Carla Ann Hughes was born on June 12, 1981. When she was six weeks old, she was adopted by her uncle and aunt, Carl and Lynda Hughes, and grew up in Greenville, Mississippi. As a child, Carla was known for her academic success and her involvement in horseback riding and beauty pageants. She consistently achieved high grades and was often described as ambitious and driven.

Carla earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in the early 2000s. She later pursued graduate studies, completing a Master of Education at Belhaven College in Jackson. By her mid-20s, she was taking doctoral coursework in education at Delta State University. She had also become a mother to a young son in 2004.

Professionally, Carla began as an elementary school teacher before accepting a position as a 7th-grade language arts instructor at Chastain Middle School in Jackson. There, she met fellow educator and basketball coach Keyon Pittman. Despite Pittman’s serious relationship with his longtime fiancée, Avis Banks—who was expecting their first child—he and Carla began an intimate affair.

Friends and colleagues would later recall that Carla appeared enamored with Pittman and deeply invested in the relationship. While Pittman maintained his engagement to Avis, Carla harbored hope that he would leave her.

On the night of November 29, 2006, 27-year-old Avis Banks, pregnant with her first child, returned to her Ridgeland, Mississippi home after work. As she entered her garage, she was ambushed. She was shot multiple times and stabbed. The crime scene suggested the back door had been kicked in. Her fiancé, Keyon Pittman, discovered her body and called 911.

The murder quickly drew suspicion. Investigators learned Pittman was having an affair with Carla Hughes. In the hours after Avis’s death, Pittman called Carla. When detectives interviewed her, Carla initially denied any sexual relationship with Pittman and claimed she didn’t own a firearm. However, her story quickly unraveled.

Evidence mounted rapidly. Carla’s cousin came forward through his attorney, stating that he had lent Carla his loaded .38 caliber revolver shortly before the killing—and she had returned it empty. Forensics confirmed that this gun was the murder weapon. Investigators also recovered Carla’s shoes, which matched the impressions on the back door. Cell phone records placed her near the crime scene at the time of the murder.

Initially charged as an accessory after the fact, Carla’s charges were upgraded to two counts of capital murder—one for Avis Banks and another for the unborn child.

Carla’s trial began in October 2009. The prosecution argued she killed Avis to remove her as an obstacle to a future with Pittman. Pittman himself testified, describing how he found Avis’s body and admitted to his relationship with Carla. The defense sought to portray Pittman as a manipulative womanizer who used Carla. They claimed Pittman might have been involved, suggesting he wore Carla’s shoes to mislead investigators. But the circumstantial and forensic evidence against Carla was overwhelming.

On October 13, 2009, after eight hours of deliberation, the jury found Carla Hughes guilty on both counts of capital murder. Though she faced the death penalty, the judge instead imposed two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Carla’s appeals were denied. In 2012, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld her conviction, rejecting arguments about evidentiary errors and trial conduct. She remains incarcerated at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility near Pearl, Mississippi.