Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
It's summertime and it is officially self-care season. How are you taking care of yourself? Are you working out? Are you eating healthy using that sunscreen that you're supposed to use? Well, whether you're off to the pool, hiking, or traveling this summer, you can bring your microbiomes with you too. That's right.
Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic benefits your gut, skin, and heart health with just two capsules a day. I've been really trying to figure out my health journey. I've been telling you guys about this, especially since I'm 30. And one thing I've noticed is that my gut...
I have to make sure that this is all the way together. And Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic has been so great for me. Your body is an entire ecosystem and your gut is the central hub for various pathways through your body. And a healthy gut microbiome means benefits for digestion, skin health, heart health and immune system and so much more. And trust me, this is backed by science. A lot of science.
So support your gut this summer with Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic. Go to seed.com slash sisters and use code 25 sisters to get 25% off your first month. That's 25% off your first month of Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic at seed.com slash sisters code 25.
25 sisters. I love being outside. And when I mean being outside, I mean going to events.
concerts, baseball games, basketball games, anything that you can think of. I love being just in the mix. My family has a tradition of going to the Braves game every single year and I haven't missed a year yet. And this year buying tickets is going to be easier than ever with the Game Time app. I'm using the Game Time app to buy Father's Day Braves tickets for my cousin and for the rest of my family and we'll all get together. And the deals that I see for these seats are a
So much cheaper than they would have been going through any other app or the team website. I can customize my spot. They've got flash deals. And I am so excited about all the MLB games that I will be able to see this year because finally there's something in my budget. You can save up to 60% off when buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts,
comedy theaters, anything that you can get a ticket for. And trust me, it is the lowest price guaranteed. And you know that means a lot to me. And if you find a price that's lower, don't you worry your pretty little head. Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference. Now that is a guarantee that I can work for.
So take the guesswork of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code SISTAS to get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem with the code SISTAS to get $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed.
Do you and your baby daddy have different parenting styles and you want to make sure y'all get on the same page before you become featured on our show? Do you feel like as an individual, you need a life coach to help you get through the twists and turns of life? Well, that's where my girl Angelina Ray comes in. Angelina Ray offers coaching services for individuals, couples, and parents with conflicting parenting styles. If you're in the Sacramento, California area, you can see her in person.
If not, online sessions are available. Prices are on a sliding scale and you can email her for more information at SACCoParentingCoach.com. That's S-A-C-C-O ParentCoach at gmail.com. You can find her contact information in the description box as well. Reach out to Angelina and enjoy the show. What's going on, everybody? I'm Marah. And I'm Taz.
And welcome back to Sissus Who Kill. What you gonna do when your best friend take your man and she knew that was your man to start off with? ♪♪
If you're listening to this, you probably already know what I'm about to say. That today is the day for you to start your podcast. You have everything that you need. Your computer, a little microphone, and Spotify for podcasters. It is the all-in-one platform where you can host, edit, and record your podcast and distribute it everywhere. Where you're listening right now, you can have your podcast there. I promise, for real. And it's free. And you can make some money off of your podcast for free. For free.
Free money. Free money is out there. Just go get it by starting your podcast today. Our players this week are Cortesha Mourning, the victim, and Kalilah Taylor.
Our murderess. Kalilah Taylor was born on March 3rd, 1977 in Riverhead, New York. That's a city in Long Island. And she was born to Wyland Taylor and Darlene Taylor. Their family had been in Riverhead for many generations. And Riverhead itself was like a very small town where everyone knew everyone.
events that happened at the high school were the events of the entire town, those type of places. She was a good student growing up and she was super social. She loved to sing. She had a beautiful voice. She went to Riverhead High School and she was
in a lot of extracurricular activities. She was in Color Guard. She was a majorette. She was on the step team. And she even won Best Dressed One Year and was featured in the yearbook. And she also won Best Smile. I wanted to be in the Color Guard. Did you? But only that. Yeah.
Well, because of all of her accomplishments, she was in the yearbook a lot. And, you know, that's a lot of people's goals is that they want to be in the yearbook as many times as possible. She excelled in school and she wanted to become a nurse one day. So fortunately for her, Riverdale High School worked with a place called BOCES. And it's an acronym. It's B-O-C-E-S. It stands for Board of Cooperative Educational Service. And it's a school that supplies like trade school supplies.
training to the high school students kind of like a dual enrollment but you get to go to a trade school so she was already in that program to get her nursing assistant certification so she was like you know when I graduate from high school I'm gonna be straight so that she can become a doctor she's well on her way in 1992 when Kalila was a sophomore at Riverside she met Carl Brown III a senior and they started dating Kalila and Carl they were in love love
And for real love. And as soon as they got together, Khalilah was like, you are my man and we're going to do everything together. She started going out more. She started clubbing. Her mom was like, that's just what teenagers do. She just didn't like to be home anymore. She just liked to be out partying, I guess. And she started just being interested in doing that, going out. And she wasn't really interested in anything else. And also her little attitude got bad.
I mean, if anybody looked at Carl and Carl was known to be, I guess, sources say that he was handsome. Sources say that he was fine. The reenactments that you can watch on the Internet have very handsome black men playing the role. Anyways, she was spending all of her time. And if anybody looked in Carl's direction, she was ready to fight you. And she meant that.
And even if you weren't looking across the direction, if you just said something crazy to her, she was ready to fight. Also, it was rumored that not only was she fighting, but she always had a weapon on her, that she always carried a knife. I mean, but that's New York. Or a blade. Being from the South, I used to be like, yeah, being from the South, I used to be like, oh, if you go to school in New York, you're just going to get cut. It's a thing. In May of 1993, Kalilah found out that she was pregnant. They were
They were shocked, but Carl wanted to keep it, so they did. And in February of 1994, Kalila gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Carl IV. When Kalila became a new mom, her life changed and her thinking shifted. She started caring again about school and her nursing assistant program. She wanted to make sure her son had a good life. She was determined and she was able to pull it all together and she ended up graduating in June of 1994.
with her diploma from high school and the nursing assistant certification, Boise School. Things were going good for Kalilah. She just graduated. Her baby turned two. Her relationship with Carl was going well. She started working at TJ Maxx, Taco Bell, and Wendy's to make money while she looked for a good-paying job and while she contemplated whether or not she was going to go to college. After a while, she got back to her old ways, going out again, partying, fighting all the time. She wasn't focused the way she was when she initially graduated.
got pregnant with Carl IV. In 1995, Kalilah was full-blown into her bullshit. She was out with Carl one night, and she started popping off on somebody, but this time, she was the one to get stabbed.
