phd student killed ex boyfriend

PhD student stalked, killed ex-boyfriend in Southwest DC home, police say

WASHINGTON (FOX NEWS) - A Chicago Ph.D. student studying criminology fatally shot her ex-boyfriend at his Southwest DC  home, authorities said.

Nijinsky Dix, 37, a student at the University of Illinois Chicago, has been charged with second-degree murder in the slaying Saturday of 44-year-old Terry Hickman, whom she dated for three months, the South Bend Tribune reported.

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Shortly before 5:30 p.m., police responded to reports of gunfire at the apartment complex in the nation’s capital.

They found Dix kneeling beside the bullet-riddled body of Hickman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, the outlet reported.

Police said Dix was holding in her left hand a gun, which officers ordered her to put down.

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She was also on speakerphone with someone, who identified themselves to authorities as her mother, the Tribune reported.

Her mother told officers that Dix called her and said, “He pushed me, and I shot him.”

Dix was taken to the hospital, where she complained of memory loss and back pain but showed no signs of being assaulted, NBC Chicago reported.

READ MORE: DC police investigating after woman killed in Southeast triple shooting

When questioned about the incident, Dix cited her memory problems and asked them for information that could help jog her recollection, the outlet reported.

They showed her a photo of Hickman, which prompted Dix to cry and repeatedly shout, “Get it away from me,” the report said.

Hickman’s family told authorities that he and Dix had dated for three months before the pair broke up in May, the outlet reported. They claimed that Dix had started “stalking” her former flame after the split.

It’s unclear how or why Dix ended up in Washington, DC.

She has been pursuing a doctorate in criminology, law and justice in Chicago, while also working as an employee at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where she’s the director of a talent search program, according to the colleges.

Notre Dame said they’re “aware of her arrest and will cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate,” the outlets reported.

Dix also faces charges for possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm, police said.

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PhD Student Who Works at Notre Dame Accused of Stalking, Killing Her Ex-Boyfriend

Nijinsky Dix, 37, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of her ex-boyfriend

A 37-year-old woman was arrested Saturday in connection with the shooting death of her ex-boyfriend, Washington, D.C., police confirmed in a press release .

Shortly before 5:30 p.m., law enforcement responded to call for the sound of gunshots at an apartment complex in Washington, D.C., the release states.

“Upon arrival, members located an adult male, inside an apartment suffering from gunshot wounds,” police stated. “[T]he victim displayed no signs consistent with life.”

Police confirmed 44-year-old Terry Hickman died at the scene.

Hours later, police arrested and charged Nijinsky Dix with second-degree murder while armed, police confirmed in its press release. “This offense is domestic in nature.”

According to court records obtained by NBC5 in Chicago , an individual allegedly told investigators that Dix had been in a three-monthlong relationship with Hickman that ended in May.

Police said that according to the individual, Dix was allegedly stalking Hickman.

The court records stated that Dix was at the apartment and allegedly was kneeling at Hickman’s feet when detectives arrived to the scene.

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Investigators discovered a cell phone and determined Dix was speaking with her mother, who was still on the line, according to the court records.

“The individual stated the defendant called her and stated, ‘He pushed me, and I shot him,’” the court records stated.

The station also reported that Dix was a PhD student at the University of Illinois but worked at the University of Notre Dame, where she was the director of the Talent Search Upward Bound program, which helps people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It was unclear whether Dix had obtained an attorney or appeared in front of a judge to enter a plea.

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Chicago PhD Student Charged With Murder of Ex-Boyfriend in Washington DC

One witness said dix was stalking the victim, who she dated for three months, published november 16, 2020 • updated on november 17, 2020 at 9:35 am.

A PhD student at the University of Illinois Chicago, who works at the University of Notre Dame, was charged with murder Saturday in the death of her ex-boyfriend in Washington, D.C., according to police and court documents.

Nijinsky Latassia Dix, 37, of Jacksonville, Fla., was arrested and charged with second degree murder while armed, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm, the Metropolitan Police Department stated in a news release.

At approximately 5:26 p.m. on Saturday evening, police officers responded to a shots fired call in the 1000 block of Fourth Street, Southwest, and entered an apartment where they found a male individual who had been shot.

The victim, Terry Hickman, 44, was pronounced dead.

According to court documents, when officers arrived at the apartment, they saw the defendant, identified as Dix, kneeling at the victim's feet with her right hand raised and her left hand between her legs. Officers noticed that the defendant was holding a handgun, and asked to her drop the weapon, at which point she complied, the documents stated.

While on scene, officers heard a voice and saw that a cell phone was connected to a call on speaker phone. Officers picked up the phone and talked to the person on the other line who identified herself as Dix's mother, the court documents stated.

"The individual stated the defendant called her and stated, 'He pushed me, and I shot him,'" the court filings continued.

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Dix was taken to the hospital where a doctor conducted a health assessment. Emergency medical staff reported she had an abrasion to her inside left lower lip, but the cause was unclear, according to the documents.

Following an exam, a doctor said the defendant reported back pain and that there was a period of time in which she "blacked out" and lost memory. The doctor advised she was unsure what would cause the defendant to lose memory.

The doctor informed detectives Dix didn't present with any physical signs of trauma and didn't indicate she had been assaulted, the court filings stated.

Police talked to multiple witnesses, one of whom who said they heard shots while outside the building, heard a woman scream "oh my God," and then saw a woman walking back and forth on a balcony.

The witness said the woman appeared to be holding a phone and gun, but that they didn't know weapons well and didn't want to "fully commit" to what the woman was holding.

Other witnesses told police they heard a woman say "help me" after multiple shots went off.

Another individual, who was familiar with Hickman, said she observed Dix with the victim in a parking garage prior to the shooting.

While processing the scene, evidence technicians found a gun that had a round in the chamber. The gun's magazine, according to court documents, contained several rounds of ammunition.

After being released from the hospital, Dix was taken to a police station where she again complained of memory loss. During an interview with detectives, Dix asked police for some sort of information that may jog her memory about what happened, the filings stated.

When shown a photograph of Hickman, Dix began crying and repeating "get it away from me."

