00:00:05
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:08
one woman pleads guilty in the group
00:00:10
slaying of a religious family
00:00:12
based upon the evidence they were
00:00:15
preparing to
00:00:16
go across country robbing and killing
00:00:19
people
00:00:21
i just screamed please don't hurt them
00:00:24
please don't hurt them
00:00:25
ah please don't hurt them
00:00:29
then lasonia larry tells her story she
00:00:31
confessed to the stabbing death of her
00:00:33
live-in boyfriend
00:00:34
he was standing naked in front of me he
00:00:37
was like um
00:00:38
you want to have sex i was like no i'm
00:00:39
not having no sex there's a pattern of
00:00:42
doing drugs and stabbing all her
00:00:45
boyfriends
00:00:46
two women two brutal murders these are
00:00:49
the stories of natasha cornett and
00:00:51
lasonia larry
00:00:57
[Music]
00:01:12
[Music]
00:01:16
on april 6 1997 the bullet riddled
00:01:19
bodies of 34 year old vidar lillylid
00:01:21
his 28 year old wife delfina and their
00:01:24
two young children were found along a
00:01:26
road about a mile from interstate 81.
00:01:28
they were devoutly faithful and humble
00:01:31
people
00:01:33
who were shot to death
00:01:36
for their car vidar and delfina were
00:01:39
already deceased when police arrived
00:01:42
six-year-old tabitha and two-year-old
00:01:44
peter were helicoptered to a local
00:01:45
hospital
00:01:46
where tabitha was pronounced dead the
00:01:48
following day and peter remained in
00:01:50
critical condition
00:01:52
this is one of the worst murders that
00:01:54
i've ever witnessed in the last 30 years
00:01:57
within days 18 year old natasha cornett
00:01:59
and five friends were arrested as prime
00:02:01
suspects in a case that would make
00:02:03
national headlines she was the one that
00:02:06
was practicing
00:02:06
satanic worship she is the person that
00:02:09
created the events that came together on
00:02:11
that
00:02:12
april the 6th of 1997. one of the
00:02:15
statements we
00:02:16
retrieved from a young girl natasha had
00:02:18
called her and told her they were going
00:02:19
to start armageddon
00:02:20
if she's been going to kill anybody it
00:02:22
should have killed me
00:02:23
was natasha cornett the ringleader of a
00:02:26
hateful satanic cult
00:02:27
or was she simply with the wrong crowd
00:02:29
at the wrong time
00:02:36
[Music]
00:02:39
natasha cornett grew up in a small
00:02:41
devoutly religious mining town
00:02:43
in the foothills of the appalachian
00:02:44
mountains it's a very beautiful
00:02:48
scenery to grow up in but it's a
00:02:51
suffocating place to live
00:02:55
she had energy to burn she liked to draw
00:02:58
to read she left dogs
00:03:01
and babies as a young student natasha
00:03:05
earned top grades in her class
00:03:07
but when she was in middle school she
00:03:09
awoke one morning to find that her
00:03:11
mother now divorced
00:03:12
had overdosed with prescription drugs my
00:03:15
mom was on the bed
00:03:17
naked with a bottle of pills laying
00:03:20
next to her i didn't know she was dying
00:03:23
natasha i know she it
00:03:24
did something to her it messed with me
00:03:29
although madonna wallen recovered
00:03:31
natasha began a downward spiral of
00:03:33
anti-social behavior
00:03:35
i started cutting things out of my you
00:03:37
know diet
00:03:38
the less i eat the better i felt it
00:03:41
wasn't one area that i did have control
00:03:42
of
00:03:43
she lost 30 pounds in one month to make
00:03:46
matters worse
00:03:47
relations between mother and daughter
00:03:49
became increasingly volatile
00:03:51
as natasha continued to act out i used a
00:03:54
belt one time
00:03:55
and the buckle slipped from my hand
00:03:58
and it hit her on the back of the leg
00:04:00
but it made a bruise on her
00:04:03
on the advice of a doctor natasha was
00:04:05
admitted to charter ridge behavioral
00:04:07
health system in lexington
00:04:09
the center found her to be a danger to
00:04:11
herself and others yet they just
00:04:12
released her after 11 days
00:04:14
diagnosed as bipolar she continued to
00:04:17
see a counselor
00:04:18
but felt she did not get the care and
00:04:19
attention she needed from adults in her
00:04:21
life
00:04:22
in the seventh grade she just
00:04:26
started changing the clothes the big
00:04:29
baggy paints the big shirts
00:04:32
she wore a rope with the emblems you
00:04:34
know hanging
00:04:35
everybody thought it was weird i started
00:04:38
drinking and smoking and
00:04:40
associating with people that were weird
00:04:43
you didn't have to
00:04:44
be perfect around them in high school
00:04:47
natasha continued to feel like an
00:04:48
outcast and banded together with
00:04:50
like-minded friends
00:04:52
the closest of whom was karen howell
00:04:54
karen was
00:04:56
my life raft she was the only person
00:04:59
that understood me and let me be me
00:05:02
she knew my pain she had went through
00:05:05
the same stuff
00:05:06
teens like natasha they have a
00:05:08
thrill-seeking personality
00:05:10
and need that stimulation because just
00:05:12
sitting around leading a normal life
00:05:13
feels boring to them
00:05:15
karen and natasha started dabbling in
00:05:17
dark activities
00:05:18
that would eventually build into a
00:05:20
cult-like behavior
00:05:22
everything that we did though it was
00:05:23
very destructive it was all
00:05:25
self-destructive
00:05:27
nothing was ever done that was harmful
00:05:30
to anybody
00:05:31
but ourselves i started cutting because
00:05:35
i was going through a rough time with my
00:05:37
mom it was a release
00:05:39
in the ninth grade natasha dropped out
00:05:41
of school and on her 17th birthday
00:05:43
she married steve cornett we had been
00:05:46
friends for a while
00:05:47
it seemed like the logical thing to do
00:05:51
