The Bad Nurse

by Sheila Johnson

  Unless, perhaps, she could have been cuddled up in the arms of Nathan Wilder or her other unidentified jailhouse crush. To one of those two prospective lovers, she wrote, Well, they just popped my door so I’m gonna go now. Baby, I love you so much and I’m so happy I got to see you today. You’re always in my thoughts and dreams. Hugs and kisses. I love you.

  The letters that had been posted on Karri’s Facebook page were a far cry from the ones that ended up in the evidence files and published in the newspapers. While her followers were reading about her undying love and devotion to her husband, Karri, at the same time, was writing to her fellow inmates about how excited she was at the prospect of leaving Jason and having a future together with both Nathan and her mystery man after leaving jail.

  Perhaps Jason Willoughby was the only person who really knew the truth about his wife’s dark side and was aware of the extent of all her lies and manipulations. Or maybe, on the other hand, like so many hundreds of people, her betrayals and admission of guilt had come as a complete shock to him. Maybe she’d had him thoroughly fooled into believing all the things she had told him for almost fourteen years. At any rate, the façade of the devoted Christian wife had crumbled to the ground.

  CHAPTER 27

  When Karri Willoughby left the DeKalb County Jail en route to Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, the scene at the jail reminded some observers of a celebrity walking the red carpet instead of a convicted murderer walking to a transport vehicle. Karri signed autographs, waved and smiled broadly at the bystanders and the media waiting for her to make her appearance, and even handed out autographed pictures to some of the jail staff before leaving.

  “She thinks she’s some kind of a star,” one of the jailers remarked as Karri made her way out of the building.

  Karri had a few words for those gathered outside to watch her leave for prison.

  “Just want my community to take care of my husband and children,” she said, evidently not realizing that her legion of thirteen hundred loyal fans had shrunk to near nonexistence overnight following her shocking admission of guilt. It was unlikely that her community had much interest in continuing to support her or blindly do her bidding. They were, for the most part, deeply hurt and disillusioned. Only a few remained in denial, steadfastly refusing to accept the real truth from Karri, even when they’d heard it spoken by her in court.

  CHAPTER 28

  The activity on the “Truth for Karri” Facebook page took a drastic downturn following her shocking courtroom admission of guilt. It was only a short time until the page disappeared entirely. There was apparently a lot of “I told you so” being doled out by those who had believed Karri to be guilty from the start. Her remaining friends and supporters just didn’t want to hear it or admit to themselves that there was even the slightest possibility that it could be true. They continued to make their opinions known, loudly and often, at every possible opportunity.

  Others, who had accepted the facts and no longer were in denial, had been badly hurt and highly disillusioned by the shocking turn of events in the courtroom. For the most part, they were staying quiet, lying low, and licking their wounds.

  One person wrote in the comments section of a newspaper’s website that they had been following many of the posts left by Karri’s friends who remained adamant about her innocence, and said that they had formed an opinion about those supporters based on what they had said in their continuing posts.

  Those friends, the writer had come to believe, were “the hateful, holier-than-thou bunch.” They were spreading thoughts and opinions that were obviously “their interpretation of what is going on,” and not the facts as had been provided by the prosecution’s case files and the court records, which had been made public.

  I think that a lot of people are going to be gravely disappointed that their loyalty has been so misplaced, the writer emphasized.

  Another writer put it a little less tactfully: Where’s all the truth 4 Karri stuff that Ider was so fired up about? The writer went on to say they guessed everyone “got lockjaw” when she pled guilty. The writer ended by proclaiming, The truth will set you free!

  The defection of so many of her true believers must have come as a surprise to Karri. She had worked long and hard to get as many people lined up in her corner as possible. Right before the trial was scheduled to start, she had posted a letter to her supporters on the soon-to-be-defunct “Truth for Karri” page.

  Thank you everyone for your many prayers and letters, she wrote. She added that the DA would probably be “cussing” her by “this time next week.” Karri said she was feeling the love from all around her, and she felt happier at that time than she had for a long time, even with all the turmoil she was experiencing in her life.

  God is so good, He gives me relief when I think I can’t take any more, she wrote, telling her followers that they were the best friends anyone could ever ask for. If I can ever do anything for any one of you, all you have to do is ask.

  Karri went on to say that she loved her friends “from the depths of my soul.” She wrote, [Y]our support means more to me than I will ever be able to tell you.

  It is likely that even as Karri was composing this letter, skillfully designed to bolster the support of her followers, she was also planning the guilty plea she would present in a few short days.

  CHAPTER 29

  Another shock came for Karri’s friends after the trial, when the case files revealed what the prosecution stated that they believed to be Karri’s motive for the murder of Billy Shaw. Many of her supporters knew, to a certain degree and even by Karri’s own admission in several of her blog posts, that she and Jason were having financial difficulties. There was no way, however, that they could have imagined just to what degree those money problems had mushroomed during the months prior to the deaths of Billy and Lila Shaw.