At one point she then said, "you don't do people you love like that, that's not love, I don't want that, he can't do people like that, you don't do people you love like that. I'm sorry."

Detectives talked to an individual who said "the woman was stalking the decedent and that she was from out of state but somehow found out where he resided," according to the court filings.

That person said Dix and Hickman had a three-month long relationship that ended in May.

According to the University of Notre Dame, Dix is the director of the "Talent Search Upward Bound" program known as "TRIO."

In a statement, a university spokesman confirmed Dix is employed by Notre Dame and said the university "is aware of her arrest and will cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate."

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Chicago ph.d. student accused of stalking, killing ex-boyfriend.

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A Chicago Ph.D. student studying criminology fatally shot her ex-boyfriend at his Washington, DC, home, authorities said.

Nijinsky Dix, 37, a student at the University of Illinois Chicago, has been charged with second-degree murder in the slaying Saturday of 44-year-old Terry Hickman, whom she dated for three months, the South Bend Tribune reported .

Shortly before 5:30 p.m., police responded to reports of gunfire at the apartment complex in the nation’s capital.

They found Dix kneeling beside the bullet-riddled body of Hickman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, the outlet reported.

Police said Dix was holding in her left hand a gun, which officers ordered her to put down.

She was also on speakerphone with someone, who identified themselves to authorities as her mother, the Tribune reported.

Her mother told officers that Dix called her and said, “He pushed me, and I shot him.”

Dix was taken to the hospital, where she complained of memory loss and back pain but showed no signs of being assaulted, NBC Chicago reported .

When questioned about the incident, Dix cited her memory problems and asked them for information that could help jog her recollection, the outlet reported.

They showed her a photo of Hickman, which prompted Dix to cry and repeatedly shout, “Get it away from me,” the report said.

Hickman’s family told authorities that he and Dix had dated for three months before the pair broke up in May, the outlet reported. They claimed that Dix had started “stalking” her former flame after the split.

It’s unclear how or why Dix ended up in Washington, DC.

She has been pursuing a doctorate in criminology, law and justice in Chicago, while also working as an employee at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where she’s the director of a talent search program, according to the colleges.

Notre Dame said they’re “aware of her arrest and will cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate,” the outlets reported.

Dix also faces charges for possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm, police said.

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Idaho Murders: What We Know

A man who was studying for a Ph.D. at a nearby university is charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho undergraduates. Many questions remain.

By Mike Baker and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Though a suspect has been arrested and charged in the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, a series of mysteries remain about why the victims were targeted and what evidence prosecutors have against the suspect.

The police have said the killings took place sometime around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022, after the victims — Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 — had spent a typical Saturday night out near the university campus in Moscow, Idaho. They returned to the house in the early hours of Sunday.

In court documents, the police said that a combination of evidence had led them to arrest a suspect, Bryan Kohberger, a Ph.D. student at Washington State University, whose campus is in Pullman, Wash., a few miles west of Moscow. Mr. Kohberger was taken into custody at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, after the case had remained unsolved for more than six weeks.

Chief among that evidence is a leather knife sheath that was left on a bed in one of the two bedrooms where the murders took place. A Moscow police corporal said in an affidavit that DNA was found on the sheath. Prosecutors later said that Mr. Kohberger’s DNA, which was tested after his arrest, proved to be a statistical match.

Investigators have said that they used cellphone tower data to track Mr. Kohberger’s phone on the night of the killings, and obtained surveillance video that showed a white vehicle like Mr. Kohberger’s repeatedly circling around the victims’ house that night.

Mr. Kohberger has offered an explanation for what he was doing on the night of the killings. In a court filing, his lawyers suggested that he was out “driving alone” around the time that the attack occurred.

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A student from China told the University of Utah her boyfriend was threatening her. She was found dead weeks later.

A trove of documents released by the University of Utah on Tuesday reveals a series of failures leading up to the death of a Chinese student, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. 

Salt Lake City police found international student Zhifan Dong, 19, dead in an off-campus motel room on Feb. 11, when they responded to reports from the University of Utah police department that a man was threatening to kill his girlfriend, officials said . Dong’s former boyfriend, Haoyu Wang, 26, was also in the room when police arrived and claimed he had killed Dong before trying to take his own life with drugs, according to the report. He is also an international student from China who was studying at the University of Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribune .

Wang has been charged with murder and the attorney representing him, Joseph C. Alamilla, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

He will face a competency hearing on Aug. 8, according to court documents. “Once that determination is made, we are prepared to move forward to trial and to vigorously defend against the claims made against him to a jury of his peers,” Alamilla said, adding in part that “there are mental health issues concerning everyone involved in this case that will need to be addressed prior to trial.”

For weeks before Dong’s death, the university knew she was in a dangerous intimate partner violence situation, according to a timeline released by the university. On Jan. 14, Dong reported Wang’s suicidal ideations to housing staff and made them aware that her boyfriend had been arrested by police two days earlier after an altercation with her, the timeline notes. She was issued a temporary protective order by police after the incident. The university added in the timeline that there is currently “no process or regulation requiring local police departments to notify colleges or universities of arrests or protective orders involving students.”

Bailey McGartland, Dong’s roommate who is also a student at the school, told the campus newspaper she helped Dong file reports of domestic violence and requests for wellness checks. 

 “I felt so angry,” McGartland told the Daily Utah Chronicle. “It was absolutely preventable.” 

The documents, which were made public after The Salt Lake City Tribune pushed for public records on the case to be released, describe how former campus-housing employees delayed notifying the university’s police department about reports of intimate partner violence. They also provide evidence of “insufficient and unprofessional internal communication,” University President Taylor Randall said, as well as “processes, procedures and trainings in housing that needed to be clarified and improved.” 

“Although the university made extensive efforts to support and ensure the safety of Dong and provide assistance to Wang, our self-evaluation revealed shortcomings,” Randall said. 

Administrators also chastised housing staff in a letter to them in mid-March for not elevating Dong’s case to a “welfare” matter, a higher classification of concern. The letter was among the documents released this week.

Dong’s parents, Junfang Shen and Mingsheng Dong, who are from China’s Henan province, said that the university had “failed” their daughter. 