but the marriage was short-lived when
00:05:52
after about six months
00:05:54
steve abruptly drove away and never
00:05:56
returned
00:05:57
it was awful i just
00:06:02
kind of caved in on myself after a brief
00:06:05
trip to new orleans a few weeks later
00:06:07
natasha sat the company of a widening
00:06:09
circle of friends
00:06:10
seventeen-year-old karen howell and
00:06:12
natasha were already close
00:06:14
eighteen-year-old crystal sturgill had
00:06:16
been in natasha's grade
00:06:18
two guys who regularly joined the group
00:06:20
were 19-year-old edward dean mullins a
00:06:22
church-going friend with no prior record
00:06:24
and 20-year-old joe reisner natasha and
00:06:27
her fellow outcasts would hang out at
00:06:29
her mother's trailer
00:06:30
i had been friends with joe for a while
00:06:32
right before the crime occurred
00:06:34
joe was dating karen crystal needed a
00:06:37
place to stay
00:06:38
and she was friends with dean while
00:06:40
drinking excessively and getting high
00:06:42
the friends would play games related to
00:06:44
the occult natasha
00:06:47
started hearing voices and talking to
00:06:50
people on the ouija board
00:06:52
her and karen fed on each other and it
00:06:55
just kept
00:06:55
you know getting worse teens who
00:06:58
gravitate towards the dark side of the
00:07:00
occult are simply doing so to find
00:07:02
something that is more powerful than
00:07:03
themselves despite finding a growing
00:07:06
range of activities to keep her busy
00:07:08
natasha continued to feel stultified by
00:07:10
the small town of pikeville kentucky
00:07:13
and she longed to escape she went away
00:07:16
from all the people that
00:07:17
that called her freak all i could think
00:07:20
of is i need out i need out i need help
00:07:22
i can't breathe i need
00:07:23
out when women behind bars continues
00:07:27
peter was being held by his mother when
00:07:30
he was shot
00:07:31
he had his legs wrapped around her waist
00:07:33
and his arms around
00:07:34
her neck and his back was to the gun
00:07:37
and he was struck by two bullets
00:07:41
i screamed please don't hurt don't
00:07:43
please
00:07:44
jason he's like stop
00:07:48
crying
00:07:56
by the time natasha cornett was 18 the
00:07:59
high school dropout with a diagnosis of
00:08:01
bipolar disorder had been in a failed
00:08:03
marriage and was hell-bent on
00:08:04
self-destruction
00:08:06
authorities believed her to be the
00:08:08
ringleader of a group of friends who
00:08:09
spent their time at her mother's trailer
00:08:12
drinking getting high and dabbling in
00:08:14
the occult
00:08:15
they all shared at least one prevailing
00:08:16
yearning they wanted to vanish from the
00:08:18
small town where they grew up
00:08:20
as fate would have it though they would
00:08:22
soon become notorious for shooting a
00:08:24
devout family of four in which only the
00:08:26
youngest child survived
00:08:29
the most recent addition to the circle
00:08:31
was fourteen-year-old jason bryant
00:08:34
jason didn't make a huge impact on me he
00:08:36
seemed
00:08:37
dangerous like people pretend to be bad
00:08:40
i thought that that was just his hook he
00:08:42
was the bad boy
00:08:45
i got the feeling from people we talked
00:08:47
to that he was
00:08:48
not as controllable on april 4 1997 the
00:08:52
group spent the night partying at one of
00:08:54
their usual haunts
00:08:55
the cauli motel we had been hanging out
00:08:58
and
00:08:58
drinking we went to the hotel room i
00:09:01
think on a friday night
00:09:03
there was some blood and they had burnt
00:09:05
some places in the carpet
00:09:07
with burning candles me and karen just
00:09:10
started cutting
00:09:11
and at first it was just too cut
00:09:14
and then i wanted to die i thought
00:09:16
eventually if i kept myself so many
00:09:18
times
00:09:19
i would just bleed out the other people
00:09:21
that had been there with them partying
00:09:23
their statements led us to believe that
00:09:24
they've been having a satanism a seance
00:09:27
mostly it was just me and karen drinking
00:09:29
each other's blood
00:09:31
we just didn't do seances natasha told
00:09:33
me they set the place on fire
00:09:35
the management was gonna call the cops
00:09:37
karen had just
00:09:38
got in trouble and she didn't want to go
00:09:40
juvenile
00:09:41
and jason just got out of juvenile and
00:09:44
he didn't want to go back
00:09:45
and i was ready to run away at any given
00:09:48
moment so it just kind of
00:09:50
came together we were all going to run
00:09:51
away joe was on spring break from school
00:09:54
and he was the only one with a car
00:09:56
they wanted to go to new orleans because
00:09:58
that's the only place i was familiar
00:10:00
with
00:10:00
and i said i wouldn't go back down there
00:10:02
without some kind of protection
00:10:04
natasha according to her mom had been
00:10:06
raped in new orleans
00:10:08
said she wasn't going to be raped again
00:10:09
but according to the prosecution
00:10:11
natasha and her gang had a different
00:10:12
motive prior to leaving
00:10:14
the defendants would watch natural-born
00:10:17
killers
00:10:18
that movie depicts individuals who are
00:10:20
carefree
00:10:21
killing people there don't appear to be
00:10:25
from that movie any consequences
00:10:27
they may have felt that there were going
00:10:29
to be no consequences for their actions
00:10:32
natasha was the one that wanted jason
00:10:35
and the
00:10:35
other kids to get a gun and she also
00:10:38
told me that they had plans to go
00:10:44
carjacking
00:10:47
the teens left kentucky in a compact
00:10:49
hatchback chevy citation
00:10:51
and drove through the virginia panhandle
00:10:53
where they were pulled over for speeding
00:10:55
the officer did not search the car if he
00:10:57
had
00:10:58
he would have found two handguns
