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[Music] up next a home invasion turns to murder just extreme overkill crime of passion crime of rage so much
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violence and no one with a clear motive as best as law enforcement could establish
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she had no enemy that is until police discover a romance gone horribly wrong he was either gonna be a lover or
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someone who wanted her out the way so that they could be the new lover i don't know if a love triangle can go good
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but this one went really bad [Applause] life couldn't have been better for avis banks
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she graduated from college found a job she loved in a day care center and met the man she planned to marry
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but an unexpected pregnancy changed some of her plans when i learned abe was pregnant
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i wasn't thrilled and i know ava's asked for forgiveness and she was going to make it right back
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mary keon her fiance was keon pittman a middle school teacher and basketball coach
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mr pittman was excited about the family that they were beginning they had already picked the name out for
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the child avis and keon bought a house together in a suburb of jackson mississippi
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but tragedy struck just a few months before the baby was due to be born when keon came home from work and found
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avis lying on the garage floor in a pool of blood police were called to the scene
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[Music] law enforcement immediately orders him away from the body they want to make sure that he's not
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possibly the perpetrator in the case keon called us x my wife need to get over here and we
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turned the corner and i saw an emergency vehicle and all these police cars but when i saw
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that yellow tape i know what that yellow tape means so i knew then you know the day was gone
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[Music] avis and her unborn child were pronounced dead at the scene it was obvious that she had been shot in
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the head in the chest and possibly in the stomach we weren't totally sure as to how many shots she
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had received at that time also it appears though she had been cut with some type of object
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it appeared that the killer waited inside the house until avis came home from work
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then attacked when she stepped out of her car the point of entry was the back door
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where police found two high quality shoe impressions the prints on the glass store were
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fairly good prints good clarity they were two dimensional impressions in dirt on the glass door analysts
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estimated the prints were made from a man's size eight shoe it appeared the killer tried to kick the
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glass in when that didn't work the killer kicked through the door jamb we were surprised in the glass didn't
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shatter the dead bolt was still engaged so we knew that back door was locked when entry was made several rooms in the
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house had been ransacked immediately suspicious police performed a gunshot residue test on keon's hands i would
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expect someone who fired a revolver numerous times to have gunshot residue on their backs
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of their hands we did discover particles of gunshot residue on mr pittman mr pittman very well may have fired the
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fatal shots that killed ava's banks and keon appeared to be unconcerned he was laughing i had to remind him that
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he had a fiance and a baby that were dead and he said at that point uh oh yeah we would expect a lot more uh emotion
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out of him when keon called his lawyer his anger was clearly evident anger not towards the
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killer but the police i don't like this at all had no criminal record but he wore size
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eight and a half shoes consistent with the shoes the killer was wearing when he tried
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to kick in the back door and that wasn't all there was blood on the butt down shirt that he had on as well as
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blood on the pants dna tests showed the blood had come from avis maybe he didn't want
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to settle down and be a father and be a husband maybe he was trying to get rid of her
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police in jackson mississippi were determined to find avis banks killer she had been ambushed while getting out
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of her car returning home from work avis was five months pregnant [Music] we do take it kind of personal and we
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were also tasked with fighting for that five-month-old child who didn't have a chance to live in the world
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she's my perfect child i love all my kids but they wouldn't not like avis they were not like davis the autopsy
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showed ava spanx had been shot four times with a 38-caliber pistol she had also been stabbed numerous times
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there was the facing injuries whoever was doing this was wanting to injure her physically into her appearance and then
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with the last and final slash to the throat just extreme overkill at first investigators thought the
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motive was robbery but that theory was discarded when police realized that despite the killer taking time to
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open drawers nothing had been stolen to us the scene itself appeared to be staged we didn't find anything of value
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that was missing from the house when police interviewed avis fiance keon pittman
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they found blood on his shirt dna tests showed the blood was avis and the neighbor told police an
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interesting detail that keon always parked his car in front of the house and entered through the front door but the
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night of the murder was different this particular day he raised the garage door when he got home
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we believe he knew that davis was laying in the garage and the background check revealed keon
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was a player keon pittman was a womanizer he had other girlfriends as well he had