  The court files revealed the prosecution’s belief that Karri’s entire life had been built around what they referred to as “selfish greed,” which had motivated her to murder Billy Shaw. She had siphoned money from the Shaw Saddlery accounts, her mother’s accounts, and from the accounts of Shaw himself for years. When her embezzling and identity theft schemes were discovered, and all access to their funds was finally, completely cut off, she killed her stepfather for the money she stood to inherit upon his death.

  Earlier in the investigation, statements from Jason Willoughby had confirmed that he and Karri had filed for bankruptcy two times within a five-year period, with debt that amounted to more than $500,000. One of Karri’s statements said that they had always had money trouble, but were having “pretty bad money trouble” right before Lila Shaw’s death.

  In addition to the staggering bankruptcy total, during a five-month period from mid August to late December 2007, a total of $21,551.47 in bad checks were written and signed by Karri. Many had been given to several types of businesses, but a large number of them had been written for cash.

  Along with her out-of-control check writing, the investigators learned that Karri had also applied for three credit cards in her mother’s name during that time. The applications were all submitted in the name of Lila Shaw; but on all three forms, Karri had listed her own home address as the billing address for the accounts. One of the credit cards was soon declined, but Karri continued to try to use it several times, even after realizing that it would no longer be accepted.

  In September 2007, during the height of the bad checks and credit card scams, Karri began attempting another method to take money from her parents and the business. Shaw Saddlery, LLC, did all its banking business in nearby Trenton, Georgia, at the Bank of Dade. Karri was a signatory on the account, which was considered to be a family business. She went to the bank and made arrangements for all bad checks written by her on her personal account to be charged back to the Shaw Saddlery account. Before long, she had siphoned over $2,000 from the business to cover her bouncing checks.

  Shaw Saddlery, Billy Shaw’s very successful business, produced h
andmade saddles prized for their quality.

  Karri’s mother had not been aware that Karri had arranged for the charge backs. So, when Lila received a copy of the most recent charge back—for nearly $1,000—and realized what was being done, she went to the bank to put an immediate stop to things. Incredibly, while Lila was at the bank plugging the leak that was draining money from the business, Karri was on the Internet, trying to set up online banking for the account. Thanks to Lila’s timely intervention, the bank stopped that online attempt.

  That action didn’t stop Karri’s continuing use of the business account, however. On April 1, 2008, Billy Shaw decided he’d had enough. It was evidently easier for him to revise his banking arrangements than to confront the daughter whom he loved, and whose financial escapades he had tried to overlook. He went to the Bank of Dade and closed his LLC account, changing the business account instead to a sole proprietorship and effectively removing Karri from the business. The new account was opened with $20,000, money that Karri could no longer touch.

  Financial matters lost all their importance to Billy Shaw later that day, though. It was the day that his wife, Lila “Susie” Shaw, passed away. Money became the last thing on Billy’s mind.

  CHAPTER 30

  All of the Shaws’ friends and relatives were grief-stricken by Lila’s sudden death. That was evidently not the case with Karri, however. The very next day, on April 2, she pulled up to the drive-through window at the bank and presented the teller with a check that appeared to have been signed by Lila Shaw in the amount of $2,000.

  Karri’s big mistake was picking a bank teller who not only knew Karri, but also was aware of the account changes under way and had also learned that Lila Shaw had died the day before. The bank called Billy Shaw to ask him if he was aware of the check and if he had given permission for it to be cashed. He was naturally very upset to have this situation occur on the day following his wife’s death; he refused to authorize the check.

  On the next day, April 3, Billy Shaw was back at the bank finalizing the transfer of all his accounts into ones that Karri could not access. As her bad luck would have it, while he was present at the bank, Karri attempted to use one of the credit cards she had obtained in her mother’s name to charge $1,800 to Billy Shaw’s Chase account.

  Perhaps because he was distraught and in mourning for his wife, or perhaps because he loved Karri and did not feel like dealing with her financial shenanigans at a time when his wife was about to be laid to rest, Billy Shaw allowed Karri’s transaction to go through.

  On April 4, Billy Shaw returned to the bank and this time he brought along Kim Dalton, Karri’s older sister. The final paperwork had been completed, with Karri’s name completely deleted from all of the accounts, and Kim was now the person who would be authorized to sign for access to Billy’s personal and business funds. There was no longer any way Karri could gain access to any of the family funds; she had been completely and finally cut off.

  This information must have been kept from Karri at the time. On April 11, Karri tried, once more, to pass a check on the old Shaw Saddlery account, and it was refused. This must have come as quite a surprise to her, since she had been draining funds from the account successfully for such a long time. This would be the last time that Karri would ever attempt to gain access to the Shaw Saddlery funds. She now knew that trying any further to get money from any of the accounts would be fruitless.

  Some money had been left in the Shaw Saddlery account in case there was a need to cover any legitimate checks that might come in. However, on April 17, Billy Shaw transferred the last of the funds from the old account into the new one.