00:11:00
acquired for protection
00:11:02
according to testimony there was talk of
00:11:04
ditching the citation along the way
00:11:06
and getting another car based upon the
00:11:09
evidence
00:11:10
of what their their stated purpose was
00:11:13
the night before
00:11:14
they left they were preparing to leave
00:11:17
pikeville
00:11:18
and go across country robbing and
00:11:21
killing people
00:11:23
driving south through eastern tennessee
00:11:24
they pulled over at the belton rest stop
00:11:27
in greene county
00:11:28
according to natasha for one reason only
00:11:31
karen needed to pay
00:11:36
that's it among the people milling about
00:11:40
the rest stop were the lilly lids
00:11:42
a family of jehovah's witnesses 34 year
00:11:44
old vidar
00:11:45
a native of norway and his wife delfina
00:11:48
had moved to tennessee from miami to
00:11:50
raise their children
00:11:51
six-year-old tabitha and two-year-old
00:11:53
peter in a safer more peaceful
00:11:55
environment
00:11:56
the little is a warm family very caring
00:11:59
kind-hearted people vidar worked as a
00:12:02
bellman his wife was a stay-at-home
00:12:04
mother
00:12:06
they lived simply walked most
00:12:09
everywhere from work to church they had
00:12:11
been to
00:12:12
a religious gathering they had stopped
00:12:16
on their way home and i think they were
00:12:18
sort of proselytizing a little bit there
00:12:20
at the
00:12:21
rest area it was just part of their
00:12:24
religion that they go out
00:12:26
and and try and talk to people they saw
00:12:30
the defendant's unusual appearance they
00:12:33
might have appeared to to need some
00:12:36
discussion about the lord vidar and
00:12:39
alfina began to talk about their
00:12:41
religion
00:12:42
and the group followed up with questions
00:12:44
some of the teens invited the lilly lids
00:12:46
over to the picnic area for a more
00:12:47
private discussion
00:12:49
natasha claimed she and karen followed
00:12:51
to keep a close watch on things
00:12:53
when i talked to natasha and other
00:12:54
people about what happened they said
00:12:56
that
00:12:57
joe reisner went back to the car and got
00:12:59
his gun and told
00:13:00
her that something was going to happen
00:13:02
as natasha tells it
00:13:04
she had a bad feeling right from the
00:13:05
start when joe wanted to talk to a
00:13:08
jehovah's witness about religion
00:13:10
things didn't add up and then him and
00:13:12
jason walked off together
00:13:14
i told karen something was wrong and
00:13:17
then he pulled out a gun joseph
00:13:19
verizoner described the abduction
00:13:22
during the sentencing phase and he was
00:13:25
the one that actually
00:13:27
pulled the gun natasha says she tried to
00:13:30
stop joe but there was no turning back
00:13:32
joe pointed the loaded weapon at the
00:13:34
lily lid family and started making
00:13:36
demands
00:13:38
he was just like nothing's going to
00:13:40
happen
00:13:41
we just need your car and all i could do
00:13:44
was
00:13:45
like look at them and apologize vidar
00:13:49
was fearful and immediately offered his
00:13:53
wallet
00:13:53
said take the car take my money please
00:13:55
don't hurt my family
00:13:57
joe attempted to reassure him that he
00:13:59
was not going to hurt him
00:14:01
they got in the van crystal and dean
00:14:04
followed in the chevy citation
00:14:06
natasha says she got in the van with the
00:14:08
others hoping to prevent things from
00:14:09
getting worse
00:14:11
i didn't think that the people that i
00:14:13
was around could actually
00:14:15
do anything bad
00:14:18
even jason i thought i could stop
00:14:22
something
00:14:23
but authorities say it was natasha who
00:14:26
engineered the entire plan
00:14:28
it became apparent from interviews in
00:14:30
kentucky
00:14:31
and talking to a lot of their friends
00:14:33
that natasha was the one that
00:14:35
was perceived by the group to have power
00:14:39
to draw on
00:14:40
demons and was the driving force in the
00:14:43
group
00:14:44
natasha wanted to be more than just a
00:14:48
a leader she wanted to give the orders
00:14:50
to karen
00:14:52
to jason bryant edward mullins came from
00:14:55
a very good home
00:14:56
but she manipulated him to do things for
00:14:58
her the rest of them were
00:15:00
following her and were drawn into this
00:15:02
by her
00:15:03
she had the control to stop the
00:15:06
situation
00:15:07
at any time i think the whole time the
00:15:09
little it felt like oh we'll probably
00:15:10
get away or we can talk them out of this
00:15:12
because they were saying
00:15:12
we know we're safe with you they left
00:15:15
the interstate
00:15:16
it was abandoned road then they turned
00:15:18
onto a dead end road
00:15:20
the lilitz were ordered out of the car
00:15:22
when they got to payne hollow road
00:15:23
joe reisner apparently told him to stand
00:15:25
in a ditch jason just pulled
00:15:28
pulled the gun up and pointed it at him
00:15:31
all i could see was rage on his face
00:15:35
and joe walked away from it
00:15:39
he was like i can't do that and i got in
00:15:41
front of the gun and i was like
00:15:43
jason what are you doing and he was just
00:15:45
like i'll shoot you
00:15:46
he was kissing
00:15:49
and get the step out of the way get the
00:15:52
other way
00:15:54
move unless you want to die move
00:15:58
i won't move until he promised me that
00:15:59
he at least would not hurt the kids
00:16:02
and then i moved what happened next
00:16:06
would become the source of enormous
00:16:07
controversy about whether it had been
00:16:09
planned or impulsive
00:16:11
and also who controlled the events that
00:16:13
unfolded what detached
00:16:14
told me is that jason took the gun and
00:16:17
shot vadar first in the head
00:16:19
then delfina then went up to tabitha and
00:16:22
put the gun
