Carla Hughes – Murder in Mississippi

Twenty seven year old Avis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot and left for dead in a pool of blood on her garage floor.  Who committed this heinous crime in a quiet residential neighborhood in Ridgeland, Mississippi in November 2006?  Was it a crime of opportunity or did someone want Avis and her unborn child dead? Carla Hughes, who was involved with Avis’s fiance, was eventually tried and convicted of this brutal murder.

Location

Ridgeland, Mississippi, is located north 9 miles north of the city of Jackson. The land was purchased by two real estate developers from Chicago in 1896. They planned to create the town of Ridgeland to entice people who were living up north to move south.

Agriculture was the main source of income with pears and strawberries being the two main crops sold.

Singer Faith Hill was born in Ridgeland.

November 29, 2006

Keyon Pittman, a local teacher, and basketball coach returned to the home that he shared with his fiance, Avis Banks, around 8:40 pm. Banks was five months pregnant with their first child. Keyon parked his car in his normal spot in the driveway and used the garage door opener to enter the house.

That’s when he saw Avis lying in a pool of blood on the garage floor beside her car. He ran to her to see if she was alright. There was blood all around her, but he was unable to get a reaction.

Keyon then ran to the next-door neighbor’s house for help. The neighbor placed a call to 911. Keyon then called Avis’s parents and sister, who lived in Vicksburg. He told them to come to the house right away. He didn’t tell them why before he hung up. The family drove the 52 miles to Ridgeland not knowing what they would find.

Police arrived at 8:46 pm and found Keyon holding Avis in his arms on the garage floor. Police began to secure the scene and call for backup. They removed Keyon rom the garage and away from the crime scene in order to protect any potential evidence.

Avis, who was 27, and her unborn child, a boy, were pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators noted that it looked as if whoever killed Avis had confronted her as she was getting out of her car. Avis still had mail in her arms and her keys laid near her hand. Keyon would tell investigators that Avis’s routine was to stop and pick up the mail at the end of the driveway. She then would pull into the garage and close the garage door before getting out of her car

Autopsy

An autopsy showed that Avis had been shot four times, stabbed three times, and slashed across her throat once. 3 of the 4 gunshot wounds were fatal. The stab wounds were not and may have even occurred postmortem.

One shot went through Avis’s left buttock and abdomen. One went into her lower left chest wall and into her lung and one went through the back of her head behind her left ear. The shot through her head was made close up as evidenced by powder burns on her skin. The bullets looked to have come from a .38 caliber weapon.

Avis’s unborn son died as a result of maternal demise. Both deaths were classified as homicides.

Search of Their Home

Investigators began to search the home Keyon and Avis shared more thoroughly. This was after the initial run-through to make sure that Avis’s killer wasn’t still on the premises. Investigators noticed that the killer had made entry into the home by the back patio door. This door had been forced open. There were two shoe prints found on the exterior side of the glass door.

Investigators found blood smears on the wall and light-switch plate. The door between the house and the garage was open with an indentation left in the wall where the doorknob had struck. A bullet hole was found in the lower-left corner of the garage door. No shell casings were found at the scene.

Avis’s pants were also slightly pulled down indicating that she might have been a victim of a sexual assault. The autopsy would show that was not the case so investigators felt this was just to throw them off.

The house itself looked to have been ransacked, but nothing of value was taken.

Avis & Keyon

Avis Banks was born on August 18, 1979, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She was the middle of three girls born to Fred and Debra Banks.

She was the first in her family to graduate from college with a degree in early childhood development. Avis is described as someone who was smart, kind and had a love of children and learning. Avis met Keyon Pittman in the winter of 2004 at a gym they had both belonged to. They instantly hit it off.

According to Avis’s sister, she liked that Keyon seemed to have the same interests, especially working with kids. Keyon was employed as a middle school math teacher and basketball coach at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, MS. Their relationship progressed and the two moved in together. They relocated to Old Square Court in Ridgeland where Avis got a job working as a daycare teacher.

In June 2006, Avis became pregnant. The couple got engaged that fall after Keyon asked Avis to marry him. At this point, they had been together two years and they were planning a wedding for February 2007. Two days after Avis’s murder, both she and her baby boy were laid to rest in the family plot in Vickburg, Mississippi.