  This would be the last banking transaction he would ever make. On April 22, Karri stopped by his house on her way home from work, supposedly to check on him. Her real mission that day, however, was to end his life so she could get her hands on her inheritance.

  The prosecution’s theory as to why Karri killed her stepfather had much to do with her being cut completely off from any access to the family’s money. Perhaps a greater motive for murder, however, was the fact that Billy Shaw had made a will in 1998 outlining the division of his estate, which at the time of his death was estimated to be over $400,000. It was to be equally split three ways, with Karri getting one of the shares.

  That amount might not have made much of a dent in the bankruptcies, the bad checks, and what was evidently Karri’s out-of-control spending, but she was overwhelmed by her boundless greed. After days of careful plotting, Karri felt that she had come up with what she believed would be a foolproof plan to get her hands on the money from Shaw’s estate.

  District Attorney Mike O’Dell said that Karri’s scheme could probably have been successful if blood and urine samples had not been taken when Billy Shaw had been found following what the authorities believed had been a routine unattended death. He speculated that it could have been “the perfect crime,” and said, “We were one sample away from letting it slip away. Her admitting to taking the drugs was the last piece of the puzzle.”

  O’Dell added that the prosecution, thanks to the hard work of his investigative team, headed by Investigator Wade Hill, had been able to disprove every single claim that Karri had made in her own defense. O’Dell stressed that Karri “loved to talk” and eventually had provided his investigators with all the information that they needed to complete their case against her successfully.

  CHAPTER 31

  Bruce Gardner, Karri’s defense attorney, grudgingly acknowledged that there was no doubt that Karri had taken drugs from her workplace at the Chattanooga Surgery Center, and there was also no doubt that she had then carried the drugs to Billy Shaw’s residence. He himself had no doubt of Karri’s explanation of what had happened on the day Shaw died, he claimed. However, Gardner also admitted that he could understand how her version of the events that led to Shaw’s death could possibly have looked suspicious to the authorities.

  The defense was prepared to present the jury with a different scenario as to how Billy Shaw had died, Gardner said, and it would have been based on the opinion of the defense’s expert witness about what the actual cause of Shaw’s death had been. Gardner pointed out that Shaw had been embalmed and buried for a year before the autopsy had taken place, which he claimed had changed many things.

  “We would have said that they couldn’t claim that the acute propofol intoxication was the sole cause of his death,” Gardner said. He said the defense was prepared to present evidence, through their expert witness, that the cause of death could be disputed because of the postmortem pseudoephedrine redistribution throughout Shaw’s body.

  Gardner also claimed that he was prepared to show that in spite of the serious money conflicts taking place within the family, Karri’s parents had remained on good terms with her, leaving her in place on the board of directors of the saddlery even after they had begun to realize she was taking large amounts of money. However, he admitted that there was probably some strain in their relationships because of the financial problems, and acknowledged that “there was a time when Mr. Shaw got fed up with it.”

  Gardner said that it would be “pointless to deny there was friction there,” but he said that it was nothing that would have ended the relationship between Karri and her stepfather. He said there were people who could have testified for the defense that Karri and Billy Shaw were still on good terms with one another at the time of Shaw’s death.

  Unfortunately for Karri’s defense team, their hard work on her behalf had come to nothing when their client stood in court apologizing to her shocked followers before admitting to the judge that she was guilty of murder. Once the guilty plea had been entered, all the claims of a cordial relationship between the victim and the confessed murderer were for naught.

  CHAPTER 32

  When Karri Willoughby left the DeKalb County Jail on her way to Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama, she left like a departing celebrity. She exited, smiling, waving, signing autographs, and
presenting some of the jail staff with signed photos of herself. It is likely she did not realize what a different world she was en route to, on her way to a place acknowledged as being one of the worst prisons in the country, notorious for its conditions and repeatedly investigated by several federal entities.

  When the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated conditions at the Alabama prison, their findings were reported in January 2014 to Governor Robert Bentley in a shocking thirty-six-page letter stating that the prisoners at Tutwiler “universally fear for their safety,” and saying that the facility had a “history” of “unabated staff-on-prisoner sexual abuses and harassment.”

  The report stated that the prisoners lived in a sexualized environment and were subjected to repeated and open sexual behavior, with sexual abuse taking place between prisoners and prison staff, a New Year’s strip show that had been assisted by staff to take place, verbal sexual harassment and profanity, and viewing of prisoners showering and using the bathroom by both male and female staff.

  These conditions, the Department of Justice stated in their report, violated the prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right to be protected from harm. Then the DOJ stated its intent to expand its investigation to include other issues in question at Tutwiler, including medical and mental-health care for prisoners.

  In 2012, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private, nonprofit organization, reported a litany of problems at the facility. Kim Thomas, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) commissioner, claimed efforts had been under way since that time to correct problems noted in that report. Thomas claimed she did not think the conditions at Tutwiler were unconstitutional, but she did not respond to any of the specifics named by the DOJ report.