“We trusted the University of Utah with our daughter’s safety, and they betrayed that trust,” they said in a statement provided to NBC News by their lawyer. “They knew Zhifan was in serious danger but failed to protect her when she needed it the most. We do not want her death to be in vain.”

Their lawyer, Brian C. Stewart, of the firm Parker & McConkie, said in an email that the family had retained his firm and planned to sue the university for failing to take the necessary steps to protect Dong. 

The same firm also secured a multimillion-dollar settlement from the university in October 2020 in a wrongful death suit. In that case, a track athlete named Lauren McCluskey had called campus police more than 20 times to report being harassed by an ex-boyfriend before he killed her in October 2018. University officials had cited improvements in communication and coordination between its public safety and other departments since McCluskey’s death, but an independent audit released in April, which was after Dong’s death, identified weak points such as a lag in officers receiving timely information.  

Stewart said in a statement that it is “inexcusable that the University continues to make the same mistakes with the same tragic consequences.”  

The university will implement regular audits of conduct, racism and bias incidents in university-managed housing, among other reforms, the school’s president said. 

Misidentification was among the failures in Dong’s case

Among the missteps by the University of Utah leading up to Dong’s death, her name was repeatedly confused with Wang’s in a meeting with housing staff, internal documents released by the university show. University officials also mistakenly called the number of another student on campus who shared the same name as Wang, according to the timeline . University employees eventually reached the correct Haoyu Wang. 

Misidentification can be an example of racist behavior rooted in colonialism and is a common problem faced by many Asians in the U.S., including international students, four professors who study Asian American and Asian diaspora studies said. 

“There’s a lot of longstanding research on facial recognition that tells us we’re more likely to recognize people of our own race, and categorize people of other races,” said Natasha Warikoo, a sociology professor at Tufts University. “Some of the research shows that contact with another race kind of reduces that bias.” 

Misidentification of people of Asian descent by Westerners dates all the way back to European colonialism in China, according to Mae Ngai, an Asian American studies professor at Columbia University. She said colonists didn’t “bother to register what any individual looked like, because they didn’t see them as individuals.” 

As Chinese people immigrated to the United States, racism followed. In the 19th century, Chinese people often were convicted of crimes by all-white juries who had difficulty distinguishing Chinese people from one another, Ngai writes in her book, “The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics.” 

“That’s a very long history,” she said. “That idea, that Chinese are just a massive, undifferentiated, not fully formed person, persisted.”

Takeo Rivera, an assistant professor at Boston University who teaches Asian American literature, said the sense of “interchangeability” of people of Asian descent still infects American society today, particularly in higher education, where there is a disproportionate reliance on international students for tuition dollars. 

Dong’s case “really is a compounding of orientalist interchangeability with the patriarchy of power and control that we see kind of cross-culturally from straight men,” Rivera said.

If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

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Why Was Yale Student Annie Le Murdered 5 Days Before Her Wedding?

Her decomposing body was found stuffed upside down in a wall.

Everyone agreed Annie Le was exceptional. With a smile that could light up a room, the 24-year-old had been an academic star through high school and college and was on her way to earning a doctorate at Yale University, the prestigious Ivy League college located in New Haven, Connecticut. She was five days away from getting married to the love of her life when she went missing from a lab on campus in 2009. Her dead body would be found the same day as her intended nuptials, and though the killer would eventually be found and convicted, the true reasons behind her death remain a mystery.

Annie Le’s murder is revisited in Oxygen's series A Wedding and A Murder , revealing the events that led to her body being found upside down in a Yale building.

RELATED: Woman Starts Slowly Poisoning Husband Just Months After Their 'Happy' Wedding

Who Is Annie Le?

Annie Le was born in San Jose, California in 1985 and grew up in a large, tight-knit Vietnamese-American family. She was the valedictorian of her graduating high school class and voted “most likely to be the next Einstein” by her classmates, according to The New York Times . She received $160,000 in scholarships and got her undergraduate degree in cell developmental biology from the University of Rochester in Upstate New York.

While attending the public university, she met and fell in love with Jonathan Widawsky, according to the University's tribute . They were to be married on September 13, 2009. Tragically, she would never see that date.

At Yale, Annie studied pharmacology and monitored the effects of different medicines on mice. The campus laboratories were located at 10 Amistad Street, and security camera footage captured her entering the building at 10 AM on September 8. She would never leave the building alive.

What Happened to Annie Le?

When she didn’t return home later that night, one of her roommates reported her missing, the Hartford Courant reported. Her pocketbook and cellphone were later found at the lab, according to ABC News .

Ironically, months before her disappearance, Le had written an article about campus safety titled "Crime and Safety in New Haven" for Yale Medical School's B Magazine.

Police weren’t initially sure they were dealing with a homicide and believed Le had perhaps gotten cold feet about the wedding. More confusing was the fact that footage never showed Le leaving the building, which required visitors to scan ID cards when entering and exiting. However, after finding bloody clothing in the ceiling of 10 Amistad Street on September 12, they declared the building a crime scene.

RELATED: Man Murders Sister, Her Husband To Cover Up Incestuous Relationship

According to the Yale Daily News , on September 13, police noticed a smell “similar to that of a decomposing body” and brought in cadaver dogs. At 5 p.m., when Annie Le should have been walking down the aisle at her wedding, her decomposing body was found stuffed upside down in a wall. 

"It is my tragic duty to report that the body of a female was found in the basement of the Amistad Building late this afternoon. The identity of the woman has not yet been established," then-Yale President Richard wrote in a letter to students cited by ABC News. "Law enforcement officials remain on the scene; this is an active investigation, and we hope it is resolved quickly."

“[The killer] just crushed her in there. She was like mush — she was so smashed up you couldn’t recognize her,” an unidentified police source told The New York Post .

Annie Le's Cause of Death

The state medical examiner determined that Annie Le died from “traumatic asphyxiation by neck compression,” as reported by CBS News . It would later be revealed that she had a broken jaw and broken collarbone, injuries the medical examiner said happened when she was alive.

Her bra had been pushed up, and her panties were pulled down to her ankles. Detectives found semen on a panty liner and other areas of her body. These findings suggested she had been sexually assaulted.