00:16:23
point blank to her tabitha
00:16:27
had been shot in the head peter
00:16:32
was being held by his mother when he was
00:16:34
shot
00:16:35
she was facing the gun and she was
00:16:38
holding peter
00:16:40
he had his legs wrapped around her waist
00:16:41
and his arms around her neck and was
00:16:43
holding on to her
00:16:44
so that his back was to the gun and
00:16:48
he was struck by two bullets and what i
00:16:51
understood from natasha is that jason
00:16:52
went back to the car got another gun
00:16:54
and shot a number of more times because
00:16:56
there were 17 total shots
00:16:58
from friends i've heard other things
00:16:59
like joe got involved and started
00:17:01
shooting too
00:17:02
and that seems a little bit more
00:17:03
plausible because of the way the shots
00:17:05
were
00:17:06
i didn't watch i sat down in the van and
00:17:09
just screamed
00:17:11
please don't hurt them please don't hurt
00:17:12
them ah please don't hurt them
00:17:18
oh nice jason he's like stop
00:17:22
crying he just left
00:17:25
but police believe that natasha was more
00:17:27
involved in the shootings than she
00:17:29
admits
00:17:29
i think natasha put him up to it
00:17:32
i think that she um instruct them how to
00:17:36
fire the
00:17:36
weapons in the matter that they were
00:17:38
fired and once it was done
00:17:40
they had to figure out how to get out
00:17:42
and leave when they got their
00:17:43
car stuck then they took the little lids
00:17:45
van the
00:17:47
teenagers drove over the victims bodies
00:17:50
as they left the area
00:17:52
they left their abandoned car and got on
00:17:55
the interstate
00:17:56
and left when women behind bars
00:17:59
continues
00:18:00
one of the first things i remember is
00:18:02
some attorney talking about
00:18:04
his client he says natasha cornett
00:18:07
has informed him that she is the
00:18:10
daughter of satan
00:18:11
and i just thought something's wrong and
00:18:14
later
00:18:15
he ain't never gonna beat you again okay
00:18:18
and i mean i even have freedom against
00:18:21
my life
00:18:29
on april 6 1997 natasha cornett and five
00:18:32
friends took part in a massacre of a
00:18:34
family of jehovah's witnesses
00:18:36
according to natasha she did not pull
00:18:38
the trigger but was too stunned to do
00:18:40
anything except go along with her group
00:18:43
after you witnessed something that
00:18:44
atrocious i didn't know what to do
00:18:48
the alleged killers abandoned their
00:18:50
chevy citation at the scene of the crime
00:18:52
and made their getaway in the victim's
00:18:54
van headed towards mexico
00:18:56
through douglas arizona the original
00:18:58
plan i think was to go to new orleans
00:18:59
and then it changed to mexico when they
00:19:00
got into trouble
00:19:02
in the meantime a local resident alerted
00:19:04
the greene county sheriff's department
00:19:06
to the gun shots
00:19:07
heard off of payne hollow lane i backed
00:19:09
down the road i looked over to valencia
00:19:11
and that's when i seen the little lid
00:19:13
family laying there on the bank
00:19:15
we knew that one of them was a live
00:19:17
little peter and the little girls are
00:19:19
breathing
00:19:20
we got on ready on call for ems to come
00:19:23
to assist us
00:19:24
an emergency medical services crew
00:19:26
arrived minutes later
00:19:28
there was no identification on either
00:19:30
vidar or delfina lillylid
00:19:32
we found a pager on the mail we were
00:19:35
able to
00:19:36
find out that a van was registered to
00:19:37
him but then the car that was left there
00:19:39
was a chevrolet citation
00:19:41
and it was stripped of its
00:19:44
identification
00:19:45
although the group had taken the
00:19:46
citations license plates they had left
00:19:49
the vehicle identification number
00:19:51
the vin basically was useless without
00:19:52
knowing what state it was
00:19:54
so we searched the car and we found one
00:19:56
receipt that had been left behind from a
00:20:00
store in pikeville kentucky and we knew
00:20:03
now that the van that had left was most
00:20:06
probably the lillywood van and that
00:20:08
these victims
00:20:09
were probably victimized by
00:20:12
one or more of the six people who
00:20:14
occupied the citation
00:20:16
a description of the van was broadcast
00:20:18
nationwide while investigators went to
00:20:20
pikeville to interview the parents and
00:20:22
friends of the group
00:20:23
including natasha's mother the group was
00:20:26
considered armed and dangerous
00:20:29
they had been down into mexico
00:20:33
and as they were coming back through
00:20:36
the uh computers at the border had uh
00:20:40
not been functioning so that the border
00:20:43
couldn't
00:20:44
check on who was coming in and out but
00:20:46
just as that group came back
00:20:48
in the computers suddenly started
00:20:50
working
00:20:51
and when they put the license tag into
00:20:54
the system they got a hit
00:20:56
and they were arrested there in arizona
00:20:59
those defendants who were adults were
00:21:01
informed that the state would seek the
00:21:03
death penalty if convicted of the
00:21:04
lilly-lid murders
00:21:06
under the law karen howell and jason
00:21:08
bryant could not be charged with the
00:21:10
death penalty since they were under 18
00:21:12
when the crime was committed
00:21:14
as natasha and the other defendants
00:21:15
arrived to be booked into jail
00:21:17
there was a standing room only crowd
00:21:19
outside the jail on the streets and at
00:21:21
the courthouse
00:21:22
they wanted to get a look at these kids
00:21:24
they'd
00:21:25
been heavily covered on television and
00:21:27
newspapers and their pictures had been
00:21:29
plastered everywhere
00:21:30
they had begun to take on a
00:21:32
larger-than-life status
00:21:33
they were brought up individually six