Her mom and dad took her to the emergency room, and after recovering for a few weeks, her and Carl decided they were going to move in together. They moved in together in December 1995, a few weeks before Christmas. But it didn't last long because Kalilah and Carl got into a huge fight, and Kalilah pulled a knife on Carl, and he said, I'm not doing this shit. I'm out of here. He broke up with her, and he moved out. So a few weeks later, Kalilah wasn't able to keep up with the bills, and she ended up getting evicted and moved back in with her mom and dad.
But her trouble did not stop there. In January of 1996, Khalilah got into a fight with this girl named Natasha Daniels. Now, I don't know what the fight was about. Nobody knows who said who, if he was, whatever it was. But Khalilah ended up stabbing Natasha.
And Natasha's family, of course, filed a police report, all those things. And Kalilah got probation. So she was on probation by January of 1996. And at that time, she was 18 years old. She was out hanging out with some girlfriends. And then her girlfriends were like, oh, girl, have you heard about your ex Carl, you know, baby daddy? And she's like, what you heard about my baby daddy? And they were like, oh, we heard that your baby daddy has been hanging out with Kertisha.
And she's like, Kertesha? Now, Kertesha Morning is 17 years old. She is also from Riverside. She was born to Viola and Curtis Morning. She had some sisters, Petrina, Tabitha, Teresa. Actually, Kalila's mom, Darlene, and Kertesha's mom, Viola, they had been besties since, you know, the sandbox. They had been friends forever. And Darlene,
of course, she got pregnant first because Khalilah is older. But when Viola got pregnant afterwards, she was like, girl, I got all the pregnancy clothes. Like here, you can have them. They were, you know, thick as thieves. They were really that close. And it was great because they both had little girls. They girls grew up like they're really fashionable. They're both very popular. They seem to be friends. We, of course, get the girls together to hang out. So I,
Of course, their moms are loving this as well. So in 1995, Kirtisha, of course, is still at school. Khalilah has already graduated. Carl has already graduated. Kirtisha ends up putting her name in the hat for homecoming queen, does the whole homecoming queen campaign, all of that stuff. And she ends up winning. And when she won, well, the night that she was getting ready to, you know, accept her crown, Khalilah did her hair for that very moment.
They're for all the little milestones. Now, Cartesia... At least close enough where you would ask her. At least we're family friends. You know who this person is to her. And, um...
Y'all know I ran for homecoming queen. That is my favorite thing I've ever seen you in to this day is your homecoming dress. I did not win, but I definitely won. And then that's when you cut your hair. Yeah, it was a big night for you. Not this haircut. I've done dramatic cuts in the past. I used to have hair 24 inches straight from her scalp. I measured it with the ruler in class and...
She showed up to homecoming with a bob. And I was just like, you didn't say nothing to nobody. She's like, nope. She had on this pretty, like. Nope. It was strapless, wasn't it? It was strapless. It was pastel. And pink. Blue and pink. It was so gorgeous. And the bust had gems all over it. It was the best thing I've ever seen you in. Mm-hmm. And then the person that won, you could see her panties through her dress. All right.
It's what happens when they rig homecoming so that a cheerleader wins. Anyways, Kertisha met Carl one day while they were at Riverhead because...
Carl was one of them niggas that graduate and still come to hang out at the school. And I don't understand y'all. If you graduate, leave. Kirtisha, she knew that this was Kalila's ex. She knew that this was Kalila's baby daddy. But she's like, listen, I'm 17. I'm young. I'm trying to have a good time. Like, that's my mama's friend's daughter. You know, that ain't my bestie. So her and Carl, they started hanging out for a while. But Carl was like putting the pressure on her. You know, he wanted to get a nut. Yeah.
Kirtisha was like, no, I'm saving myself till marriage. He's like, but we taking things slow. I thought you liked me. And she's like, I do like you, but I don't like you. Like, I'm not trying to give up the goodies to you. She ended up like having disputes with him because he wants to have sex and she didn't want to. She had a lot of stuff going for her. And one of the things that she had going for her was that she was trying to
join the army to help her pay for college and she wanted to use the scholarship that she would get for the army to go to nursing school like she had a very clear plan about what she wanted to do with her life she was going to graduate in that spring in june of 1996 and her life was going to be set for her
She ended up breaking up with Carl because Carl was just like doing the most. Keep trying to have sex. She wasn't trying to have that. It was a big disagreement all the time. And they broke up. But Carl, Carl really still wanted Cartesia. Like he was really wanting, you know, niggas love to chase. So on February 14th, 1996, Valentine's Day,
Carl shows up at Riverside High School, was like, I love you, girl, in the middle of the hallway, did the whole thing, proclaimed how he loved her. Total, total, like, everything that would make Tess die. I mean, like, he pulled out all the stops. And remember, this nigga does not go to this school anymore. He has already graduated. And he is in the hallway talking about, I love you, girl. And Kirtisha is like, what the?
the fuck she is so embarrassed she like i was embarrassed receiving a candy gram all it is is far too much kurtisha was the same way i mean she was super embarrassed and she didn't really cave in she was like no i told you i didn't want you but like he kept it up and about a week later they were back together so one night the two of them are hanging out and kalila sees them she had already been hearing the rumors now she sees them together and she's like
what in the fuck are y'all doing together? Like, Kertisha, you ain't shit. Carl, you ain't never gonna be shit. I got a knife on me right now, bitch. Don't make me cut you. Like, don't act like you don't know who I am. They end up arguing. They cause a scene. I don't think that any actual, like, physical contact was made between the two of them, but somebody ended up calling the cops. And one of the reenactments, it said that they were at, it showed that they were at, like, a football game. It showed that they were at a football game, but it couldn't if it was after February, right?
them reenactments just be lying. They're not putting that much thought into it. They're really not. But they said it was at some school function. I think it was probably just out and about. But anyways, the cops were called, but no one got arrested. No one put their hands on each other. This is February. This was February 25th. And Kalilah was like, I'm
She couldn't believe that Kirtisha, who is somebody that she grew up with, like, yeah, we may not be the best of friends. We may not be, like, sisters. But you know who he is. I've probably told you about he ain't shit. You know that that's my baby daddy. Not my ex, but my baby daddy. Exactly. Like, out of all things. So she's feeling, like, super betrayed. And her anger is ferocious.