Who Is Raymond Clark?

Even before Annie Le's body had been found, police began zeroing in on Ray Clark, a lab technician who worked at the lab she used in a custodial function, according to ABC News . Clark, who did not attend Yale but worked there, was known to be hard on students who left the lab dirty, making more work for him. An unnamed source told ABC News that Clark had emailed Le to complain about her leaving dirty mice cages behind after one of her studies.

A DNA sample was the final piece of the puzzle that brought about his arrest on September 17.

Ray Clark eventually pleaded guilty  to murder in exchange for a 44-year prison sentence. He previously faced charges of murder and felony murder, both of which held a prison sentence of 60 years in prison. 

He also entered an Alford plea for once count of attempt to commit sexual assault, meaning he does not admit to the charge but concedes there's enough evidence for a conviction.

Clark, who was 26 at the time of sentencing, won’t be released until 2053, at which time he will be almost 70 years old. At the hearing, he apologized to Le's family, stating, according to the New Haven Register , "I alone am responsible for the death of Annie Le and causing tremendous pain to all who loved and cared about Annie."

Police got the man who killed Annie Le, but they still don’t know how it happened and why.

Find out the full story of Annie Le’s murder on this episode of A Wedding and A Murder.

(This story was originally published on June 24, 2018. It was updated on May 24, 2023.)

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Sister of PhD student in ‘throuple’ believe he was killed out of jealousy as boyfriend remains on the run

The sister of a 31-year-old PhD student murdered last week in Alabama believes her brother was killed by his boyfriend out of jealousy and possessiveness.

Deundray Cottrell, of Atlanta, went missing in Birmingham on July 4 while visiting family for the holiday with his boyfriend Julian Taylor Morris, 31.

His body was found two days later in a shed close to the home of his sister, Angelica Harris, and his death ruled a homicide. No arrests have been made.

A murder investigation was launched and Morris has been named a person of interest. A search for Morris, who has ties to Texas, Miami and New Jersey, is underway.

Harris told Al.com on Wednesday that her brother was in a throuple relationship with Morris and another man, DeEric Williams. Cottrell and Williams had been together for 14 years, according to his sister, and Morris became part of the throuple three years ago. All three of the men lived together and worked together.

“From what I understand, Julian was starting cause issues between Deundray and De Eric,’’ Harris told Al.com. “He would start spats that would isolate DeEric and Deundray from each other.”

Cottrell, Morris and Williams described themselves on Instagram as Atlanta’s hottest creative male performance trio and event hosts.

Williams, who did not travel to Birmingham, reacted to the news of Cottrell’s death on Facebook.

“My entire heart has been ripped out of my body. Good people are hurting. I wish I never let y’all go to Birmingham without me. No one can ever replace you,” he wrote.

At the time of his death, Cottrell was working on his doctoral degree. He had previously attended Jacksonville State University.

Harris told WSB-TV that she last saw her brother at 10pm on July 4 after he went upstairs to check on his dog during the fireworks. Morris disappeared around the same time, she said.

She said Morris was the one who then alerted her that her brother was missing.

Morris allegedly told Angelica that her brother had jumped off the patio balcony, then “took off running.”

But as the family began to search for him, she said that Morris’ behavior was strange. “While we looked – Julian didn’t,” she told the TV station. “At one point when everybody was searching, Julian had fixed a plate and was sitting there eating, and he looked at me and said, OMG, the food is so good.”

Birmingham police officers said they were dispatched to a missing person call at a residence in the 7900 Block of 4th Avenue South on July 4.

Ring doorbell cameras in the area later revealed Cottrell running through backyards and jumping over a gate on the night he went missing.

“It looked like he was looking for refuge,” Angelica told Al.com. “He was running for his life.”

On July 5, police recovered some of Cottrell’s clothing in the area, and a neighbor provided officers with surveillance footage of him.

Officers discovered Cottrell’s body the following day in a detached shed in the backyard of an abandoned residence.

“Details surrounding this investigation are suspicious,” Birmingham police said.

Victor Revill, an attorney representing Morris, told al.com that he is a “college-educated veteran whom has served his country faithfully as a Marine. He has no prior misdemeanor or felony convictions.”

He continued: “Despite the false narratives that are being promulgated about him in this situation, he loved Deundray Cottrell and is currently grieving the death of his loved one. Mr Morris wants answers as well and is awaiting those answers after a full and thorough investigation has been completed.”

How the Evidence Piled Up Against Shayna Hubers in the Murder of Ryan Poston

Shayna hubers alleged she was in an abusive relationship, but two juries found her guilty of killing her boyfriend ryan poston in cold blood..

Ryan Carter Poston was at home in Highland Heights, Ky., getting ready to go out for drinks with the reigning Miss Ohio, Audrey Bolte , on Oct. 12, 2012.

When the 29-year-old lawyer failed to show up for what was supposed to be their first date after months of online chatting and texting, Audrey eventually just went home and never heard from him again.

It turned out that Ryan was dead, shot six times by his on-and-off girlfriend of 18 months,  Shayna Hubers .

"Ryan was as bright as he was kind and as principled as he was caring," read a statement released by his family the next day. "His passing is an unspeakable hardship to so many people. We ask that all of Ryan's family and friends as well as our community to keep Ryan and those who loved him in their thoughts and prayers. We want to make it clear that Ryan was trying to end this relationship; he was trying to move on with his life. Tragically, his life was taken from him. Justice must now be served."

In this case, there was no question of  who had pulled the trigger. 

Shayna was the one who called 911 to report a shooting, and she was still at Ryan's apartment when police arrived. After just a few hours in custody, the 21-year-old was charged with murder.

"I knew he was gonna die or have a completely deformed face," she said that night, per video from the police interrogation room . "He's very vain. One of our last conversations we had that was good was that he wants to get a nose job. And I shot him right here. I gave him his nose job he wanted."

Shayna was recorded saying a lot of things in that room, including unprompted comments such as, "I don't know if anyone will ever want to marry me if they know that I killed a boyfriend in self-defense—not funny." She also sang "Amazing Grace," and at one point danced around the room, singing and snapping her fingers, "I did it! Yes, I did it!"