00:21:35
separate police cruisers
00:21:36
and the first one arrived the crowd
00:21:38
began to shout you murderers
00:21:41
you're gonna fry rot in jail
00:21:44
you baby killers
00:21:45
[Applause]
00:21:53
as the state built their case against
00:21:55
the defendants each member of the group
00:21:57
hired attorneys to represent them
00:21:59
at first eric kahn was natasha's
00:22:01
attorney after
00:22:02
eric khan got started with
00:22:06
the devil worship and the
00:22:10
vampirism it kept getting you know worse
00:22:13
and worse
00:22:14
i didn't tell him that i even had any
00:22:16
inclination towards that
00:22:18
all i knew was here was a lawyer saying
00:22:19
that he wanted to
00:22:21
represent me pro bono at no point have i
00:22:23
ever been a satanist
00:22:25
ever i remember some attorney holding a
00:22:28
press conference in arizona
00:22:30
about his client he says natasha cornett
00:22:34
has informed him that she is the
00:22:37
daughter of satan
00:22:38
and i just thought something's wrong as
00:22:41
natasha tells it the damage to her case
00:22:43
was irreparable once something like that
00:22:45
said i mean you can't just like
00:22:47
take it back khan was replaced by stacy
00:22:50
street as natasha's attorney
00:22:52
this is the first time he has agreed to
00:22:54
an interview about the case
00:22:56
we have to stop the bad publicity all
00:22:59
death penalty cases
00:23:01
are are scary because
00:23:04
state can literally kill your client
00:23:07
it was the prosecution's contention that
00:23:09
based on the evidence
00:23:10
all six defendants were involved in the
00:23:12
murders and should be tried together
00:23:15
each one of these killers
00:23:19
took an individual trophy from their
00:23:22
victims
00:23:23
and kept it attached to a chain in the
00:23:26
wallet
00:23:28
karen howell had peter's social security
00:23:29
card one had hello kitty merch dice and
00:23:31
was identified as having belonged to
00:23:33
tabitha natasha cornett she had a
00:23:36
tabitha's social security card in her
00:23:38
wallet
00:23:39
the prosecution also alleged that
00:23:41
natasha was not only involved in the
00:23:43
shootings
00:23:43
but was the ringleader as well they
00:23:46
looked up next to natasha
00:23:48
she would get the motel rooms she had
00:23:50
ways of getting those drugs there and
00:23:52
the other kids would follow
00:23:54
it was always natasha cornett the
00:23:57
ringleader the daughter of satan
00:23:59
average person on the street probably
00:24:01
couldn't name any of the other
00:24:03
individuals but they knew natasha
00:24:04
cornett
00:24:05
i had to blame eric kahn for that
00:24:08
but right before the trial was to begin
00:24:11
district attorney general barkley bell
00:24:13
offered the defendants a plea bargain
00:24:15
based on the evidence that a key witness
00:24:17
for the prosecution would be compromised
00:24:19
we were very concerned that the proof
00:24:22
might focus
00:24:23
on the juveniles as being the
00:24:26
shooters juveniles can't get the death
00:24:28
penalty
00:24:30
and if they couldn't get the death
00:24:31
penalty we were concerned that
00:24:34
no one else would get the death penalty
00:24:36
either what we reached was
00:24:37
an agreement that we'd have a hearing
00:24:40
in exchange for pleading guilty the four
00:24:43
adults would be exempt from receiving
00:24:44
the death penalty
00:24:46
all six defendants would be heard at the
00:24:48
same sentencing hearing
00:24:49
stacy street discussed natasha's options
00:24:51
with her including a last-minute plea
00:24:53
deal
00:24:54
offered by the prosecution the offer has
00:24:56
to be accepted
00:24:58
by that day it's all or nothing everyone
00:25:01
has to take it
00:25:03
we were very clear with her that if she
00:25:05
accepted this deal
00:25:06
as young as she was at the time then she
00:25:09
would probably spend the rest of her
00:25:11
life in prison
00:25:12
natasha and the others accepted the deal
00:25:15
all pled guilty
00:25:16
to three charges of first-degree murder
00:25:18
and one charge of attempted murder
00:25:20
there was a possibility that they might
00:25:22
all receive the same sentence
00:25:25
the defendants had differing stories
00:25:27
about who pulled the trigger
00:25:28
and if there was one shooter or several
00:25:31
you had six defendants
00:25:33
each of whom was interested in their own
00:25:36
welfare
00:25:37
so you had stories that contradicted
00:25:40
each other
00:25:48
natasha and karen wept a lot they
00:25:51
expressed a lot of remorse
00:25:53
at the fact that people had been killed
00:25:56
that their child had been left an orphan
00:25:59
at the same time they denied
00:26:03
having anything to do with the guns
00:26:05
being shot
00:26:06
i don't think i have any choice in the
00:26:08
case ms cornett but to
00:26:10
sentence you to life imprisonment
00:26:11
without the possibility of parole
00:26:14
it's been my position that that was
00:26:18
a type of initiation into that group
00:26:22
that everybody had to participate in the
00:26:26
[Music]
00:26:36
shooting
00:26:40
life without parole is a death penalty
00:26:42
they come out
00:26:43
in a box it just takes longer to impose
00:26:47
the final penalty
00:26:50
she wasn't the shooter she got the same
00:26:53
thing as the shooter
00:26:55
i went to the women's prison and
00:26:57
interviewed
00:26:58
natasha and karen and crystal i
00:27:00
explained that peter was in counseling
00:27:02
and natasha
00:27:03
became emotional and asked me could he
00:27:06
walk yet how was he emotionally
00:27:09
and she wept and asked me then to relay
00:27:12
to the family
00:27:14
her her deep regret and her wish that
00:27:18
he would make a full recovery
00:27:27
at 30 years old natasha is serving her
00:27:30
sentence at the tennessee prison for