So fast forward to a week after the confrontation. So it's Tuesday, February 29th, 1996. The Boise school is having an orientation for prospective students at 9 a.m. And Kertesha was chosen to speak at the event.
To the students because she was the number one nursing student in her class. Kalila had already graduated. She's working at Wendy's. She's scheduled to work at 11 a.m. Kortesha goes to school at 7 a.m., the high school, and then she left and took that five-minute walk to the Boise school for the event. She spoke to the prospective students, and it ended at 10.15 a.m., or roughly, right? So Kortesha then leaves school.
the Boise school and heads back to Riverside High taking that five minute walk again to finish her school day. It's like two minutes by car between the schools, five minute walk. If you walk out the back of the Boise school and walk straight, you walk past the track and field area in the back of Riverside High School. And you'll hit the track and field before you hit any of the school building because it's coming up the backside, right? So on her way back to school in the parking lot of Riverside High, Kertesha encounters Khalid.
no one knows how Khalilah knew Kertisha was gonna be there right then and there maybe she was driving past and seen her or something but she waited for her had a confrontation about the relationship that Kertisha is having with Carl so Khalilah confronts Kertisha and they begin having this conversation about two minutes in it's already gone left Khalilah's heated she's talking about her arms flailing yelling at Kertisha Kertisha's trying to get to class she's like I don't have time they argued for a few minutes and then Khalilah
pulls out her handy dandy knife. Kertisha freaks out and she runs back towards the Boise school. Although the school is closer, maybe she couldn't get around her. You know what I mean? And it was just like, I just want to get away. So Kertisha is running through the parking lot to the track and field area. So she's now on the field. And by that point, Kalila was able to catch up with her. Now the field is surrounded by a silver fence. So Kertisha is kind of stuck, you know, like she kind of ran into a dead end and the two begin to fight.
physically fight hitting and punching each other kalila got kurtisha on the ground face down and began stabbing her she stabbed and she stabbed and she stabbed and she stabbed and then she stabbed some more until kurtisha stopped moving after a while she dragged kurtisha's body by her feet over to the fence and covered her head with some leaves and then drove home
When she gets home, she took a shower and gets ready for work. After she got ready, she left, went to Wendy's, did her shift, good stay around, 11, 20 a.m., works until close at midnight, and then goes home. So when she shows up for her shift, her co-workers...
workers also noticed that she has quite a few scratches on her face and on her hands. The next day, March 1st, 1996, Kalila and her mom are woken up at 6 a.m. by banging on their front door. Pertina, Kertisha's sister, was wondering if they had seen Kertisha because they hadn't heard from her. Now, I know that it's like, dang, they came right up to the killer's door, but remember, they're close family friends, so it's likely that Kertisha came over to their house and
It would make sense for her to be there. And at the time, you know, they wouldn't have cell phones or nothing. So they was just on foot trying to see what was going on. That next night, Viola Morning, who is Kertisha's mom, calls the Riverhead police, reports her daughter missing. And of course they give her the, oh, you need to wait 24, 48 hours. So she does. And she waits. And then she goes back and Kertisha is finally officially reported missing on the morning of March 3rd, 1996.
When she was first reported missing, they were like, oh, she's probably a runaway. Of course, they see that a black girl is missing and automatically they're runaway. Her family was like, no, no, no. Right. And they're like, no, no, no. There is definitely cause for alarm. This is not like her. There's no reason for her to want to run away, to run away from her life. There's no problems up in this home.
The family and the community, they were like, oh my gosh, the homecoming queen? Like, what in the world happened? So the community ended up doing most of the beginning legwork to help find Kirtisha's body at this point. And the police weren't even doing it at all. They put up posters. They finally got people involved to do, like, aerial searches. They were stopping cars in traffic, asking people if they had seen her. Hey, have you seen this woman? The police finally got involved, and they had...
the New York State Police Department do searches with dogs. Just anything, just trying to find her. There was a banner and posters and the pins. They all said, "'Kertesha Mourning. Hope. Believe.'" Weeks after Kertesha disappeared, there was still nothing. No sign of her. Nothing.
By March 20th of 1999, more agencies in a further radius had been made aware of Kertesha's disappearance. They were like, maybe if foul play was involved, maybe somebody took her over state lines. So since Kertesha had disappeared, I mean, Kalila was living her normal life. She was taking care of her son. She was working at Wendy's. She was just...
Paying her bills. On March 25th of 1996, a nanny was babysitting two boys. They were playing in the field behind Riverside High and one threw the ball over the fence. So they go over there to get it and they see a piece of leather sticking up from the ground under the snow because it's New York in March, right? So it's under some snow and some leaves. The nanny goes to pick up the jacket and it wouldn't budge. And that's when she realized there's a body in there. First of all, why are you touching random clothing that you see?
On the side. But then to touch it. And be like. And there's a body in it. They immediately call the police. And the.
area was taped off. The media starts to realize what's going on and by the morning of March 26, 1996, there are more than 200 people gathered in the field to get answers from the police. It had been almost a month since Kertesha went missing and due to the stab wounds found on the body, it was difficult to identify her just by looking. But two days later, on March 28, 1996, the body was confirmed as 17-year-old Kertesha Morton.
found less than 500 yards from her school.