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a lot of girls he was playing at the time one of the women was 30 year old brenda martin the mother of
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one of the boys on the basketball team keon coached miss martin and mr pittman were in the early stages of a
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relationship that was in the form of flirting telephone calls text messages things of that nature
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brenda martin had no desire to talk to police brenda didn't want to have anything to
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do with this whole situation because she was married she was married with children
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brenda denied any involvement in avis murder and she had an alibi for the time of the
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crime we didn't find anything with her that would put her at the scene or phone records or anything brenda
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wasn't keon's only love interest another was carla hughes the 25 year old cheerleading coach who worked at the
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same school with keon apparently they had been less than discreet with their relationship they've been
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seen kissing several times in the restaurant so i knew her to be at least more than a friend carly hughes was the
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one that he was the most involved with that he had i guess the most serious relationship and that he was seeing
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basically on a daily basis carly hughes was a former beauty pageant contestant and the single mother of a
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three-year-old son when questioned by police she adamantly denied the affair he's not a boyfriend
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and nothing sexual with him no no nothing i can understand why color youth was lying initially but she didn't
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want to be in the mix of someone that just been murdered people may have saw us being affectionate towards each other
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but at the most they may have just saw a little kissing but as far as just like this full out
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blown romantic love affair that that's not what it was it really wasn't karla denied any involvement in avis
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bank's murder and was an unlikely suspect but she didn't have an alibi for the time of
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the murder investigators believe the murder took place shortly after avis returned home
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from work ava spanx left the day care about 5 15 and went straight home she got home
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about 5 45 no evidence shows that she stopped anywhere in between and the murder occurred somewhere
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between 5 45 and 6 o'clock that night witnesses said keon was at school running basketball practice at that time
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[Music] and his cell phone records confirmed he was at the school between 5 30 and 6 pm we had the witness
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statements but this again was independent verification through a separate source that he was in
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fact at basketball practice and he was miles away from the crime scene at the time we believed the crime
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occurred but carla's cell phone records showed something else those records show that a little after 5
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30 and then again at roughly 605 that miss hughes was in that area that she was in the area at the same
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time that the murder occurred and who was she calling keon pittman [Music] police had two suspects in the murder of
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avis banks her fiance keon pittman had an alibi for the time of the murder but blood on his shirt and gunpowder
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residue on his hands raised concerns we believe that the gunshot residue that was
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discovered on mr pittman's hands was not placed there because he fired a weapon we believe that that was transfer from
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him handling the body of avas banks just as the blood on his shirt it was determined based off
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those visual examinations that the blood stains on him was from a touch transfer versus him
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actually being there and having evidence spattered on him at the time of the crime
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[Music] if he committed the murder there probably would have been some blow back
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or some splatter on this clothing the lab didn't find him we have to realize that keong wasn't
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around keon probably didn't do this and now we got to start looking at his other lover by being caller hughes
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although carla initially denied having a relationship with keon during her second interview with police
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she changed her story she did confess that she had lying to me and that they were
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sleeping together six days into the investigation police got a call from one of carla's
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cousins he tells investigators that he has in his possession a firearm that they believe was used in the death
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of avis banks this cousin patrick nash said carla asked to borrow his gun a 38-caliber revolver for protection
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she tells patrick that there's been recent break-ins there at her house that she's concerned for her safety
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patrick said the three days before the murder he gave carla his gun loaded with five bullets he also gave
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her a hunting knife three days after the murder she returned the gun but not the knife and the chamber of the gun
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was empty patrick asked caller hey what happened to the bulletin and she told him i went target
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practicing the gun was given to ballistics experts and test-fired so that the bullets could be compared to
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those recovered from avis body the markings on the three projectiles from the body
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did match the markings from the test fires which told me that that weapon was the weapon that
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killed davis banks but this didn't necessarily put the gun in carla's hand so investigators looked
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again at the shoe impressions from the crime scene they assumed the impression was made by
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a man shoe which would have been a size eight but it also could have been a woman's shoe a size 10.