And so the question of why became the real mystery.

A Rough Relationship

Ryan met Shayna through Facebook in March 2011, compelled to send a friend request after admiring a photo of the then-19-year-old in a bikini taken during spring break in Daytona Beach, Fla., according to court testimony  from her July 2015 sentencing hearing. They met in person and started dating, photos they shared on social media showing your average young couple.

"I would say I was a very fun college kid," Shayna, who graduated from University of Kentucky with her bachelor's degree in the spring of 2012, later told WCOP 9 News in a jailhouse interview.

According to Ryan's friends and family from their trial testimony and media interviews, he was on the rebound after the end of a long relationship with Lauren Worley , and he started to lose interest in Shayna fairly early on but never fully broke it off.

"He just wasn't able to," his friend  Tom Awadalla said on ABC News'  20/20 in 2015. "He was too nice, didn't want to hurt her feelings."

Another pal, Matt Herren , described Ryan to CBS News'  48 Hours   in 2014 as "the type of person that you want in your life. Not just a friend, but a loving son, a protective, adoring older brother." 

But Shayna, a graduate student at Eastern Kentucky University who wanted to be a guidance counselor, insisted that being "too nice" wasn't Ryan's problem. She alleged that he was a controlling, abusive boyfriend who kept loaded guns in the house.

Ryan's neighbor Nikki Carnes  told 48 Hours  that from, what she heard from Shayna, she believed that Ryan was "playing mind games" with his girlfriend.

"She would always tell me that he would say she needed a boob job or a face lift and that she was fat, she needed to lose some weight," Nikki said. But "she always told me she loved him. She picked up his laundry, she did his laundry, she took his dog out, she went and bought him food. She did everything for him."

Sharon Hubers , Shayna's mother, told CBS News, "She's far from evil. Shayna has a heart of gold. She's like her mommy...a loving spirit. That's what I want the world to know."

Disturbing Behavior

People close to Ryan maintained that Shayna was the one who had issues, his ex-girlfriend Lauren Worley telling 20/20 , "She used to go places asking everyone if they knew me and if they thought I was prettier than her. It was like she had an obsession, beyond Ryan."

Lauren and Ryan had previously lived together and, she said, "we broke up always thinking—in the back of my mind, at least—that we would end up back together." She still had the two dogs they acquired as a couple, Lily and Max. 

Ryan's friend Allie Wagner told  48 Hours  of Shayna, "I think she had a goal, in the beginning, to make him settle down with her. And when she wasn't becoming successful, that became a problem." Allie read a Facebook message Ryan sent her: "Literally probably the craziest f-king person I have ever met. She almost scares me."

Ryan also  texted a cousin , "This is getting to be restraining order level crazy...She's shown up at my condo like 3 times and refuses to leave each time."

Meanwhile, Shayna was chronicling her own spiraling feelings in texts to friends.

"He says he is only with me bc I make him feel so awful when I cry," Shayna wrote to one, per messages reported on by  20/20 . "My love has turned to hate."

To another pal she wrote a few weeks before Ryan's death, per 20/20 , "When I go to the shooting range [with] ryan tonight I want to turn around and shoot and kill him and play like [it's] an accident."

Toxic Texting

Ryan had messaged Shayna back in February 2012, eight months before he was killed, "You can tell people you broke up with me," according to texts reported on by 48 Hours .  She resisted, replying that she loved him, "Far more than you deserve."

In March, the report continued, he pleaded with her to "STOP texting me." Then in April, "I NO LONGER HAVE THE PATIENCE TO DEAL WITH YOU."

Campbell County Commonwealth's Attorney Michelle Snodgrass , who prosecuted the case, told  48 Hours that investigators found "hundreds of thousands of messages. And most of the messages were from Shayna. For every one message Ryan sent, she probably sent 50. She couldn't stop herself."

Friend and fellow attorney  Ken Hawley remembered Shayna texting Ryan "50 to 100 times a day. She would just wear him down and exhaust him to the point where he would say, 'OK, Shayna.'...He kept doing the easy thing, which was staying with her."

Ryan's ex Lauren told 20/20 , " I was right there. I wish I would have known or paid attention, because I might have been able to stop it." Multiple friends also told  48 Hours they wish they had more forcefully encouraged Ryan to end the relationship for good.

"I knew she was a stalker," Ken said. "I thought she was perfectly capable of causing a scene. But murder?"

The Killing

Despite the heated messages, Ryan and Shayna were back together by the summer, yet on the outs again in late August, when Ryan texted her "I'm turning off the phone and padlocking the door." Discussing the import of these messages with Highland Heights Police Chief Bill Birkenhauer ,  48 Hours ' Peter Van Sant  said that Shayna then sent Ryan at least 100 messages over the next nine hours until Ryan replied, "I'm not reading any of these. Stop."

Asked what that said about her behavior, Birkenhauer replied, "This message goes back to, she's obsessed with Ryan Poston."

But Shayna still had a key to Ryan's condo, and on the night of Oct. 11, the pair spent time at Shayna's mother and stepfather's house and then she slept at his place, according to her mom, Sharon Hubers. 

"I don't know if it was part of Ryan's attempt to let her down easy. I just don't know," Sharon later testified when asked if that sounded like the behavior of someone about to break up with his girlfriend.

When she called 911 at around 9 p.m. on Oct. 12, Shayna told the operator, per the recording of the call, "I killed my boyfriend in self-defense." Probed for more details, she continued, "He beat me and tried to carry me out of the house and I came back in to get my things and he was right in front of me and he reached down and grabbed the gun, and I grabbed it out of his hand and pulled the trigger."

Asked how long ago that had happened, she said, "10, 15 minutes...not even that long."

Sharon Hubers later testified that Shayna actually called  her first, sounding "hysterical, terrified, in shock." She said she told her daughter to call 911 and "tell them where you are and exactly what happened."

Police took Shayna into custody and after being read her rights she asked for a lawyer—but, as video of the exchange showed, she proceeded to talk anyway without being questioned. Several officers traded off sitting with her.

