Stanley Justin Rott was the spouse of Christine Marie Paolilla, an American woman convicted of murdering four of her friends in the Clear Lake Massacre in 2003, which garnered national headlines.
Table of Contents
Murders
Christine Paolilla, 17, and her then-boyfriend, 21-year-old Christopher Lee Snider, went to Tiffany Rowell’s house on July 18, 2003, where Tiffany and Rachael Koloroutis, Tiffany’s boyfriend Marcus Precella, and Marcus’ cousin Adelbert Sanchez were there. According to Paolilla, the pair intended to buy narcotics at the house, but Snider allegedly got into an altercation with Precella, which resulted in the deaths of Rowell, Koloroutis, Precella, and Sanchez.
Apprehension
Christine Paolillia joined a drug rehab in Kerrville, Texas, where she met Stanley Justin Rott, a heroin addict with whom she began dating.
They married and bought a condo with the proceeds of her late father’s $360,000 trust. Their nesting time was brief.
Paolillia saw a news report on the unsolved murders the following year. She admitted to her new husband that she and her ex-boyfriend were involved in the murder.
After learning of her admission, Rott experienced some of the stages of grief: shock, rage, denial, and acceptance. The pair took flight and went into hiding.
A guy who ultimately turned out not to be Stanley Justin Rott gave Houston police an anonymous tip ten days before the murders’ third anniversary, claiming he had encountered Paolilla in rehab and she had told him how she and her lover had carried out the Clear Lake killings.
After receiving the tip, the police tracked her down using her ATM usage, and two days later, they had her in custody.
As Houston Police searched for Christopher Lee Snider, he committed suicide in Greenville, shortly after Paolilla’s arrest.
Police also arrested Rott after discovering 70 vials of heroin in the couple’s room.
Rott told authorities that Paolilla admitted to him that she was an active participant in the murders after their arrests.
Rott was expected to be a crucial witness for the prosecution at Paolilla’s trial, which was set for January 8.
Stanley Justin Rott, Paolilla’s husband, detailed in his testimony how she repeatedly confessed to him their shared heroin addiction and her involvement in the killings.
According to testimony from a physician from the Medical Examiner’s Office, Precella and Koloroutis both sustained blunt force head injuries in addition to multiple gunshot wounds to the victims’ bodies.
Conviction
Texas judges found Paolilla guilty on four counts in 2008. Paolilla attacked four of her peers when she was 17 years old.
She was condemned to a mandatory term of life imprisonment since the State was unable to pursue the death penalty. She was given a life sentence at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, after the Supreme Court ruled that it was unlawful to execute juveniles, even in the most extreme circumstances.
Christine Paolilla is currently serving a sentence at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, and will become available for parole in 2046 when she becomes 60.