At their funeral, Keyon had put on what the family describes as an over-the-top performance. He was hollering and crying, but with no tears in his eyes. The police had to step in at one point and escort him to his car.

Investigation

Keyon was taken down to the station for a formal interview. He was photographed and his hands were processed for gunshot residue. Each hand was found to have a single particle on it which might have come from when he was holding Avis’s body.

Investigators noticed that Keyon was constantly on his cell phone. He was talking and texting to someone referring to them as “babe.” When Dillard started to push on some of his questions Keyon would become agitated. He became especially agitated when he was asked about why he ran all the way to a neighbor’s house and had her call 911 instead of calling himself.

Keyon had been on the phone calling someone else prior to running to the neighbor’s house. Keyon stopped cooperating with his interview, refused to sign a statement for police and wanted an attorney. He was soon allowed to leave.

Needless to say, Keyon Pittman was one of their main suspects. Especially when investigators discovered that Keyon’s usual pattern was to enter the house through the front door, not through the garage. Did he open the garage door that night because he knew what he would find?

Interviewing Coworkers

Investigators next talked to Keyon’s coworkers at Chastain Middle School to verify his alibi. Keyon claimed he was coaching basketball the evening of the murder from 5:30 pm until 7:30/7:45 pm. Based upon Avis autopsy it was determined that she was killed shortly after she arrived home from work between 5:50 pm and 6 pm.

Although investigators verified Keyon’s alibi they also discovered one of the worst kept secrets at Chastain Middle School. Keyon had several women on the side, including a fellow teacher Carla Hughes. Carla was the school’s cheerleader coach.

Keyon also worked part-time at a local bar/restaurant where he would meet up with various ladies.

December 1, 2006 (two days later)

On December 1, 2006, investigators talk with Carla about her relationship with Keyon. In her initial statement while being questioned at school she said that she and Keyon were just friends. Later that same evening, Carla came back to the police station and admitted that she and Keyon had an ongoing sexual relationship.

Investigators asked her if she owned a gun. She said she did not. Investigators next asked if she had access to a gun. She said no, but that her father had lots of guns as he was a hunter.

Carla was released and investigators continued their investigation thinking that it was a man who had kicked in the back door of the home. They felt a woman would have enough strength to kick in the back door. They also felt Keyon Pittman was still somehow involved.

December 5, 2006

Police got an early Christmas gift when an attorney contacted them on behalf of a client. The client would turn out to be the cousin of Carla Hughes. Patrick Nash had something he wanted to tell the police. He had a .38 revolver, 5 shot “Rossi” that he claimed Carla borrowed on November 26th. Carla told him she needed it for protection because of an attempted break-in that had occurred at her home.

When he gave Carla the gun it was loaded with five bullets. When she returned it on the evening of December 1st, after her police interview, it was empty. Carla claims that she had gone target shooting.

Nash had also given her a 3 ½  to 4-inch long folding hunting knife on November 26th. That knife was never returned. What caused Nash to come forward was that on the night of Avis’s murder Carla had called him to tell him someone had killed Keyon’s girlfriend. Later Carla’s uncle, James Nash asked her if the gun had been involved in Avis’s murder. Carla had not really answered him only dropping her head and shrugging her shoulders.

December 6, 2006

Carla Hughes was placed under arrest and charged with being an accessory to the murders. A search warrant was obtained for her residence and was served on December 8th.

Investigators were looking for six things:

• Ammunition or shell casings
• A folding knife or any type of knife or tool that could puncture, stab, slice or cut
• Any clothing that had bloodstains on it
• Shoes that matched the shoe prints left on the glass door
• Gloves that may contain any physical evidence or blood on them
• Any documentation or written communication that showed a relationship between Carla and Keyon
  • Carla downplayed their affair claiming it was just sex and knew Keyon was engaged and she was fine with it

From their search police came found:

• A pair of women’s size ten TredSafe shoes that matched the tread pattern from the crime scene
• A photograph of Keyon that was on Carla’s bedroom nightstand
• A handwritten note/poem with the initials K.P. on it

The Evidence

Both the shoes and the Rossi .38 caliber gun were sent off to the Mississippi State Crime Lab for testing. When the testing came back it confirmed that the soles of the TredSafe shoes matched the impressions left on the glass of the backdoor at Avis & Keyon’s house.