The family wanted some goddamn answers. They are frustrated. They are pissed. Petrina, especially because now all of a sudden y'all interested in my baby's case and that there's a body found. What happened to she was a runaway? It was just another black girl that nobody cared about, right? And now here she is dead. She probably could have been saved if somebody would have helped me look for her and found her sooner. Okay? We will never know though, will we? She just, you know, further expressed her disappointment that people...
people or the cops didn't try and help and show support. It's crazy because the community definitely was having the families back, but there's only so much you can do without the resources that you
have. The only resource they gave was the dogs and the dogs that they used to sniff out around the school are meant to look for alive people. Cause you know, you can only train dogs to do certain specific things, especially like at the airport. Most of those dogs are not trained to find drugs. They're trained to find explosives. You know what I'm saying? So the only things that they're really going to go towards is the smell of a tennis ball and the smell of an explosive. And,
But they use the dog that's trained to find people that are alive, not cadaver dogs. So can't blame the dogs in this situation. It's the humans. It's always human error. The community in Riverhead, of course, they found out very quickly that the body that was found was Kertisha's. And everyone was devastated. I mean, this is one of those small towns where football and homecoming are one of the big things. And Kertisha was their homecoming queen. Her face was front page news. And everyone was just...
I mean, how could this happen? And nothing like that happens even around here. They didn't know what happened to her. And they were also terrified. Like, is there a killer on the loose? Are we next? The police said that they were keeping an eye on everything, but they told the community that they really didn't know who the
the killer could possibly be. They investigated the area where Kretisha's body was found and they were surprised when there was like, oh, there's some physical evidence around here. After all this time. After all this time. Wow, it's like it's a preserved crime scene. I just walked right by a whole crime scene multiple times.
At the scene of the crime, they found a gold earring, a silver necklace, and a book bag that they sent off to DNA analysis. But remember, it's 1993, so this DNA analysis is gonna take a while. But they could conclude at least that the gold earring was Kertisha's because it matched the one that was still in Kertisha's ear. They also found an area of bloody concrete that was about 150 feet away from where the body was found.
And so they're like, okay, this concrete is probably, so the concrete was just out and y'all missed it. I guess this is where the struggle took place and maybe they moved the body. Of course, there's no drag marks or anything because time, significant time had passed since the crime happened and the body was found. So if there were drag marks and nature took its course. So, I mean, the stuff that they were able to find preserved pretty much crime scene and the evidence that they were able to find, it was pretty good.
not detective work it was pretty good luck on their part they took curtisia's body off to the medical examiner for an autopsy while they went to go interview potential witnesses at the school as well as interviewing curtisia's family and friends the first people police spoke to were at the boise school to figure out if they saw her leave with anyone they didn't have any luck there so they went to riverhead to look for witnesses there and to their surprise they actually found three people who saw curtisia around the time she went missing
a PE teacher, a teacher's assistant, and a girlfriend of a teacher. Now all of them say they saw Kertisha walking with a shorter girl who was very quote-unquote animated. None of them saw either of them after the conversation, but police at least had something kind of sorted to work with, right? So the autopsy comes back on March 29th, and this is just four days after Kertisha's body was found. She was found wearing her blue and white striped scrub
in nurse uniform and she had more than 100 defensive wounds and stab wounds. Five were to the left side of her face, one through the lip, one through the right cheek, 12 on her hand, four of those that were on her hand went through the entire hand, four in the middle of her back. The wounds were so significant that they severed her spinal cord.
She had three near her left hip, one in the back of her right thigh, 36 at the top of her head near her hairline. There were 25 in a cluster on the right side of her scalp and 27 on the back of her neck. When I say she went at her like a chopping block, she went at her. I just can't. You do not have to stab me that many times.
You know, like I'm just thinking in the lips and in the cheeks, like even if she were to survive, you butchered her. Yeah. So the police, they're shook after reading this autopsy report. They said, who would have done this in her face? Who's capable of this? Right. And so they're like, listen, what we do know is this is probably a crime of passion. One, looking at how many times she was stabbed. But two, being that she was stabbed.
in her face like that's a very intimate thing to do like somebody knew you and wanted something done to you for some reason to have done that you know what I mean so they take all this information they put it in the back of their mind and they go to interview Kretisha's family when they got to Kretisha's mom Viola and her sisters Petrina and Kiara of course they were all just devastated Viola was interviewed by the local news and she said quote they found my baby's body
She said that they had lost their bronze doll. They called her their bronze doll. She was also expressing that they were really upset. They hardly got any information from the police. They were pissed at the police because Kertisha had been missing almost an entire month.
And she was found where she was last seen. So why couldn't you have found her body sooner? This is proof that like the police didn't give a fuck. They didn't care.
Everybody's looking at the police like, why the fuck didn't y'all find her? All the excuses from the police, of course they were bullshit. The Morning Family, they were trying their best. They were like, okay, we still have an investigation to go on. We still have to work with you. We're trying to put our opinions to the side because at the end of the day, now we are looking for some type of justice. You did not help in the finding her process. We need to now find her killer and this needs to be your top priority.
At the end of the interview, police gave the family Kretisha's belongings. They gave her her clothes, her leather jacket, her scrubs, her book bags, the gold earrings, including the other one that they found in her ear, and a silver necklace. Viola and Petrina are looking through Kretisha's belongings and they're like, what's this necklace? It doesn't belong to Kretisha. They was like, one, I've never seen it before, but two, Cisco don't go earring. They have on a silver necklace. She ain't gonna mix metals. That's tacky.
That's tacky, okay? Like, no. She knew better, okay? So the family took everything except the necklace and the police left. Police take that in and they're thinking and they're like, you know, let's circle back to her last few minutes. They saw her arguing with Kalilah. Isn't Kalilah graduated? What was she doing at Riverhead High? And on the day that Kirtisha disappeared? That's a little fishy, don't you think? And they're saying that they knew each other. Girls grew up together. This matter is hella passionate.
She might be who we need to talk to. So the police go down to Kalila's house and pick her up, take her to the station. Streaming October 6th on Paramount+. First place I learned about death was the Pat Cemetery. Dead things buried in that land would come back. There's something else. Something's wrong with Timmy. He needs time to adjust. That's not Timmy. Something's fucking driven him.
Sometimes dead is better. Pet Sematary. Bloodlines. Rated R. Streaming only on Paramount+.
So it's April 4th and Caligula is being interviewed by the Riverhead police station. When she gets there, she keeps it calm. She keeps it cool. She waves her light to a lawyer. However, when she got to the station, she takes off her jacket and police realize she's got cuts on her arms and hands that look like they have been healing. Red flag, right? So they ask her, you know, can we take a sample of your blood and DNA from the cuts? And she was like, oh yeah, I guess that'll be okay.