"If I had to go to jail, can you shower there? Or do you just get really dirty?" Shayna asked one cop.

At another point, she said, "He's pulled guns on me as jokes before...And I shot him in self-defense because he's done stuff before where I've hit my head on a headboard...and could've died!"

But later in her mostly one-sided conversation, she told an officer that Ryan had been yelling at her, calling her a "f--king hillbilly," and then she "just picked up the gun" that was sitting on his dining table. "And in the middle of him doin' somethin' with his arm or saying somethin' crazy, I shot him."

He was "twitching," she recalled, so "I shot him a couple of more times just to make sure he was dead 'cause I didn't wanna watch him die."

Shayna testified at a 2014 bail hearing that she stuck with Ryan because he "was going through a lot, and he needed moral support. And I was always good to him." She was upfront to the police about shooting him, she explained, because "I believed in my innocence. And I wanted to see my mother and go home."

She had been locked up since her arrest in October 2012, bail having initially been denied. It was set at $1.5 million after this hearing but Shayna's family was unable to come up with that amount and she remained in jail throughout the proceedings.

Her murder trial in Campbell County Circuit Court began in April 2015. Shayna pleaded not guilty by reason of self defense.

The prosecution argued that she was an obsessed stalker who was unable to accept that Ryan didn't want to see her anymore and shot him in cold blood, the date he was supposed to go on with a beauty queen that night the final straw.

Cecily Miller , one of Shayna's cellmates, testified that the accused had sounded pretty "carefree" when she talked about the shooting, and laughed when she recalled "giving him the nose job he always wanted."

Cecily also  shared her memories of bunking with Shayna  on Lifetime's  Cellmate Secrets  last year, as did fellow inmate Holly Nivens , who testified during the 2015 trial that Shayna told her that bruises she'd shown to Ryan's neighbor, Nikki Carnes, were actually self-inflicted.

"She would purposely, like, pull her arms up so the neighbors would see bruises on her arms," Holly said in court.

Holly said on  Cellmate Secrets   that Shayna took notes on the twists and turns in the Jodi Arias murder case , which was "a big thing" at the time. Jodi was accused of killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander  in 2008 and, after initially making up wildly opposing stories, claimed self-defense, saying Travis had been abusive. She's serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

"She was so wrapped up in her case," Holly said of Shayna, "comparing herself with Jodi Arias."

At trial the defense maintained that Shayna feared for her life, that Ryan was in a rage on Oct. 12, 2012, and pushing her around the room. And after she shot him once, she kept shooting out of fear he'd get up and kill  her .

Shayna's friend Christina Keeling , a nurse, testified, "She's a very sweet, gentle, happy person. She's not this horrible person she's been portrayed as."

The Verdict

But after barely five hours of deliberation, a jury found Shayna guilty of murder on April 25, 2015. They recommended 40 years in prison—a sentence Ryan's ex Lauren found far too lenient.

"Maybe it's traditional, old-school mentality," she told 20/20 , "but if you kill someone, then you know, it's eye for an eye. And what you do unto others should be done unto you." (Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.)

Ryan's mother, Lisa Carter , called the verdict a "shallow victory." 

During her sentencing hearing, held in part to determine whether she was a victim of domestic violence and therefore could be eligible for parole after eight years, Shayna told the judge, "I feel like I was led on. I feel like I was manipulated, used and abused. And no, Ryan didn't beat on me every day...I'm not gonna sit up here and exaggerate and lie and say that he did. But he did put hands on me a handful of times."

Before she was sentenced, Shayna stated in court that she was "sorry to my family. And I'm sorry to my friends for letting them down. And I'm sorry for the money that my parents had to spend on attorneys." She didn't mention Ryan.

Judge Fred Stine gave her 40 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20, saying that Ryan's murder was "probably as cold-blooded an act as I've been associated within the criminal justice system in the 30-plus years I've been in it."

That wasn't the end of the story, though. In 2016 Shayna won a new trial on appeal when it turned out that there was a juror who failed to disclose a felony conviction, which in the state of Kentucky should have prevented the person from serving on the panel. 

"If we have to do this a hundred times we will do it a hundred times," Jay Poston , Ryan's dad, told  48 Hours  as the family steeled themselves to hear the dueling stories all over again. "It will all be OK. We believe strongly that the evidence is overwhelming and we believe justice will still be served."

Shayna Speaks Out

Breaking her silence to WCPO 9 News in May 2018 , ahead of her second trial, Shayna said in a jailhouse interview (which she requested to discuss her intent to marry a fellow inmate; they did and have since divorced ) that she felt she'd been "treated unfairly" by the Campbell County justice system and she didn't really think her next trial would be fair, either. "I feel like there was a biased opinion against me here," she said.

But "I was obviously very happy" to get a new trial, she told anchor Craig McKee . "It was something that was very special to me and for my life."

Asked if she agreed that media coverage of her case had "destroyed the presumption of innocence," as her attorney had alleged, Shayna said, "I believe that, and I do believe that there's been incredibly negative media coverage about me in Cincinnati, and in the United States, and internationally."

Some people could see her as "crying wolf," Shayna said in response to a question about whether the #MeToo movement, which had gained serious steam since her first trial, could possibly help her when it came to the public response to her story. "It could be negative, but it could also be positive because it's raising awareness [about abuse], that this happens all the time. It often happens in situations where no one would expect it to happen."

Asked if she felt regret or remorse particularly with regard to Ryan's family, she said, "I'm not here to talk about any of that."

McKee asked if Ryan's family had ever written to her, to which she replied, "Not that I'm aware of," nor had she ever written to any of them.

Shayna said she got a "fair amount" of mail from strangers expressing their support, generally more whenever her case was in the news, and "often times" she wrote back.

Asked for a second time if there was anything she regretted from 2012, she again said, "I'm not here to talk about 2012, I'm here to talk about today."

The Second Defense

When the retrial got underway in 2018, Shayna's new lawyer, David Eldridge , altered her defense "to focus more on the extreme emotional disturbance" she had suffered from Ryan's alleged physical and emotional abuse, Eldridge explained on a December 2020 episode of A&E's  Killer Cases . 

