Carla Hughes Trial—the gun and the knife
Jurors are now deliberating in the murder trial of MS teacher, Carla Hughes. For once I’m not going to predict their verdict, because there is evidence in the case that “could cut either way”—a missing knife.
The accused, Carla Hughes, admits to having borrowed both a gun and a knife from a relative just days before her boyfriend’s pregnant fiancée was shot and stabbed to death. (She claimed she needed them for self-defense.) After the crime, she returned only the gun to the relative—and it was empty of bullets at that.
But my question is: Why a knife?
Actually, I have several questions about the knife:
- Does a woman ever seek to defend herself with a knife, especially when she also has access to a gun?
- Why borrow a knife in the first place? You don’t need a license to own a knife, and you can buy them in grocery stores.
- Assuming she borrowed the weapons in order to commit murder with them, why would she want a knife in addition to a gun?
- Who takes a knife in one hand and a gun in the other to murder someone? Especially to murder an unarmed, pregnant woman? (The knife was not used to cut open the victim’s womb.)
- Who breaks into a building—loudly, by kicking in a door—in broad daylight and holding a knife and a gun? Couldn’t she have knocked on the door politely and then pulled out the gun and the knife once inside the house?
- What happened to the knife? Apparently it was not retrieved from the crime scene. And if the killer took both weapons away from the scene, why didn’t he or she throw them both away? Why would Ms. Hughes have saved the gun in order to return it to her relative, but not the knife? A gun is generally easier to link to bullets than a knife is to knife wounds. (And don’t say killers are stupid and they don’t think about such issues. Ms. Hughes is highly educated and smart.)
I have many, many questions about this case, which neither the prosecution nor defense even attempted to answer. Since the prosecution is burdened with proof, though, I feel they ought to have had an answer to every question.
I followed this case with a lot of interest. I had the same questions about how she could have kicked in a door in broad daylight and fired a gun 4 times without anyone hearing or seeing anything.
Here are my questions:
1) Where's the knife? And why didn't the police press Keyon about the knife since the testimony was that he was the one that had it, not Carla?
2)The cell phone records were weak. Did they show that she was at Avis' house or simply within a few miles of it?
3)Keyon lied to police about why he didn't call 911. He said that he couldn't connect to 911 from his phone but we now know that isn't true. Why didn't this raise any red flags?
The biggest mystery is WHY would someone so attractive and successful throw their life away over a man?
Finally- The gun and Carla's lies to police plus her lack of concern about what happened to her fellow teacher Avis make her look guilty. My opinion is that Hughes and Keyon planned this together and were equally responsible for Avis' death. But Carla cannot ever implicate Keyon without also admitting her own guilt, which she will never do. So I guess she will grow old and die in prison. This is a sad case all around.
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