So they're talking and she's like, I had nothing to do with Kertisha's death. And she keeps saying to the police, you're not going to pin this on me. She told the cops that Kertisha was her friend. And she told them how I did this girl's hair for a homecoming. You looking at me? And the police are like, OK, do you know anything about this necklace? They're just trying to test her. And she says, yeah, it's mine. And they're like, OK, OK, we got it. We got it.
Kalila says it's the necklace that Carl gave me and when me and Carl was done I gave it back to him he probably gave it to Kertisha because they was messing around together you know now the cops are like we're not buying it but I have nothing to prove otherwise so the police are like well we know all about Carl and Kertisha and Kalila's face kind of goes blank but
She's still convincing him she's innocent. She had nothing to do with it. She says, I was done with Carl and I don't care that Cartesia and Carl want to be together. She says, as a matter of fact, I have an alibi. I was at work. So, you know, so they're like, damn, she got an answer for everything. So, you know, we can't keep her. Let's let her go. Do a little bit more investigating.
But listen, as soon as people caught whiff of Khalilah being picked up in the police car, the entire town started talking. And I mean, the entire town was pretty much split down the middle. They were either on the Taylor family side where they were like, there's absolutely no way that Khalilah could have done this. Or they were on the Mourning family side where...
They were like, I cannot believe that Khalilah did this to Kertisha. The family, they stopped hanging out. And whenever they did encounter each other, because remember, this is a small town and these families were super close. But when they did see each other, oh, it was pretty much on site. They would argue. They would fuss. They would fight all the time. Every time that a member of either one of those families showed up to a place, the police were called.
because they were just like divided now. Kalilah and her family, of course, they were getting the looks every time they walked down the street. Kalilah, she was getting the stares. Of course, she wasn't rested at the time. They had nothing to hold her on. And she lost a lot of friends. I mean, most of her friends were part of the mourning family.
since they couldn't do anything to Kalila and they were waiting on DNA, they were like, okay, let's see if we can talk to Carl. Carl seems like a very viable suspect. Let's see if he knows anything. They bring Carl down to the station for questioning and he was just so sad. He was crying throughout the whole interview. Of course, he answered all of their questions, but his alibi was that he was at home by himself and nobody was there with him, which they were like,
That's not an alibi. It's not an alibi at all. So you're going to have to come up with something a little bit better than that. Also, can you tell me what you know about this necklace? And he was like, yeah, I know that necklace. I gave it to Kalilah when her and I were dating. And they were like, and Kalilah gave it back to you. And he was like, no, Kalilah did not give it back to me. And they were like, well, Kalilah said that she gave it back to you. And he was like, like I said, Kalilah did not give that back to me. And they're like,
Okay, that's very good for us to know. So after the interview, they were like really shit out of luck. They're waiting on DNA, which it's 97. DNA has come a long way since then, but they had to wait for a while for the DNA. I mean, June, July, August, constantly waiting, waiting, waiting with no luck and no leads. While the case was going cold, Petrina remembers that
Kertisha was scheduled to have a recruitment meeting with an army recruiter, right? So Sergeant Sweeney, remember Sergeant Sweeney? All right, so apparently, remember, Sweeney was a creep, and he had made Kertisha feel uncomfortable at that time. So Petrina was like, he could be possibly linked to this, and I didn't tell y'all about him before. So detectives go to the interview, and they're like, hey, Sergeant Sweeney, what's up? You know anything about this, uh...
like, Kertisha murder. Dead teenager. You know? You got anything to say for yourself? And he was like, listen, here's my calendar. And it's very, very detailed, okay? I ain't had nothing to do with that. And it was true. He had a very solid alibi. He may have been a creep, but he did not commit this murder. So they're back to no leads. And this whole time, Khalilah is just living her life, which I feel like getting past the murder, I feel like that's the hard part. It's like,
living a regular life like fuck the guilt like the like not just the guilt but the anxiety of it always being over your shoulder you know what i mean like there's no statute of limitation it's just like anytime the case pops up in the news it's like what should i do don't act too funny they're gonna be like you know have i made a mistake i just it's too much so the dna finally comes back in may of 1997 this is a year and five months after katisha went missing
And the DNA says, boop, it's Kalila's blood found on Kertisha's jacket and her boots and her earrings. And they said, oh, you know what else? This is Kertisha's blood found on the silver necklace that Kalila said belonged to her. Said it wasn't hers, but said it belonged to her, right? And the family's saying it's not Kertisha's. So the police are like, listen, we've got DNA. We've also got these pictures from...
The high school yearbook, it's like their archives, the pictures that didn't make it. And they're finding several photos of Kalila in this necklace, right? So they take it to a gemologist and the gemologist is like, this necklace and the necklace that she's wearing in this picture are the same. Not only is the pattern unique on the herringbone, but there's a couple of dents and irregularities in that chain. And they're consistent with the ones in Kalila.
the photo. So, and this man is a certified snitch. Like he is the person that compares the jewelry for insurance claims. So like, this is, this is what he's supposed to do. Right. Right. So they're like, yeah, um, we've got all the information we need. So on June 9th, 1997, Kalila is arrested, booked and arraigned for a second degree murder and is denied bond.
After the arrest, they search her house and they find a knife in a dresser in Kalila's room in a drawer under her son's baby clothes. Hell of a hiding spot. I mean, I don't know. But that was not the murder weapon. But it was consistent with their story that she carried a knife on her, right?
Now, at this point, the town is shocked. Half the town believed Khalilah did it. Half the people didn't think she did, but they all were shocked when she was arrested. Like, ain't no way, no way. This is too much. You know, her teacher's family, they're happy she's arrested. You know, like, we're moving a step in the right direction. Let's get justice for my baby.
Let's see what you got to do at the trial. Take that shit to trial, bitch. Take that shit to trial, bitch. Take that shit to trial, bitch. Take that shit to trial. Khalilah's trial began in 1991 and it lasted for two months. During the court proceedings, both families were sitting there on one side, one family on one side, one family on the other, and they were snickering at each other. They were insulting each other.