"Our position at trial was that [Ryan] was sending a lot of mixed signals as to what his desires were, in terms of a relationship with Shayna Hubers," the lawyer explained on the show. "She'd been invited to his parents' home, which she took as a signal that their relationship was going to move forward. That's obviously not what he had in mind."

Dr. Thomas Schacht , a psychologist, testified for the defense that Shayna suffered from borderline personality disorder and, at the time she shot Ryan, her "psychological condition was seriously abnormal."

Unlike during her first trial, Shayna took the stand this time. She testified that on the night she shot Ryan, she had been sitting on the floor in his condo and, when she tried to get up, he pushed her back down. "I was hysterically crying," she said, per video footage of the trial . "And I recall Ryan standing over me and grabbing the gun that was sitting on the table and pointing it at me and saying, 'I could just kill you right now and get away with it, nobody would even know.'"

"I was shocked," she continued, "I was afraid, I didn't understand what I had done to deserve any of this."

He put the gun back down on the table, Shayna testified, "still saying hurtful things, I don't remember exactly what, and he was standing up from the chair and he was reaching across the table, and I don't know if he was reaching for the gun or reaching for me. But I was still sitting on the floor at this point in time, and I got up off the floor and I grabbed the gun and I shot him."

But the prosecution stayed its course that Shayna had committed a cold-blooded, premeditated crime, and, once again, it took the jury less than five hours to  convict Shayna of murder  on Aug. 29, 2018, rejecting a lesser charge of manslaughter. (On  Killer Cases , Commonwealth Attorney Michelle Snodgrass said Shayna effectively "played a part for the jurors, for the judge, for the TV cameras" with her testimony.)

Ryan's family said in a statement, "Today we embrace justice, and yet we do not feel joy. It has been six long and heartbreaking years without our beloved Ryan."

At the sentencing hearing, Snodgrass  said in court that Shayna had sent the judge a letter of apology, but "she has never said that to Ryan's family. She has expressed no remorse."

Jay Poston, Ryan's father, said during the hearing that it was "daunting to know that I've got another 30 or 40 years on this earth, God willing, I'll have another 35 or 40 Christmases without my son. And my grandchildren were stolen from me, I will never hold my grandchildren. She has decimated my life and many other lives."

Sharon Hubers said on the stand that her child's life had "also been taken. Her family also grieves. I'm not lessening or taking away from, or trying to say that I don't understand the grief of this family, because I do. Both beautiful young people, both talented."

Shayna was sentenced to life in prison, with her first chance at parole due in 2032.

Shayna After Sentencing

Shayna appealed the second verdict as well , arguing that there were various problems with the proceedings, including allowing jurors who, the appeal alleged, were "biased"; the denial of her motions for a change of venue, which made it "reasonably likely" she wouldn't get a fair trial; and the admissibility of certain pieces of evidence and the exclusion of some others. The Kentucky Supreme Court denied her appeal in September 2020, finding no reversible error.

Now 30, she's serving her time at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. Her profile on a site to get messages to prisoners who don't have access to email reads that she's "grown much since the 21 year old girl I was in October 2012 at the time of my arrest."

"No one really knows or can explain what I've been through besides me," the profile also reads. "It can be hard being judged by false conviction theories in the media used to obtain television ratings and a conviction and maximum penalty in court."

On  Killer Cases  in 2020, Ryan's friend Adam Bleile  said there was "no satisfaction" to be gained from Shayna's life sentence. "You'd think there's some kind of relief for it, but there's no relief."

Back in 2018, when asked by WCPO's Craig McKee if she thought people could change, she replied, "Yeah, I do. But I don't—I think some people are misunderstood. I think some people are not  bad  and then they change. I think some people are doing things in their lives that are misunderstood, and they grow up."

"I think I've grown up a lot," she added. "I think I've been through a lot and I think I was this young girl then [in 2012], and I think I'm a woman now...I think I would handle things differently now." When McKee emphasized that she was making a "big statement" by saying she'd do things differently now than she did in 2012, without going into the particulars of her case, she agreed. 

"I guess it is," Shayna said, "but I do believe that I've been through a lot in my life since then and I'm a lot more mature. I have more experience with people. I've had to live around people in a close, confined space for many years."

Horrific final moments of woman murdered by ex-boyfriend who went on run for 8 days

Giulia Cecchettin was first attacked outside her home, before being driven away by her ex-boyfriend Filippo Turetta who killed her and disposed of her body, Italian prosecutors say

• 15:01, 21 Nov 2023

The horrific final moments of a 22-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend before he went on the run for eight days have been revealed through a reconstruction of events made by Italian prosecutors.

Giulia Cecchettin, an engineering student at the University of Padua, who was due to graduate on Thursday last week, was tragically found dead in a gully near a lake in the northeastern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Detectives said she suffered at least 20 knife wounds to the neck and head.

Her ex-boyfriend Filippo Turetta, who was on the run for over a week, was arrested in Germany at the weekend. According to the Judge for Preliminary Investigations (GIP), in the evening of Saturday, November 11, the victim and her ex-boyfriend had driven to a shopping centre in Marghera, Venice, where they had a sandwich for dinner.

The GIP said Turetta then drove Giulia home but allegedly hit her for the first time in a car park near her home in Vigonovo, in the province of Venice. The woman tried to escape but prosecutors believe Turetta immobilised her, then allegedly put duct tape on her mouth before driving away.

Carabinieri - one of the national police forces of Italy - then found a blood-stained knife, without the handle, in the car park. A local resident later told detectives that he heard the voice of a woman screaming "you're hurting me like this" and saw a man kicking someone on the floor.

According to TGCOM24 , Turetta was driving towards the industrial area of Fossò and at that point Giulia, who regained consciousness, tried to escape from the car. However, Turetta was caught on CCTV following her before throwing her to the ground, making Giulia hit her head on the pavement.

It was at that stage that Giulia stopped moving, according to Italian media. Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that magistrates said the victim bled out and died from "haemorrhagic shock". After allegedly killing her in just half an hour, Turetta then put the victim back in the car and abandoned her body near Lake Barcis, where it was found after a week of searches, on November 18.

