- Natasha Cornett
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Natasha Wallen Cornett is currently serving a sentence of life without parole at the Tennessee Prison For Women in Nashville. Cornett, then 19, was convicted in March 1998 with five other youths in the notorious Lillelid murders. The youths, aged 14 to 20, had left Pikeville, Kentucky, headed to New Orleans. By chance, they met the Lillelid family at an interstate highway rest area where they carjacked the family for their van. The youths drove the Lillelids to a remote side road where mother, father and daughter were shot dead and the son was left wounded. This crime took place on April 6, 1997 near the town of Greeneville in the eastern part of Tennessee.[1] Two days after the shootings Cornett and the five others were taken into custody by US Customs and Immigration officials in Arizona while trying to cross into Mexico in the stolen van.[2][3]
The conviction was the result of a plea bargain where Cornett pled guilty to all charges against her to avoid a possible death sentence.[4] Although she took the plea bargain, court testimony strongly established she did not participate in the actual shooting of the four victims.[1] During her own testimony Cornett claimed she tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the deaths.[5]
Cornett was born on January 26, 1979 into poverty in rural Eastern Kentucky. Cornett's mother Madonna Wallen was not married to her biological father, a local police officer named Roger Burgess with whom Madonna was having an affair.[1] When Natasha was young her mother's husband, Ed Wallen, left [6] and Madonna raised Natasha alone as a single mom in a trailer located in the outskirts of Pikeville, Kentucky.[1] By junior high school Cornett was alienated from her follow students due to her unconventional behavior.[6] She suffered from anorexia and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder which went largely untreated due to lack of health insurance.[1] Sometime during her freshman year of high school Cornett dropped out.
Married to 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 only a matter of months she was "devastated".[6]
By the time the murders occurred, Cornett had embraced the Goth subculture manner of black clothing and dark "doom-ridden music".[1] Also at this time Cornett was abusing drugs and alcohol and practicing self-mutilation, activities she had been involved with since her early teen years. Young people similarly inclined were drawn to Cornett and she became the informal leader the group. On April 6, 1997, per court testimony, Cornett, looking to escape what was to her the boredom, poverty, and general unhappiness of life in Pikeville took to the road with the five others heading for a hoped for new life in New Orleans.[6] New Orleans was never reached as a chance encounter with the Lillelid family at an interstate rest stop in Tennessee resulted in murder and Cornett's current confinement to prison.
Since her arrival at the prison in Nashville, Cornett has earned her GED and a degree in Cosmetology.[6] In a 2007 article published in The Knoxville News Madonna Wallen stated that her daughter serves as a mentor for some fellow inmates as they work to earn their GEDs.[2]
On August 24, 2001, Christa Pike attempted to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones with a shoe string after Pike and Jones were placed in a cage with Cornett during a fire alarm. Although the Department of Corrections believed that Cornett was involved, investigators found insufficient evidence to charge her with helping Pike.[7]
References
- ^ a b c d e f A Blackened Rainbow by Jesse Fox Mayshark Metro Pulse Weekly Wire, April 20, 1998
- ^ a b Routine Call, Horrific Crime, Knoxville News April 1, 2007
- ^ Town of Greeneville TN Website, July 17, 1997
- ^ Town of Greeneville TN Website, March 13, 1998
- ^ Town of Greeneville TN Website, March 12, 1998
- ^ a b c d e Women's Entertainment Television Network (WETV) Women Behind Bars Series Original Airdate June 16th, 2009
- ^ Love and Hate on Death Row, The Tennessean July 6 2003, Available on Prison Talk Online
External links
Categories:- Living people
- 1979 births
- People from Pike County, Kentucky
- American female murderers
- American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Tennessee
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