One time officers had to restrain two of the women because they were lunging at each other. I mean, it was really bad. Like the families were acting the fuck up in the courtroom.
Kalila's aunt, she even wrote a letter to the news telling them about how bad the relationship between the two families had been. So this is her letter. It says, quote, Since my niece, Kalila Taylor, was arrested, there have been several attacks on our family, verbally, mentally, and physically. Our children not being able to attend regular school, being called murderers, among other nasty, foul remarks.
This situation is very delicate, as our family knows that Kalilah Taylor is innocent. Members of our family have even lost jobs due to the anonymous, character-degrading phone calls to our employers. We are not, in any way, threatening the Mourning family, but only defending our right as human beings to exist in the same community with them until justice prevails. I just feel like... That's Auntie Mildred. I just feel like...
If Khalilah is the one on trial, let Khalilah be the one on trial. Why are you calling her a child and talking about him? You know her sister murdered her. Why are you sitting there like kids at school making fun of them? Oh, I guess you're all killers. Like, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. Right. It's hard enough having to deal with just her. You don't need to spread her burden onto everybody else. Exactly.
The prosecution began opening statements with accusing Khalilah of murder because of jealousy. They painted the picture of Khalilah as an angry, narcissistic girl who couldn't let Kertisha have Carl no matter what.
They told the jury about Khalilah's little criminal record and about the fights and the time that she got stabbed. Also, Khalilah slashed two girls, one named Yolanda, one named Nairi. She was just having a hard February of 1996, Khalilah was. She was clearly, that was a hard, because, you know, Kertisha went missing in 1996, February. Also in February of 1996, Khalilah was at a party, fired four shots from a weapon into a crowd after
a confrontation, but no one was injured. She was charged with reckless endangerment and menacing a girl named Latoya Martin. Also in February of 1996, Kertisha's sister got an order of protection against Kalila because Kalila had threatened to kill...
And Kertesha's sister, well, she saw her at the party, like on some on-site type shit. And it's like, girl, chill. They also had all three witnesses from Riverhead High School testify about seeing Kertesha talking to Kalila. They were able to all identify Kalila in a yearbook. Then they had the medical examiner, Dr. Yvonne Maluski, testify about the severity of every wound and how much power Kalila would have had to use to stab her more than 100 times.
They said how Kertisha was laying on her stomach during most of the attack after a while was unable to fight back. The cause of death was deep wounds to the side of her neck that hit her carotid artery. She would have immediately stopped breathing and soon after her heart would have stopped too. The manner of death was ruled homicide. They showed pictures of the autopsy and the wounds and Kalila just kept looking up at the screen, but that was about the most reaction you saw from her during the trial. The detectives got up and they testified about how remorseless Kalila was during the entire
process. They called her, quote unquote, a cold-blooded savage. They had the gemologist testify, and they even had a few of Cleo's co-workers from Wendy's testify about the scratches that she showed up with on February 29th.
and they also said that she would casually talk shit about Kertisha while at work. Now, it's a small town, and everybody knew everybody, and so everybody knew what was going on. Then they present the physical evidence and the DNA report. They're showing how bloody all of Kertisha's clothes were and how many slashes were in her clothes. They're showing the earrings, the necklace, the bloody boots, and then they're showing how...
Kalila's DNA is all over it and they're showing the report to verify this, right? Now, the detective said that Kalila's hand slipped on the knife during the attack and she cut herself. And so she was actively bleeding. And every time that she picked up the knife to plunge it into Kertisha, she ended up dripping blood on the jacket, on the jewelry, on her boots.
And when she drugged Kirtisha, she drug her from her boots. And that's why she really got a lot of blood on the boots. Now, the crime scene investigators testified how Kirtisha's shirt and pants were pulled up and they were kind of scrunched as if she had been dragged. But of course, they waited so long and they couldn't find her for some reason. So nature had taken its course and there weren't any actual drag marks. They then told the jury about how Khalilah's alibi just it doesn't hold up.
They said that they tested it and they found out that Kalila was 15 minutes late for work. Even with that 15 minutes, she had plenty of time to kill Kertisha and make it to work before noon. When it was the defense's turn, Kalila's defense attorney, his name was John Kertisha.
He told the jury that the Riverhead police suspected Kalila first, and they were just like, great, we suspect her. Let's go. They took it and they ran with it. They had absolutely no evidence. The defense attorney asked the jurors to keep an open mind and to reserve judgment until all the evidence had been presented. He said, listen, at the end of the day, she is a person. They said that Kertisha's murder couldn't have occurred the day she went missing because she was found guilty.
in an area that the police said they searched. So if y'all searched and y'all didn't find her and now all of a sudden y'all find her where y'all searched, the math isn't mathing.
The defense denied that Kalila had anything to do with Kertisha's disappearance or her murder. She continued to maintain her innocence throughout the entire trial, and she wanted to testify. When Kalila got on the stand, she was calm. She showed no emotion. She told the jury that she had nothing to do with Kertisha's murder or disappearance, and she had explanations for everything. She said that she was not late for work, and she couldn't have made it if she had killed Kertisha.
She said that her DNA got on Kourtis' jacket and earrings and boots in October of, like, 1995 when Khalilah got stabbed. Because remember, she got stabbed once.
We told y'all that story a while ago. Now, she went to the hospital and apparently at that same time, Kertisha's mom was in the hospital so Kertisha was there. They saw each other, they gave each other a hug and she was like, and I was, you know, I just got stabbed so I was dripping blood and I got it on her boots and on her and that's probably why it's there. I had already been bleeding. Kalilah also told the jury that
She loved Kirtisha. I mean, she gave them a sob story about, I mean, I did her hair. I mean, we were friends. Nay, best friends. We did each other's hair. So that means it's it. I mean, black girl activities like this. Yeah.
That was her selling point. Like, come on, I did her hair, which I'll admit, everybody can touch my hair. Okay. You know, they asked her about the necklace and she said, are you talking about the necklace that the detectives brought here today? That's not my necklace. She testified that she did not know why there was a knife in her drawer, which I have weapons stashed around the house. I mean, they're random, they're everywhere. But when you're in super, I'm going to find...
