She said she had accompanied him to the house to buy drugs and that the shootings took place after they returned later. The four victims were found dead July 18, 2003, in a Clear Lake-area home. Prosecution witnesses have said the killings appeared to have been drug-related. She and Snider went to the house to steal money and drugs — his idea, she said — and Snider surprised her by handing her a gun just before entering the house.
Sergeant Harris accompanied appellant on her transfer to Santa Rosa Hospital. He testified that appellant was relaxed and conversational during the hospital interview. Despite her treatments of morphine and Methadone, Sergeant Harris testified that appellant did not appear to be under the influence of any sort of intoxicant. Rather, he stated she was conscious and alert, and she made appropriate hand gestures when communicating her story. Paolilla’s husband, Stanley Justin Rott, testified at length how she confessed her role in the murders to him numerous times and how they were both addicted to heroin. Paolilla told police that she and Snider went to the Rowell home looking for drugs and Snider just started shooting the four, even putting his hand on the gun he had given her to hold and causing it to go off.
The couple were heroin addicts who had been living in squalor. The hotel room was littered with drugs and drug paraphernalia. However, after getting into an altercation, Christine and Christopher pulled guns out and aimed them at their friends. The four began to plead for their life, not really understanding what had transpired to make things go south so quickly.
Houston Police Sgt. Brian Harris said in an interview with Deborah Roberts that he believes Christine Paolilla still does not “own†the crime. “She came home to tell us … she was very upset … she cried most of the night,†said Paolilla, adding that Christine Paolilla was too upset to attend the girls’ funerals. But eventually she was able to forge new friendships that helped her feel like she belonged. By the time she was in kindergarten, she was diagnosed with an irreversible hair-loss condition called seekers nightmares alopecia. Christine’s parents, Lori Paolilla and stepfather Tom Dick, spoke to “20/20†exclusively about their daughter’s life before July 18, 2003.
Supreme Court ruling forbids capital punishment for those 17 and under at the time of the crime. He testified to calling in the tip to Crime Stoppers after learning of the offense from his wife. Rott said that he met appellant at a drug treatment center in Kerrville around November 2004, more than a year after the murders. During their courtship, appellant vaguely told him of an incident with her former boyfriend that resulted in the deaths of four people.
She was arrested on July 19, 2006, three years and one day after the murders were committed. Paolilla was convicted in October 2008 and sentenced to life in prison. Snider committed suicide in July 2006 before he was apprehended by police. Finally, even if the prosecutor's argument did encourage the jury to speculate on facts not in the record, evidence of appellant's participation in the murders was already well-substantiated. For instance, the Lackners witnessed appellant casually approaching Rowell's house on the day of the murders. In her third recorded statement, appellant herself admitted to being inside the home and holding a gun as her boyfriend pulled the trigger.