He then went on the run and was caught by German police on Sunday when his car ran out of petrol and he parked with his lights off on the emergency lane of a motorway near Leipzig. Turetta is now being held in Germany ahead of his extradition to Italy, but Italian news agency Ansa reported that he has not been questioned yet.

The woman's murder has caused fury among young people in Italy, who have been calling for "a day of anger against every single femicide". Yesterday night, thousands of people took part in a torchlight procession in memory of Giulia and hundreds gathered at schools and university to pay tribute to her and speak out about violence against women.

Giulia's sister Elena described her as "a pure soul", "sweet" and "an eternal child" who lived her life "lightly and without malice". Addressing men, she said: "I say to the guys: think about the time when you disrespected a woman because she was a woman, when you disrespected someone just because she was a woman, you maybe did some "cat-calling", sexist comments with your friends.

"Look at your conscience and realise this, then learn from this episode and start checking, calling out your other friends, because this must start from you. Because we, women, can learn to defend ourselves, but until men examine their consciences and realise the privilege they have in this society, we will get nowhere."

Giulia was the 105th victim of femicide in Italy this year as a spate of gender-based violence continues. Earlier this year, 29-year-old Giulia Tramontano , who was seven months pregnant, was killed by her partner at home before he hid her body in an abandoned area near the home they shared in Milan.

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Columbia PhD student, 29, is shot in the head and killed by his boyfriend after an argument at his Houston home

• Devon Wade, 28, was killed at his home in Houston, Texas, on Sunday night
• Mario Jerrell Williams, who calls himself his boyfriend, handed himself in to police Monday
• Williams, 29, admitted shooting him after arguing with him inside the house
• He said he had gone to the home to retrieve his gun but that they got into a fight
• He has been charged with murder and is being held on a $100,00 bond 
• Wade was finishing his PhD in sociology at Columbia University when he died 

By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:49 BST, 28 November 2017 | Updated: 19:00 BST, 28 November 2017

View comments

A Columbia PhD student has been killed by his boyfriend who shot him in the head after an argument.

Devon Wade, a promising 28-year-old student whose mentors said he would 'change the world', died after being shot at his home in Houston, Texas, on Sunday night. 

His boyfriend Mario Jerrell Williams, 29, turned himself in to police shortly afterwards and admitted shooting him.

Williams is being held on $100,000 bond and is charged with first degree murder. 

On Sunday night, he went to the home which Wade shared with twin brother but was asked to leave. 

Devon Wade, 28, (left) died on Sunday after being shot in the head by 29-year-old Mario Jerrell Williams, 29, (right) who told police he was his boyfriend when he turned himself in for his killing

He says he returned a short time afterwards and began fighting with Wade, who he said punched him in the face and chased him downstairs. 

Once downstairs, he shot him and then fled. When he turned himself in to police later, he said he was his boyfriend, Click 2 Houston reports.

Wade's twin brother, who was asleep upstairs, then found his brother lying on the ground bleeding.

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He said he saw Williams fleeing the scene on security cameras installed around the home. It is not clear what the pair were arguing about or how long they had been together. 

Wade was known locally for his community efforts and had already been praised for overcoming a difficult start in life to pursue academia.

The shooting happened at Wade's home in Houston, Texas, on Sunday night 

Wade, 29, had already graduated from the Louisiana State University and had almost completed his PhD when he died. He was a well known member of the community who was passionate about charity and youth programs (seen right running a triathlon recently) 

He was in the middle of a PhD in sociology at Columbia University in New York and had already graduated from Louisiana State University after being given a scholarship from a local law firm in Houston. 

He had not long returned to Houston to complete his dissertation on the poverty and incarceration among the black community.

As news of his death spread on Tuesday, friends took to social media to eulogize him in disbelief.

'Great inspiration and a bright light now dimmed with sadness. 

'To some he initially seemed destined for failure, however beat all odds and made outstanding accomplishments,' said one friend. 

Devon's twin brother Stevon (right) was at the home on Sunday night when he died. He said he woke up to the sound if gunshots and then found his brother on the floor downstairs bleeding

'Statistically, Devon wasn’t expected to graduate high school. Devon’s parents were incarcerated [but] he overcame his unfortunate circumstances, graduated with Honors from LSU with a degree in Criminology, and was completing a PhD program at Columbia University. 

'Devon dedicated his life to serving and encouraging others. 

'He was committed to making society and the justice system better,' said another friend. 

Devon and his brother were raised by his grandparents in Houston. 

Columbia University said it will award him his doctorate posthumously.

Share or comment on this article: Columbia PhD student is killed by his boyfriend in Houston

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• TOM LEONARD: How Mike Lynch's co-defendant in US fraud trial died within hours of him after the ultra-marathon runner was fatally struck by a Vauxhall Corsa
• Harry and Meghan reveal what they're giving to Colombia after controversial faux-royal tour
• Little Elsie is laid to rest to Taylor Swift's Love Story: Hit song is played at funeral for seven-year-old Southport stabbing victim Elsie Dot Stancombe after family and friends paid emotional tributes to 'extraordinary girl' who 'made everybody laugh'
• Chilling moment coldblooded assassin executes victim with gunshots to the head in front of horrified passengers in packed German train station
• Matthew Perry's ex casts doubt on ketamine death as she says he was terrified of needles and 'would never' inject drugs
• Revealed: How Jermaine Jenas dramatically rescued motorist whose car had left the road and smashed into a tree near his £7m home...hours before he was sacked from the BBC
• Shocking moment teenager uses shards of glass to launch frenzied attack on staff and a pupil in school reception - before he is bravely tackled by support workers
• Jermaine Jenas admits 'frantically' sexting BBC colleague over 24 hours but insists no pictures or videos were sent and that he 'did nothing illegal'
• Manslaughter probe is launched over sinking of Bayesian superyacht after at least six people died including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch when vessel capsized off the coast of Sicily
• Tourist, 29, is knifed to death on paradise island Mauritius after 'meeting killer on Tinder for holiday romance'
• Who is Jermaine Jenas' wife? How ex-footballers spouse Ellie Penfold turned her back on modelling and partying with Katie Price to bring up the couple's three children
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