Mother of Christa Pike's murder victim speaks out after botched execution: 'I broke down in tears'

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, October 14, 2026

The mother of Christa Pike’s 19-year-old murder victim, who traveled to Tennessee to watch her daughter’s killer be executed, says the state failed her family after Pike’s botched execution.

May Martinez is the mother of Colleen Slemmer, the teenager Pike was convicted of murdering three decades ago. Martinez and her husband traveled to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville to witness what she believed would be justice for her daughter.

“I think the state owes me a big apology,” Martinez told WTLV-TV after the failed execution. She is considering her legal options as she seeks answers about what happened during the execution. "All I wanted was justice."

Pike, now 50, had been sentenced to die for the 1995 murder of Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student. Prosecutors said Pike, then 18, and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed Slemmer. After multiple appeals, Pike’s execution was scheduled for Sept. 30.

Pike survived the execution attempt despite receiving two rounds of lethal pentobarbital injections. Martinez described watching her daughter’s killer talk and laugh after the injections.

“It’s hard. I broke down in tears,” Martinez told the outlet. “She was laying on the table, talking, still laughing, picking up her head.”

Martinez said the curtains were closed after the execution attempt and witnesses were told to leave the room. She said she was later told Pike was being taken to an off-site medical facility.

“I said, ‘I don’t agree with what you guys are doing. Now I have to worry about her being out,’” Martinez said. “And then I brought up, ‘Is she going to come back to the prison?’ ‘I don’t know what we’re doing with her yet.’ That’s the answers I got.”

Martinez also said she and her husband were left waiting at the prison for hours and were not allowed to leave without an escort.

“I said, ‘Here we are, 31 years, and you’re laughing in my face again,’” Martinez said. “And that’s what I feel like they did.”

In separate comments to WBIR last week, Martinez said she somehow knew Pike would not die. She said she doubted the state would try to execute her daughter’s killer again.

“It doesn’t matter what I think, they’re going to do what they’re going to do,” Martinez said when asked what outcome she wanted.

Pike spent more than a week at the off-site medical facility before being returned to prison. It is unclear whether Tennessee will reschedule her execution.

After the failed execution, Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee halted the remaining execution scheduled for this year and ordered an investigation into what went wrong.

Pike’s botched execution has drawn reactions from both opponents and supporters of capital punishment.

Death penalty opponents, such as Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, have pointed to Pike’s failed execution and the failed execution of Tony Carruthers in May as reasons Tennessee should suspend capital punishment.

“Since the botched execution in May of this year, people from diverse political backgrounds across Tennessee have called for a pause in executions to examine the problems with the execution process,” Porter said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.

“These pleas were ignored. The state of Tennessee has shown the world it cannot be trusted to implement capital punishment in a way that preserves human dignity and the rule of law,” she continued. “This has to stop now.”