Jury convicts Scott, sentences her to life in prison
By Staff
Jonathan Willis
Two days after showing no emotion at all as jurors convicted her of capital murder, Christie Michelle Scott had little expression again Friday as those same jurors recommended she spend the rest of her life in prison.
Scott, 30, was convicted this week of killing her six year-old son, Mason, in a fire at the family's home on Signore Drive last August.
Prosecutors believe she set a fire on a vacant bed in Mason's room in the early morning hours of Aug. 16.
After more than four weeks of testimony, jurors found Scott guilty Wednesday on three alternate counts of capital murder.
She was convicted of committing capital murder for financial gain, committing capital murder during a first-degree arson and committing capital murder by intentionally killing someone younger than 14.
Prosecutors contended Scott started the fire to collect $175,000 in life insurance from her son's death, including a $100,000 policy she purchased the day before the fire.
Defense attorney Robert Tuten maintained the fire was an accident.
Jurors recommended Friday that Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey sentence Scott to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The death penalty or life without parole are the only options available in a capital murder conviction.
Dempsey will announce his decision during a sentencing on Aug. 5.
Following Wednesday's jury verdict, Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing called the crime the most "heinous" in county history.
"There's nothing worse than a mother murdering a child for insurance and because they didn't want him," he said.
Several members of Scott's family, including her husband, Jeremy, friends and former schoolmates pleaded with jurors Thursday to spare Scott's life.
"It was wrong for Mason to have been killed and it's wrong for the state to kill Christie Scott," Tuten told jurors before they rendered a decision.
Rushing asked the jury to give Scott the death penalty.
Scott is the first woman in Franklin to be convicted of capital murder.
Rushing considers the conviction a bittersweet victory.
"It's not something you go celebrate," he said. "It's a different feeling all together. You feel vindication for the victim and you feel justice has been served for them. It's also a feeling that you realize someone is being held responsible for a death, and they may serve the rest of their life in prison or even be sentenced to death.
"It's not jubilation, but it's a big relief that the jury saw what we saw when we charged her with these crimes."
Tuten said Friday that groundwork for an appeal is already underway.