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with a warrant investigators searched carla's apartment we didn't expect to find any clothing
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there we were hoping we would we didn't expect to find any clothing with blood or gunshot rather
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but they did find shoes we went through the master bedroom closet and carla had probably upwards of
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100 pair of shoes in that closet that was the needle in the haystack that uh that we really weren't sure was going
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to be out there one pair looked promising look at the picture that we bought with
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us from a crime scene and it appears to be a perfect match the tread pattern i was relatively certain looking
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at the photographs that they were made by the same shoe but visually investigators saw no traces
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of blood on the shoe which was disappointing the original dna testing showed that there was no dna on
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the shoes we then decide to submit those shoes to a second laboratory the examiner takes the shoes places the
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shoes under the microscope this time they found several microscopic stains that appeared to be
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blood and this time dna testing confirmed what investigators already suspected those shoes do in fact contain dna and
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we're later to match the dna of ava's banks it puts her there in the presence of miss banks at the time of her death
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the only thing police needed to figure out was whether keon pittman was involved
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carly hughes had never broken the law and had no violence in her past no one thought she
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was capable of murder she led bible studies she led exercise classes she was a leader and she's also a very
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pretty lady somebody who you would never suspect to do something wrong but three years before the murder of
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avis banks carla suffered a devastating emotional blow she was two months pregnant and about to
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be married to the baby's father the day before the wedding he called it off carla hughes was a lot of things a lot
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of people apparently her parents she was their little girl she was a beauty queen at one point
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and once she started talking to some of her or at least her cousin found out that she was almost a doormat
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for me he did tell me that whenever she falls for a guy she falls hard and most guys
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just take advantage of her investigators believe carla saw keon pittman as the answer to
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her problems carla wanted to be where avis was she wanted to be the one who was getting
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married who the man truly loved her and they were going to have a family together
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but that wasn't the case keon was leaving avis for her no one knows what keon did or didn't
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promise carla but she did have a motive and she didn't have an alibi carly indicated that she had gone
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and done a little workout at a local park walked around jogging trail run a few errands but
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nothing that we could verify prosecutors believe carly hughes wanted to eliminate the only person standing
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between her and keon and that was her rival avis banks so she borrowed her cousin's
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gun and knife and went to the home avis and keon shared she attempted to break into avis home
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late in the afternoon by kicking in the glass on the back door leaving remarkably clear shoe
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impressions when this didn't work she kicked in the door jamb once inside she pulled out drawers to
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make it look like a robbery gone wrong then waited for avis to return from work cell phone records show carla placed her
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first call to keon before the murder most likely as she was staging the scene no one knows what was discussed during
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that call when carla heard the garage door open and avis car pull in she sprung into action
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karla fired three shots the fourth shot from close range close enough to spatter the tiny speck
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of blood found on her shoe carla then used the hunting knife to stab avis repeatedly
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and cut her throat after the murder carly got rid of the knife and her bloody clothes and placed a
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second call to keon shortly after 6 p.m again no one knows what was discussed i'm just
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leaving practice now but you know i can't really talk what shocked me the most this woman have a child you know how
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could a mother do that to another woman and knew she was expected as for keon pittman he claims he played no part in
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planning or instigating the murder and carlin never implicated him in the crime some speculate he
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learned about the murders after they happened but before he found avas body we felt like there was probably some
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conversation that night prior to keon going home that led keon to know that something had happened
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and that carl probably told him you said we couldn't be together we can't be now
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i've taken care of what was in our way that's that's what threw the red flag up for keon did you
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inflict those wounds on ava's banks no sir did you kill her no sir did you kill your unborn child no sir do
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you know who did [Music] no sir we the jury find the defendant carla hughes guilty of capital murder
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carla hughes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole it's a love triangle gone bad i don't
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know if a love triangle can go good but this one went really bad carly hughes would have been a suspect
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probably anyway just based off the relationship that she had with keon i don't know if we would have ever been
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able to tie her to the crime if we didn't have the gun we built our case on the ballistics we
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built our case on the shoe print impressions we built our case on the dna evidence
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so really without that all we would have had would have been a motive and there would have been nothing that we could
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have charged and ever got a conviction on in this case you