tuesday of fatally shooting and stabbing her lover’s pregnant fiancée in 2006. Carla Hughes, 28, sobbed loudly as a judge read the verdicts on two counts of capital murder for the deaths of Avis Banks and her unborn child. The jury also found the slayings occurred during the commission of a burglary, making Hughes eligible for the death penalty. A jury of nine women and three men are due to return to Madison County Circuit Court Wednesday morning to decide if Hughes should be executed for killing Banks, who was five months pregnant. Their verdict must be unanimous or Hughes will receive a life sentence. Madison County district attorneys alleged Hughes killed Banks so she could be with Keyon Pittman, her lover and colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, Mississippi.
………Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Pittman, the father of her unborn child. She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony. (continue reading inside)
Hi Class, please circle the unappropriate answer, If your man is cheating on you, what do you do?
A. Leave Him
B. Sleep With His Best Friend
C. Shoot Him
D. Shoot his Pregnant Fiance
LOL, Stupid Trick, Why would you shoot the other woman?
Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. Pittman, a key prosecution witness, told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes’ home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex.
Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood. But prosecutors said they could not link the crime to Pittman, who testified that he invoked his right against self-incrimination during a preliminary hearing when asked where he was the afternoon his fiancée was killed.
Instead, prosecutors alleged that the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant’s cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Hughes’ death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Hughes’ body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police. Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said Banks’ relatives plan to deliver victim impact statements at the sentencing. He said medical testimony will be presented to support the prosecution’s claim that the murders were gruesome and heinous, and warrant the death penalty. Hughes’ lawyer, Johnnie E. Walls, Jr., a Mississippi state senator, said her relatives will testify in a bid to spare her life.
I never watch tv trials but this one has me. I feel very badly for Avis and her unborn child.I know the jury found Carla guilty but I have my doubts. I think Kenyon got off too easy. He should have been a suspect also.
Unfortunately I tuned into the end of the trial where Ms. Hughes had been convicted and the jury is now determining whether or not her life will be spared.
I am interested in knowing what evidence was presented that was so overwhelming for the jury to reach a guilty verdict. I read that Ms. Hughes’ cousin testified that she borrowed a knife and a gun which were determined to be the murder weapons. If this is so, then I understand the juries verdict. However, I believe that Ms. Hughes did not act alone. For such a crime with stabbing and gun shots, there definitely should have been more evidence. If Ms. Hughes was that naive to return the murder weapons, that alone is very suspicious. Looks like a possible set up! I wonder why there was no gun powder residue found on her personal, as well as possible cuts that must have occurred from the brutal stabbing. Also who’s to say that the boyfriend wasn’t involved, but put this naive woman on the front line so that she would take all the blame. I think she was involve, and that could be why she didn’t take the stand and testify. I don’t think she could have stood the cross examination. If Ms. Hughes was involved, she probably felt the truth would have been too much for her family to bare. This may have been the easiest way out of a terrible mistake on her part!
Ms. Hughes may have been a great woman, and did a lot of good, but we all have to pay for our mistakes, “if” she in fact played a part in this brutal double murder.
She made a very bad choice in dealing with this man. We as humans can pretend not to see a bad situation, because of our own desires, which most often turn out to be horrible out comes. I just can’t see pure innocence here.
Keyan Pittman is a woman’s worst nightmare!! This lady was set-up worst then Marion Barry.
I heard a lot of her being set up and honestly I do think the boyfriend need to be looked at again, but someone about this woman seem cold!
I so agree with Tee Young, many women just want passion and for someone to share life with and they will accept whomever comes along that kinda sorta (with one eye closed) fit that description. This is just a sad situation. This is actually my first time hearing of this story but I too believe that Mr. Pittman was involved. He says that the relationhsip was based solely on sex and that may be true on his part, but I’m pretty sure he never communicated this to Ms. Hughes. WOW…I am floored by this, this relationship was obviously filled with emotional abuse and manipulation. What could possess her to kill another woman (pregnant at that) for this man who made not committement (that he will own up to) to her. Im pretty sure he was telling her that they will be together one day and that Ava got pregnant to trap him…Walking away SMDH….