Projectiles from the Rossi .38 caliber gun were compared to ones removed from Avis’s body. They revealed that the gun was, in fact, the murder weapon.

Cell Phone Records

Investigators also looked into Carla’s cell phone records. Specifically what cell towers were pinged the night of the murder? Each cell tower covers a certain geographical range. If that cell tower becomes overloaded it doesn’t transfer the call to another tower it just blocks it.

What the records showed was that Avis & Keyon’s home was within a geographical range of a cell tower located on Lake Harbor Drive in Ridgeland. This cell tower has a 2-mile radius. Cell phone records showed that Carla answered a call at 5:37 pm within the range of Lake Harbor Drive and then terminated that same call still in the same geographical area.

At 6:04 pm Carla then placed a call still within the same range and at 6:07 pm she terminated the call, but this time it was outside the Lake Harbor Drive cell tower range. The cell phone evidence places Carla near the crime scene around the time of the murder. Investigators also looked at Avis’s cell phone records and it showed that her last call was at 5:36 pm. This was consistent with her traveling towards her home

Next, they took a look at Keyon’s calls. Police say that he placed two calls: one at 5:12 pm and another at 7:18 pm. Both calls coming from an area that covered Carla’s house and Chastain Middle School, but not where he lived. His calls that were placed at 8:41 pm and 8:56 pm were both in an area associated with the cell tower that covered his home.

So with these records, investigators started to secure their case against Carla Hughes.

December 8, 2006

Police upgraded the charges against Carla to two counts of capital murder. This was going to be a death penalty case. On July 30, 2008, Carla was formally indicted and her trial was scheduled for October 2009.

Carla Hughes

Carla Hughes was born on June 12, 1981, in Greenville, Mississippi, and had a privileged upbringing after being adopted by Carl & Lynda Hughes. She was put up for adoption by a cousin of Carl Hughes who could not afford to raise her. Carla’s biological mother asked the Hughes to adopt her, which they did. Carla would be their only child.

Carla was an honor student who was on the mayor’s youth council for her hometown. She was also a page with the Mississippi Senate. Carla participated in many area beauty pageants. She also competed in the Ms. National Teen Pageant and Ms. Teen America Pageant. At the age of 14, she was crowned the Mississippi State Champion for Tennessee Walking horses.

After graduating college with a teaching degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and a masters from Belhaven College; Carla was been working towards her doctorate in education at the time of her arrest. Prior to her arrest, she had no criminal history.

Unlucky in Love

For all of her accomplishments, she seemed to be unlucky when it came to love. When Carla was two months pregnant she was left at the altar by the baby’s father in 2004.

She had met Keyon Pittman while working at Chastain Middle School as a language arts teacher. The two soon started a sexual relationship. Carla was aware of Avis and the plans Keyon had to marry Avis who was pregnant with their first child. Carla had told the police in her interview that it was just sex. She knew that Keyon was going to marry Avis and she was fine with it.

That may have been what she told police, but her actions didn’t really seem to back that up. Carla would introduce Keyon to her friends as her future husband. On one occasion right after Thanksgiving, just prior to the murder, Carla had followed Avis and Keyon out of town. The couple was visiting some of Avis’s family.

Carla got a hotel room and called Keyon to join her. Keyon did, but wouldn’t stay as he needed to get back to Avis. It was after that weekend that Keyon says his relationship with Carla became more distant.

The Trial

The trial started on October 5, 2009. Carla Hughes plead not guilty and remains unemotional during much of the trial. Carla had been held in jail for over two years prior to the start of her trial. While in jail in February 2009 Carla received a copy of a marriage certificate indicating that Keyon was married.

This copy had been sent by investigators hoping that Carla would implicate Keyon in Avis’s murder. Police still felt he was somehow involved. Carla never admitted anything involving Keyon. Keyon had been texting and calling Carla after discovering Avis’s body and while at the police station. Her only response to the marriage certificate was “I’m not surprised.”