00:27:32
women
00:27:32
she is a licensed cosmetologist and has
00:27:35
earned her high school equivalency
00:27:36
diploma
00:27:37
11 years i'm an entirely different
00:27:40
person
00:27:41
i hope to gain as much education as i
00:27:43
possibly can here
00:27:45
she and her mother hope that teens who
00:27:47
have similar problems know that they can
00:27:49
get help
00:27:50
you don't have to resort to negative
00:27:52
things
00:27:53
like cutting or trying to die
00:27:57
if nobody is helping you
00:28:00
go on a website talk to people peter
00:28:04
lillylid is now a teenager
00:28:05
and lives with relatives peter
00:28:08
made amazing progress at the time the
00:28:11
shooting happened
00:28:13
natasha has a message for him peter
00:28:16
deserves a better life and for april 6
00:28:18
to never happened
00:28:23
[Music]
00:28:27
next up on women behind bars no thought
00:28:30
went through my head i just grabbed the
00:28:31
knife
00:28:32
when i grabbed the knife i swung it
00:28:35
for more information about women behind
00:28:37
bars go to
00:28:38
wetv dot com
00:28:45
[Music]
00:28:50
on march 23 2007 lasonia larry
00:28:53
a crack addict with a turbulent history
00:28:55
of domestic altercations
00:28:57
fatally stabbed her boyfriend shedrid
00:28:59
bernie
00:29:01
lasagna will cut somebody in a minute
00:29:04
but
00:29:05
i don't see her just brutally murdering
00:29:08
somebody i don't
00:29:10
lasonia fled and spent the night smoking
00:29:12
crack cocaine
00:29:14
she did not call 9-1-1 or contact police
00:29:17
shedrid's body was discovered the next
00:29:18
day there's a pattern of doing drugs
00:29:21
and stabbing all her boyfriends and she
00:29:24
was going to play the role of the victim
00:29:27
and say she did this in self-defense i
00:29:30
regret it
00:29:31
but i don't even have skills to cry i
00:29:34
don't believe
00:29:35
you beating me so much i don't believe
00:29:38
she intended to kill him i believe she
00:29:40
intended to hurt him
00:29:42
and figured it'd just be like all the
00:29:44
rest she'd cut him he wouldn't prosecute
00:29:46
that'd be the end of it
00:29:48
did lasonia larry stab her boyfriend in
00:29:50
self-defense
00:29:52
or was she a violent drug addict who is
00:29:54
out of control
00:30:12
as a child lasonia knew her father
00:30:14
willie as a generous man
00:30:16
dad would always bring gifts every time
00:30:18
he comes to grandmother's house
00:30:19
but her mother claudette was not as
00:30:21
predictable claudette she was on drugs
00:30:24
she was in the streets she was living
00:30:25
with different guys you know here and
00:30:27
there
00:30:28
lasonia's childhood was playful but an
00:30:30
accident in her use
00:30:32
damaged her eyesight on one eye we were
00:30:34
playing on the railroad tracks
00:30:36
and when we both turned around some boys
00:30:38
were throwing rocks and
00:30:40
that rock hit her in the left eye
00:30:43
lasonia was left partially blind but the
00:30:46
pain from that incident was overshadowed
00:30:48
by claudette's absence in her life
00:30:50
as a young adolescent lasonia became
00:30:52
defiant and would stay out late
00:30:54
searching for her mother
00:30:55
she couldn't always find claudette when
00:30:57
she couldn't find her she'd come
00:30:59
and she'd just go in the room and cry
00:31:01
she used to tell me her mom was dead
00:31:04
by seventh grade lasonia started
00:31:06
skipping school because she was losing
00:31:08
hope that she would ever be with
00:31:09
claudette
00:31:10
she said her mother wasn't there so she
00:31:12
felt like no one else cared
00:31:13
but they did care the young rebel missed
00:31:16
almost the entire year of seventh grade
00:31:18
and never went back when i first stopped
00:31:21
going to school
00:31:21
i was basically stealing shoes stealing
00:31:24
little short sets
00:31:27
hanging just hanging out at other
00:31:28
people's house doing nothing by her
00:31:32
teens lasonia was hustling
00:31:34
and turning tricks i think she was just
00:31:36
trying to follow her mother's steps
00:31:39
lasonia was 15 when she became a mother
00:31:41
she named the baby janelle
00:31:43
it was wonderful i want to do everything
00:31:46
for her
00:31:46
in the first two years it was like that
00:31:48
and
00:31:49
then i want to go back and hang with the
00:31:51
boys and run the streets
00:31:53
in order for lasonia to make room for
00:31:55
her social activities
00:31:56
janelle was left with relatives just as
00:31:58
lasonia had been when she was a little
00:32:00
girl
00:32:01
to me she was a good mother she took
00:32:03
care of her but when she wasn't there
00:32:04
she was
00:32:05
to me a bad mother lisonia again became
00:32:08
a fixture on the streets
00:32:09
but denied rumors of her drug use i
00:32:12
asked about it she said girl don't
00:32:13
listen to them they line it think about
00:32:15
drugs ain't no drugs
00:32:16
by her late teens she landed in prison
00:32:18
for the first time on charges of
00:32:20
possession and sale of crack cocaine
00:32:22
i got a year and a day in prison
00:32:26
and i did like two months or so and i
00:32:29
was like
00:32:30
this all i got more defiant
00:32:33
the former convict followed her first
00:32:35
prison sentence with more arrests
00:32:37
related to cocaine
00:32:38
i just always stayed just on that one
00:32:41
path
00:32:42
and it was a path of destruction by the
00:32:45
time lasonia turned 22 her mother had
00:32:47
passed away
00:32:48
and lasonia's drug use escalated the day
00:32:51
that we buried her
00:32:52
i would put the crack on the can the way
00:32:54
i seen people smoking
00:32:56
and i've been smoking crack ever since
00:32:59
until my arrest
00:33:00
[Music]
00:33:01
lasonia would spend the next several
00:33:03
years turning to reckless sex to support
00:33:05
her drug habit
