Snapped Kristi Lunbery and Charles Bateson

Status: Released

The story of Kristi Lunbery and her husband Charles is the subject of Oxygen's Snapped show, season 10, episode 7. Oxygen describes the show as: Kristi Lunbery is accused of shooting her sleeping husband Charles Bateson, but claims she is innocent in April 1992.

The Crime. At approximately noon on Friday, April 17, 1992, Charlie Bateson (Charlie) was discovered dead. He had been shot in the head with a single bullet discharged four to six inches from his head. His death by violence had been caused by another person. The time of his death is not established by the record on appeal.
The Investigation. A neighbor, Belinda Strickland, discovered the body in a bed in Charlie's home in Burney, Shasta County, California. The Shasta County Sheriff was notified. Detectives from his office examined the house. Blood had splattered on the floor and wall of the bedroom and on the outside of the door frame leading to a hall. No weapon was found. No bloodstained clothes were found. No signs were found of any clothes or area having been recently washed. Fingerprints, when they were taken, were of the present and recent tenants, plus some unidentified prints and an unidentified palm print. A medical examiner performed a field investigation at the house and four days later conducted an autopsy. The house was unlocked. It was the last house on a cul-de-sac, and the detectives found footprints and tire tracks in the wooded area at the end of the street. The detectives also found a note to Charlie on the refrigerator from his wife, telling him that she was taking their two daughters to go shopping in Redding and would be back by 1 p.m. or so.

Kristi Lunbery ultimately plead no contest to involuntary manslaughter and was released because she had already served thirteen years. She still maintains her innocence.

You can  not write to Kristi Lunbery as she has been released.

To view the obituary or grave, use the link on the victim's name. To read the entire appeal (typically quite interesting) use the link on the killer's name. You can watch Snapped and more on Oxygen either on YouTube or your local cable provider.

Looking for other female inmates? Try these sites
Deadly Affairs | Deadly Women | Fatal Attraction | For My Man 
Snapped Killer Couples | Twisted Sisters | Women Behind Bars