CALHOUN COUNTY, Mich. – Shawn Pike has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the July 2014 stabbing death of Nicole Gates. The Calhoun County Circuit Court jury deliberated within 15 minutes.
Gates, 27, was stabbed 87 times while working at a Citgo gas station.
Pike admitted to police that when Gates went to call 911 at the gas station that night, he stabbed her to death until his knife broke.
Confessed killer Pike looked motionless in court. Thursday afternoon Battle Creek Police Department Detective Scott Eager testified and quoted cell phone records, relaying the text messages he said were exchanged between Pike and Gates the night she was killed.
In one of those texts, Pike asked Gates to come outside the gas station and smoke.
Jurors then watched a jailhouse interview, hearing Pike’s chilling statements after his arrest. Pike said he wanted to rob the gas station for money to flee the state.
“I told (Gates) when I came (into the gas station), that I just wanted the money… ,” Pike told another detective. “She was like, ‘alright.’ She was like, `I won`t say nothing, I won`t let Jackie say nothing.` I got warrants, I want the money so I can go out of state for a minute until they catch me.”
Mid-robbery, after Gates led Pike to a locked back office, he told the detective he used a knife to pry open the door; this was moments before he turned on Gates.
“It was all straight, and then when I was trying to get the door open and I turned around, she was on her phone about to call the cops,” Pike told the detective. “I blacked out and started stabbing her.”
Testimony revealed Gates had about 40 deep stab wounds in the back of her head and neck; she had a total of more than 80 stab wounds to her entire body. Pike reportedly told investigators that Gates did not even have a chance to call for help.
“She never made it through the phone call, but she was pushing a number and said she was calling, and I stabbed her in her right arm and her phone dropped. I just kept going,” Pike told the detective.
The defense called no witnesses to testify.
Pike will be sentenced at a later date, and faces up to life in prison.