00:33:07
i got six girls all of them from
00:33:09
different mans
00:33:11
three of them addicted to drugs
00:33:14
except for janelle lasonia did not see
00:33:16
much of her daughters
00:33:17
they were either cared for by relatives
00:33:19
or adopted
00:33:20
the childless mother could not find a
00:33:22
safe haven for herself
00:33:24
and admits to creating a chaotic
00:33:25
environment in her relationships as well
00:33:28
if there wasn't a guy abusing me
00:33:31
at times i felt like well this this man
00:33:34
don't love me
00:33:35
physical fights with boyfriends like
00:33:37
alex grimsley became common
00:33:39
lasagna would say she wants this and
00:33:42
they want that then i would say no
00:33:46
i'm not going to get it then
00:33:49
that would start an argument right there
00:33:52
i'm not gonna sit here and say i was an
00:33:54
angel but i never initiated i saw you
00:33:57
cut me in my head
00:33:59
with a box cutter she gave me 17 staples
00:34:03
because i told her no that i wasn't
00:34:06
going to get
00:34:07
any more drugs for her
00:34:11
she's known for cutting that's the truth
00:34:15
alex and two other men filed aggravated
00:34:17
battery reports against the hostile
00:34:19
addict but she was never formally
00:34:21
charged
00:34:22
the cycle repeated until shedrid bernie
00:34:24
entered her life
00:34:26
he was just everything that i hadn't had
00:34:29
he was supportive
00:34:30
he was caring he was romantic
00:34:35
mutual friend robert barnes liked to go
00:34:37
fishing with shedrid
00:34:38
who everyone knew as rat rat did
00:34:41
anything for anybody
00:34:44
you know without any strings attached
00:34:46
but lasonia's daughter
00:34:48
janelle believes there were conditions
00:34:49
to the relationship
00:34:51
whenever he wanted sex he gave her money
00:34:54
she wanted to got her drugs she came
00:34:55
making how she cleaned
00:34:57
cooked it was basically a living
00:34:59
prostitute
00:35:00
lisonia says she had real feelings for
00:35:02
rat it was an experience she was not
00:35:04
accustomed to having
00:35:06
cedric provided that security i really
00:35:09
started to feel something right there
00:35:11
but i think i fell in love with him
00:35:14
about two or three months but lasonia
00:35:17
had been warned
00:35:18
a friend in the neighborhood told her to
00:35:20
stay away from rat
00:35:21
she said that's bad man or you would you
00:35:24
have a history of being on women
00:35:25
lo and behold four five months later i'm
00:35:28
at rats how i'm living with him now
00:35:31
and um the beating stars
00:35:34
when women behind bars continues i was
00:35:37
like well
00:35:38
rap i'm not having sex it's simple is
00:35:40
that so he slapped me
00:35:49
[Music]
00:35:54
lasonia larry a middle school dropout
00:35:56
and drug addict was in and out of jail
00:35:58
most of her adult life
00:36:00
after what she calls several abusive
00:36:02
relationships she met
00:36:03
shedrid bernie an older man friends
00:36:05
called rat who tried to help her
00:36:08
i think rat had got lasagna off of drugs
00:36:10
for a while
00:36:11
she was looking different and she just
00:36:13
seemed like she was so happy
00:36:15
i don't think they were happy that's
00:36:16
just put on something you know to show
00:36:18
people that
00:36:19
they were happy in front of other people
00:36:22
lasonia says friends did not know what
00:36:24
happened when she was alone with rat
00:36:26
he would just beat me kick me stomp me
00:36:30
he broke said you broke my nose once and
00:36:33
the alleged abuse came in different
00:36:35
forms
00:36:36
he would always try to knock my
00:36:38
self-esteem down always
00:36:40
i never had a problem with my looks i
00:36:42
had a pretty smile
00:36:43
i think i had pretty eyes i never let
00:36:46
him got my self-esteem down
00:36:48
because that was that defiant in me
00:36:51
lasonia continued to stay with rat and
00:36:53
found comfort in something familiar
00:36:56
crack cocaine she wasn't ready to give
00:36:59
up the drugs
00:37:00
the drug is a disease it's a sickness
00:37:04
when i relapse i think i really dug a
00:37:07
hole
00:37:08
and got in there because i just i
00:37:11
really didn't care then by 2006
00:37:14
lasonia and rat each made domestic
00:37:16
disturbance calls to police
00:37:18
but with nowhere else to go she kept
00:37:20
returning to the house after each
00:37:21
dispute
00:37:29
he comes home it's about five o'clock in
00:37:31
the evening
00:37:32
and i wanted some blue crabs and i was
00:37:35
like um can you go up to the market and
00:37:37
get me some crabs
00:37:38
and he was like he is a crab so i
00:37:40
started laughing at him
00:37:42
despite an argument the night before rat
00:37:45
got lasagna the crabs and some beer
00:37:47
after he prepared the meal for her he
00:37:49
took a bath
00:37:50
and then he came back out and he was
00:37:52
standing naked in front of me he was
00:37:54
like um
00:37:55
you want to have sex i was like no i'm
00:37:57
not having no sex
00:37:58
rat got dressed but as lasonia tells it
00:38:01
he was upset that even after he made her
00:38:03
dinner and got her beer
00:38:04
lasonia had refused to have sex with him
00:38:07
i was like well
00:38:08
rat i'm not having sex just simply is
00:38:10
that so he slapped me
00:38:13
i dropped my head back down and i went
00:38:15
to eat some more crabs
00:38:17
and he slapped me again
00:38:20
and i looked up at him i had tears
00:38:22
coming out of my eyes
00:38:24
i said you know i'm just really sick of
00:38:26
you putting your hands on me
00:38:27
but before i can go out the front door
00:38:28
he had already went out
00:38:30
he'd come back with this long piece of
00:38:32
antenna like thing
00:38:33
and he hit me with it right across my
00:38:35
neck lasonia says she snatched it from
00:38:38
rat
