Christine Paolilla mug shot
Christine Paolilla, with her first wig. At age 5 Christine was
diagnosed with a hair-loss condition
called alopecia. "She would
wake up in the morning and there would be clumps of hair all over
her pillow, patches here, patches there," her mother, Lori Paolilla,
told ABC News. "And eventually
[it] led to where it affected her
eyes, so she lost her eyebrows, she lost her eyelashes."
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla was a bullied teen who wore awkward wigs to cover
her bald head until two of the
most popular girls in school took her under their wings and
transformed her into 'Miss Irresistible'
Christine Paolilla at home with stepfather Tom Dick, left, and
Lori Paolilla, right, during her middle
school years. Christine
hated wearing a wig, her mother said. "That was devastating. She had
poor
vision so she had what I guess most folks would know as
'Coke-bottle glasses,' and started
being ridiculed by young
children," Lori Paolilla told ABC News. "Classmates would come up
behind her, pull her wig off her head ... It was so painful to
watch."
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla as a high school sophomore in 2002. "I can't
even imagine really, truly how she
was feeling," said her mom, Lori
Paolilla. "As a parent, as a mother, the pain of a child ... waking
up in the morning thinking, 'What am I going to have to go through
today? Who is going to
hurt me today?' It was very difficult for
her."
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla in 2003, the year her Clear Lake High School
class voted her "Miss Irresistible"
-- and the year she and
boyfriend Chris Snider committed four murders.
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla with mom Lori Paolilla, the day she walked
with her graduating class
at Clear Lake High School (she did not
earn a diploma).
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla later married Justin Rott. Rott told police
that Paolilla admitted to going to the
house to participate in a
drug heist, and when Snider started shooting she didn't hesitate to
join in.
(Courtesy Lori Paolilla -
The Chronicle)
By 2006, Christine Paolilla and husband Justin Rott were both
heavy heroin users. The pair holed
up in a hotel room in San
Antonio, shooting drugs day after day, month after month. "She never
left that room one time," said Rott. "The whole, over-nine-month
time, the only time I ever left
was to get food or drugs." She
stayed in the room until the police came for her. "It almost looked
like a murder scene inside this hotel room," said Houston Police
Sgt. Brian Harris. "There's blood
on the wall, hundreds of needles,
used needles on the ground, boxes of brand new needles
ready to go
and then, literally, about 80, 85 needles lined up on a dresser
with
heroin inside 'em. It reeked."
(Handout -
The Chronicle)
Christine Paolilla interrogation.
Christine Paolilla makes her first court appearance since her
arrest.
(Photo: Jessica Kourkounis, For The Chronicle)
Defense attorney Mike DeGeurin and Christine Paolilla listen to
State District Judge Kent Ellis as
he speaks
to the jury pool in
September at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse in Houston.
(Photo: Mayra Beltrán, Chronicle File)