The district attorney, Michael Guest, laid out the state’s theory to a jury of 9 women and 3 men.  The state’s theory was that Carla had killed Avis so she could have Keyon all to herself. The evidence presented at trial included the shoe prints matching the tread on the backdoor to the home. Cell phone records placed Carla in the area at the time of the murder.

Then there was her cousin, Patrick Nash, who testified that he had given Carla the gun that was identified as the murder weapon. This was a few days before the murder. It was given to her fully loaded and returned on December 1st, empty.

There was also blood evidence. Avis’s blood was found on the shoes taken from Carla’s closet.

Keyon Takes the Stand

Keyon reluctantly took the stand for the prosecution as he had to be subpoenaed. By this time Keyon had moved out of the area and was married. His testimony was also the only time Carla broke her stoic demeanor during the trial. Keyon testified to his affair with Carla that began one month after finding out that Aviss was pregnant.

He also testified that they would often meet at Carla’s house, but on occasion, they met at his and Avis’s house when Avis was not around. Keyon admitted to going with Carla to Memphis for a romantic weekend a few weeks before the murder. He told Avis that he was helping a friend move.

He told the jury about what happened the weekend before the murder and how Carla had been pushing to meet his parents. At one point in their relationship, she claimed she was pregnant but she was not.

Keyon would also take the 5th on the advice of his counsel for some of the questions posed to him.

Carla’s defense attempted to implicate Keyon in Avis’s murder showing that Keyon had a key to Carla’s home. They got him to admit that he had borrowed Carla’s TredSafe shoes on a couple of occasions. If they weren’t successful in trying to implicate Keyton in Avis’s murder they at least were successful in showing the jury that he was a prolific womanizer, cheater, and liar.

The prosecution had asked Keyon if he had killed Avis and his unborn child and he said no. They then asked if he felt responsible for the murder of Avis and his unborn child and he said yes.

The Verdict

Carla did not take the stand in her own defense. The jury would come back after eight hours of deliberation with a verdict of guilty on both counts. Next, they had to decide if Carla would be sentenced to death.

On October 14, 2009, the jury deliberated for an hour and sentenced Carla Hughes now 28, to two counts of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Presently

Carla claims her innocence saying that she did not have anything to do with the murder of Avis Banks or her unborn child. She has made no statements regarding Keyon Pittman. She is currently housed at the Central Mississippi Correctional Institution.

In 2012 Carla appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court of Mississippi. Her verdict was upheld. One of the points of Carla’s appeal was that her attorney was ineffective as he was a civil tobacco litigator and not a criminal defense attorney.

Carla’s parents continue to believe in their daughter’s innocence. They feel that Keyon had the motive to want to murder Avis and that he framed Carla for the murders.

There is a bit of controversy over testimony that was given by Dr. Steven Hayne for the prosecution. Dr. Hayne was a contracted medical examiner for Mississippi who utilized state facilities to conduct autopsies at the rate of approximately 1,500 to 1,800 per year. He also netted over $1 million a year of taxpayer money for not only conducting autopsies but then testifying.

The issue seems to be that Dr. Hayne was found to have conducted serious forensic misconduct in at least two cases that were overturned. Men had been convicted and spent over 12 years in jail.

Dr. Hayne was removed from the approved list of medical examiners for the state in 2008. Neither the state of Mississippi nor the federal authorities felt it was necessary to review all of the autopsies and trial testimony that Dr. Hayne gave over his tenure to determine if there was more misconduct.

Resources

• George Jackson (songwriter)
• Watch Overkill in Mississippi | A Wedding and a Murder
• GoGetFunding account started for convict Carla Hughes
• Deadly Affair
• Man testifies he did not kill his pregnant fiancee – Picayune Item
• IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI NO. 2010-KA-01609-SCT CARLA HUGHES a/k/a CARLA A. HUGHES v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI DATE OF JUD
• Ex-teacher loses appeal in capital murder case
• Carla Hughes and Avis Banks: Fairy Tales Canceled
• Carla Hughes Was Framed In the State Of Mississippi
• Mississippi Doctor’s Autopsies at Center of Wrongful Conviction Filings
• Slain Teacher’s Fiance Confesses Affair with Suspect

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