I'm going to put weapons everywhere emoji. Forget where you put them. But I mean, still the baby drawer. I don't know. And it wasn't the murder weapon. So why are we even talking about it? And she has no idea why her co-workers would make up the lie that she was talking shit about Kirtisha. So her mom and her dad testified that Kirtisha did not care about Carl. She was not in a relationship with him anymore. They also testified that they too had seen Kirtisha at the hospital.
Now, the biggest what if that the defense was standing on is where is the murder weapon? If I did it, what did I do it with? Where is it? Talking about all these knives I carry, where's the knife that I used to cut her? Somebody tell me. Since you got your degrees and you know every fucking thing. Mm-hmm. So, of course, that's something that the prosecution was not able to deliver. And they've all presented their arguments, and it's time to hear from the jury. Now, why...
while the jury's deliberating, there are 16 officers with bulletproof vests on in the courtroom from when the jury comes to read it. They ready for either one of these families to pop off because it's one sight. You never know which way it's going to go. You know? Like, used to be friends, now we foes, and anybody can get it. So they also stationed police cars in the parking lot. Like, it was heavy-duty security. Now...
Before the verdict got read, while the jury was still deliberating, Khalilah is back in her cell puking her brains out. OK, so they take it to be evaluated. They're like, what's wrong with her? They take her blood pressure and she's got a fever. And it was like, you know what? It's just stress. Let me tell you something. I'd be stressed, too.
I mean, I'm about to find out what is going to happen to me. This is the decision for the rest of my life. You know what? It took the jury three damn days to get that back. So I know her tummy was hurting all through this waiting. But, you know, it's a little glimmer of hope, right? Because, you know what they say, the longer they take to deliberate, the more likely you are that you're not guilty. So it's November 1st, 1999, and Kalilah was found guilty.
guilty of second-degree murder of Kertisha Mourning. And at her sentencing hearing, she was sentenced to 25 to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
She was then taken to the Mid-Hudson Correctional Facility. Now, when she gets to the prison, you know, she starts quick, fast working on that appeal. She was like, my lawyer wasn't competent. And the court's like, your lawyer was competent. But we did see a little mishap over here and the prosecution fucked up a little bit. You see, the prosecution told the jury that they had concrete evidence about the blood and the necklace, you know, belonging to Kalia and that the blood was for sure hers, right?
But the little issue is DNA is not concrete. It's circumstantial. So the conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered on April 12th of 2004. Now, just two years later, Khalilu was starting to write letters to the judge and the detectives about her case. And these letters...
were beyond strange. In fact, Judge Ralph Gazillo called them bizarre. She's in here saying, yo, the state set me up. They stole my necklace and they planted it on her. And not only that, but they used a clone to get my DNA. And then they killed the clone of Kertesha. Because listen, Kertesha not even dead. She off in Area 51 somewhere.
That's the clone of Kertisha that y'all have, right? And she said, not only that, not only that. Y'all know it's really messed up, guys. It's I'm pregnant right now. And I'm not pregnant with no baby in my belly, neither. No, I've got a lizard in my stomach. You know, remember when Sharon Lewis Carr also said that she was a lizard? Mm-hmm.
When she started flying over the cuckoo nest. Mm-hmm. Now, the judge on this case thought maybe she is losing it while she's in jail, so he ordered for her to be evaluated. In 2006, after the evaluation, it was found that she was not fit to stand trial. When this happens, the charges, they don't go away. They just, like,
wait until you become fit to stand trial or you become mentally stable. And on June of 2010, which was four years later, she was finally found mentally capable of standing trial. Before the trial began, the prosecution's office offered Kalilah a plea deal. They were like, okay, we will give you 18 years to life. Just say that you're guilty. Apologize to the family. Listen, they deliberated for three days last time. Do we really want to try it?
Right. They were like, we really also don't want to put the Morning family through a whole new trial. Y'all was acting crazy in the courtroom. We are trying to avoid this in any way possible. So take these 18 years to life and, you know, take the deal. Right. Kalilah's family was like, girl, take the deal. Everybody was like, girl, take the deal. And Kalilah was like, you know what? You know what I'm going to do? So she is back.
back in trial. Her trial begins July of 2012. The trial is pretty much the same as before, but this time it was 2012. DNA technology had advanced a lot since 99, and they were more certain about the DNA matches at the time and made sure to say circumstantial instead of definite.
The trial was a lot shorter, and by August 23, 2012, she was found guilty of second-degree murder again and sentenced to 25 to life again. Then it was reaffirmed by the Suffolk Supreme Court in November 4, 2015.
Kalila's first parole hearing was May 31st, 2022, and it was denied. Her next parole hearing is set for January 2024, and at that time she would have been in prison for 25. Carl IV is now 29 years old.
Damn. What? 29? Your mom had been in jail since he was like three. Mm-hmm. Well, I guess a little bit more than that because she was out for a little while while we were waiting on evidence. But your mom has been in jail since he was a tot. Not much is known about Carl IV or if he maintained a relationship with his mom after she went to prison or if he even has a relationship with his dad, Carl III. Kalilah Taylor is being housed at the Albion Correctional Facility in New York while she will be until a successful parole hearing or...
or for the rest of her life. Ooh, and that is the story of Kalilah Taylor. All right, y'all, it's time for... I ain't do it, but if I did, this is how I would've got away with it. I ain't do it, but if I did, girl, you need to wear gloves, especially if you plan on going to work where you were handling food afterwards.
You need to have something to protect your hands. I ain't do it, but if I did, easy on the overkill. That leaves too much room for mistakes. Yeah. I ain't do it, but if I did, I definitely would have taken the second plea. Oh, for sure. I ain't do it if I did. I mean, if we're going to have a psychotic break, let's have it before the first trial, like, and keep it up.
Never take it. I mean, if I'm going to fly over the cuckoo nest, I'm going to stay over the cuckoo nest. Like, you know, they give good pudding. I think even your psychotic break probably should have happened right after the murder or right before, you know, so then at least you could have got
an insanity plea or something. Like, girl, because what are you doing? And I'm almost wondering, I know she got into altercations, but she was in a lot of mess around that time from January to February because there was also that she stabbed that other girl who we mentioned. So I'm seeing, like, three incidents in February alone. Like... Clearly that was, like, a manic month for her, you know? I ain't do it, but if I did, girl...