00:38:38
and he grabbed her it was then that she
00:38:40
saw a knife on a small table
00:38:43
there was no thought went through my
00:38:44
head i just grabbed the knife
00:38:46
i swung it i don't know if i hit him in
00:38:50
the shoulder i don't know if i hit him
00:38:51
in the chest
00:38:52
but when they made contact with him he
00:38:54
said oh b you don't effed up now
00:38:57
and i knew i knew then i better i better
00:39:00
leave
00:39:02
when lasonia left the house she claims
00:39:04
rat was still alive
00:39:06
after throwing the knife in a lawn
00:39:07
service truck she went to her old
00:39:09
neighborhood
00:39:10
and got high i knew it was hurt but i
00:39:13
didn't know how bad
00:39:14
i just kept asking everybody y'all
00:39:16
seeing rat it was like no
00:39:18
so i really didn't think anything of it
00:39:21
rat never came to find her
00:39:22
and lasonia spent the night in a crack
00:39:26
house
00:39:30
i'm reporting that um someone may be
00:39:32
stabbed in the house
00:39:33
why do you think someone's been stabbed
00:39:35
yeah a friend of his he
00:39:37
got a phone call his nephew's calling
00:39:39
him and saying that um
00:39:40
it's a possibility that he had got
00:39:42
stabbed by his wife
00:39:44
when i woke up i just happened to look
00:39:46
out of the window and there was police
00:39:47
tape
00:39:48
right by my front door and there was a
00:39:51
crowd starting to gather and the police
00:39:53
had blocked off the road
00:39:55
bernie's body was found on the floor in
00:39:57
the master bedroom
00:39:59
it was a stab wound to the chest
00:40:01
penetrated i believe
00:40:03
three to four inches in a downward
00:40:06
[Music]
00:40:08
motion
00:40:10
word traveled quickly that rat was dead
00:40:13
it was an absolute surprise because this
00:40:15
is a neighborhood where
00:40:17
nothing ever happens officers
00:40:20
immediately looked for lasonia
00:40:22
she was found and arrested at a crack
00:40:23
house on an outstanding warrant
00:40:26
she kept asking us that all this is
00:40:28
about is
00:40:29
that all this is about and kept trying
00:40:31
to see if there's anything else
00:40:34
detectives ask lasonia what happened
00:40:36
being back we had an argument yesterday
00:40:39
and i walked out the house that was
00:40:40
yesterday afternoon there's a lot more
00:40:42
to it than just walking out of the house
00:40:45
what did you do to him
00:40:48
[Music]
00:40:50
i don't know
00:40:58
at first she was denying anything happen
00:41:01
and typically started laying out the
00:41:03
facts of what we knew
00:41:05
about the phone calls how he was found
00:41:07
and eventually she told us what happened
00:41:11
i regret it but i don't even have skills
00:41:14
to cry
00:41:15
i don't because he's beating me so much
00:41:23
[Music]
00:41:31
detectives a detailed confession she
00:41:34
didn't really have anything good to say
00:41:36
about
00:41:37
it she set the responsibility and gave
00:41:39
her version of
00:41:41
what happened painting herself to be a
00:41:44
bigger victim than we could
00:41:46
find ever being recorded investigators
00:41:49
knew lasonia had a history of violence
00:41:51
they focused on her intentions that
00:41:53
night
00:41:54
have you ever talked about man i got
00:41:56
nothing else to do i'm gonna have to
00:41:57
kill this guy
00:41:58
no but i've said to myself you know
00:42:00
saying i don't know what else i'm gonna
00:42:01
do
00:42:02
i never thought about actually killing
00:42:04
this man
00:42:06
that would be my last that'd be the last
00:42:07
thing i would want to do
00:42:10
i don't believe she intended to kill him
00:42:12
i believe she intended to hurt him
00:42:15
and figured it'd just be like all the
00:42:17
rest she'd cut him he wouldn't prosecute
00:42:20
if i could take it all back i would do
00:42:22
it different
00:42:23
there's nothing nothing in this world
00:42:26
that i think is worse than taking
00:42:28
another human being's life
00:42:29
the sonia was charged with second degree
00:42:31
murder
00:42:33
second degree murder is a life felony
00:42:36
the maximum punishment that you can get
00:42:38
is life in prison i didn't want to go to
00:42:40
trial
00:42:41
and so i just went ahead and i took a
00:42:43
plea bargain
00:42:48
[Music]
00:42:53
knowing that she got at least 18 years
00:42:55
with her violent past
00:42:57
that makes me feel like i got the job
00:42:59
done
00:43:00
lasonia's daughter janelle had been
00:43:02
getting to know her mother better before
00:43:04
she went to prison
00:43:05
i can't cry no more really i'm used to
00:43:08
her not being in my life i'm used to her
00:43:10
being
00:43:10
in the jail in the prison and everything
00:43:13
when i need somebody to talk to when i'm
00:43:14
just going through some things
00:43:16
i don't have nobody to talk to it just
00:43:19
makes me mad because it's like you could
00:43:20
have got out this situation
00:43:22
way before it even came to this point
00:43:24
janelle started to follow the familiar
00:43:26
path of claudette and lasonia
00:43:28
but today she's leading a different life
00:43:31
i told my mom i said mom i'm going to
00:43:32
school
00:43:33
and i'm going to get me a job i got
00:43:36
sisters that need a role model in their
00:43:37
life and i got to be there for them
00:43:39
i want to be better than you and better
00:43:41
than what you did
00:43:43
lasonia who will be released from prison
00:43:45
in 16 years
00:43:46
says she will change too they're going
00:43:49
to look back they're not going to see me
00:43:50
as
00:43:51
being a murderer or doing 18 years in
00:43:53
prison
00:43:54
they're going to see me as doing
00:43:56
something to change
00:43:58
somebody's lives somewhere i know this
00:44:01
i know it without a shadow of a doubt i
00:44:03
[Music]
00:44:06
know
00:44:09
you
