Carla Hughes, 28, Middle School Teacher, Convicted of Killing Lover, Kenyon Pittman's Fiance Avis Banks & Unborn Child

Carla Hughes, 28, 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 fiancé in 2006. She cried loudly as the judge read the verdicts on two counts of capital murder for the death of Avis Banks and her unborn child. She is eligible for the death penalty because the slayings occurred during the commission of a burglary. What a sad turn of events. How could this woman, who had so much to live for, commit such an unspeakable and heinous crime? Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives.

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.

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. Source: CNN

This is a sad commentary and this woman should get the death penalty for what she did. There is no reason why she was having a relationship with a man she knew was engaged and expecting a child. His behavior was also reckless because, had he not engaged in this illicit affair with this nut, Avis Banks would have never lost her life. People need to take responsibility for their actions and make wise decisions.

UPDATE#1:  Ms. Hughes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Her life was spared. I hope she will do some good to others while she is in prison.

Photo credit:  Carla Hughes, CNN