Free The Bad Nurse by Sheila Johnson Page A

$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