You already had to move out of your apartment because this nigga moved out and was no longer paying the bills in your very first apartment. We ain't got no business with him no way. Right, because if he not making up the difference for the security of your son, like, you signed this lease or we agreed on this lease together and you just going to leave me high and dry. I mean, of course, she wasn't acting right, but still, like... I ain't do it, but if I did...
Kalilah and Carl were already graduated. They were over 18. But Kertesha, Kertesha was still only 17. So I think if I wanted to get back at Carl, I would have filed something against Carl. Like, oh, he's messing around with an underage kid. And I would have tried to get some type of statutory rape against him so that nobody gets hurt except for the person who I am trying to hurt. And also they don't physically get hurt. They're sent out of jail. You don't care anymore. Anyway, anyway. But I guess they couldn't have done that because Kertesha...
Wasn't having sex. Yeah. Kirtisha wasn't having sex with Carl. So I guess that wouldn't have worked. I ain't do it. But if I did, girl, don't let these niggas be out here making you look goofy. Not only are you fighting the girl over this nigga, but you went as far as to kill her. What about your son? Right. You want to sit there and tell everybody you're not worried about this nigga? Really don't be worried about that nigga. Then you won't have to lie and cover up and all this other shit. You can just not be worried about that nigga.
Because clearly you're still worried about somebody that is hanging out at the high school. You know what I'm saying? And again, this is another case of nobody's going to see an actual picture of him because he is considered not a suspect, not part of this investigation, not part of this case. So you can't really find him unless you just like are some type of sleuth, which I don't know. Maybe y'all are. Maybe I will find him. But as far as being able to put him on even like our Instagram, he's again, some nigga that you were upset about. Yeah.
you're the one that is made a fool out of like he has nothing to do with this story at this point like when you lose your temper the catalyst between y'all and that's it when you lose your temper when you get that angry you lose all your power like there's so many things that you could have done to get back at this nigga and they would have been nothing to talk about right you could have been petty i mean like i got your namesake right here nigga and i know that some people are gonna be like i
I got your namesake right here. I mean, I know crazy girls that do it. I don't condone it. I got your namesake right here. You want to see your son? You better leave that little girl alone. You don't want to be in jail because I'm going to call the people on you for messing with a 17-year-old. I mean, but I think it's legal with 17-year-olds, isn't it?
It depends on what... It depends on the state. Yeah. But I think most of them are at 16. Parole or no parole? I don't know. I think she needs another mental health check. I think she does too. And they said at the second hearing, they weren't completely sure if she was 100% there. I think they just wanted to get that trial done. No, I think she needs another mental health check. I think that she definitely needs another mental health check. And it makes me wonder, like, did prison make you crazy? Or...
Or were you by yourself? Did guilt make you crazy? Like, what was it? That's probably what it was. Honestly, guilt probably made her crazy because guilt can eat you up. And then you'll spend lives to yourself, like. And you'll believe them. Uh-huh. And be like, ain't no way I could have did this. So what must have happened is this, this, this, because you don't want to live with your own truths.
Exactly. Exactly. All right. Parole. We just said that. All right. That's it. Not again. Okay. Let's read some reviews. Okay. I'm going to read this one and you tell me if you want to keep it on the air or not. It's not necessarily a review, but a suggestion. Okay.
Oh, goodness. Okay, you can do it. I don't care what you say. That will heavily decline. This one says, suggestion. Hey, I'm sorry this is so late at night, but if I don't send it while it's on my mind, I'll never send it. Okay, so I know a lot of people beg you guys for two episodes a week. So I'm thinking since it's October approaching and it's Domestic Violence Awareness Month, you guys can have two to four mini episodes at 20 to 30 minutes each. And it will revolve around cases where women got off for self-defense or convictions that were overturned.
So what say you Mariah? Why gotta be me? Why gotta be you to what? What? Oh, you're asking me what say me? I thought the girl said what say you Mariah. No, I'm saying what say you?
That's not happening. That sounds like a whole lot of work. That's not happening. That's a lot. Wait, we do have something in the work that is coming, and I can't wait to show y'all, and Tazzy can't wait to show y'all, but y'all don't have to wait a little bit. Hold on just a little while longer, but I promise you it's not going to be any more episodes. Like, I don't think that you understand the research that goes on with this because snapped in these, like, one...
These reenactment shows are giving you very surfic and they're giving you dramatizations of these cases, not the facts. Like it takes a real deep dive. So no. Yeah.
I was like, oh, I appreciate the suggestion. It's just not going to happen. Yeah, I appreciate it, too. Anyways, this review is from XOXOTia says to my sisters. I love this podcast so much. I'm grateful for TikTok because that's how I found y'all.
Hey, that's been our money making. Not a money. Bread and bread. They ain't bread no money. That's that's been our whole marketing scheme. Yeah. So I've really been working on my my face care routine because I think like last week is when I got that really bad pimple. And I was like, Tassie, I'm not making any TikToks. And then you can last you can kind of see the scar of this really. I mean, it was a horrendous pimple, y'all. I mean, like one of the ones you see in the movies. Yeah.
And so now I've been very intentional about my water intake, but I'm always pretty, I've been always been pretty good about that and working out in my face just so I can be in front of y'all on TikTok because we want y'all to be a part of the show. That's it. That's all I got. Um,
If you want to keep up with us, a part of one of those fun things that we're doing that is coming up that I promise you we are working here on the back end is if you guys want to ask Tazi any type of questions, they do not have to be true crime related. They can be life related because I feel like people are really interested in you and I don't. I mean, I think you're interesting. I think you're amazing. I don't get it. And nobody likes me, but...
No, people find you very interesting. So one of the things is if you guys have any type of questions for Tazzy, T-A-Z-Z-Y talks at gmail.com. That's Tazzy talks at gmail.com. To keep up with us, you can follow us on Instagram at sisters who kill pod on TikTok at sisters who kill.
podcast on Twitter at sisters who kill and you can join the discussion group but you must answer all the questions and read the rules and agree to the rules to be let in do you have anything else for the people friend talk to us we talk back bye bye