A man accused in the May 2022 murder of a Mountain City, Georgia, woman could face death row if convicted.
Christopher Shields, 45, of Otto, is now facing capital murder charges in the first-degree murder of 42-year-old Tina Walkingstick Frizsell. Macon County Superior Court Judge William Coward approved the Rule 24 transfer during a Sept. 25 hearing, meaning he granted District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch’s capital murder case request. North Carolina reserves capital murder designations for first-degree murder cases involving a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
The N.C. Department of Public Safety lists 137 current offenders on death row in the state. None of them are from Macon County. The state has not executed anyone since 2006 due to lawsuits regarding the drugs used in lethal injection, the only method of execution allowed by the state.
Shields is also facing charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, concealing/failure to report a death, destroying a body/remains, concealing an unattended death, felony conspiracy and two counts of first-degree kidnapping. The next court date hasn’t been scheduled, according to court calendars.
Prosecutors allege that Shields shot and killed Frizsell (identified in court documents as Tina Walkingstick) on or around May 18, 2022, in a shed at a residence on South Tryphosa Road in Otto.
According to an affidavit, Jessica Smith, also charged in the case, told investigators that Shields believed Frizsell had killed his girlfriend and cut up her body. That story turned out to be fake, and the woman is alive.
“Chris confronted Tina Walkingstick [Frizsell] about his girlfriend at Norman Peterman’s house [where Frizsell was staying] and punched her in the face, then dragged her to his truck and took her to his residence and tied her to a chair in the shed, located at his residence,” according to the affidavit. Shields also allegedly kidnapped Crystal Chastain McFarland, but she later escaped. Angie Ledford was already in the shed and Lenoka Wilson allegedly made sure the women couldn’t leave.
Smith later told investigators she saw a body believed to be Frizsell under a white sheet in the shed with blood coming out. The affidavit says the body remained in the shed for two days before Shields forced Jessica Smith and Derek McCrackin to help burn it at a property on Mulberry Road in Otto. That is where investigators found the remains.
Shields was arrested on May 20, 2022, and issued various kidnapping, assault by pointing a gun, assault and battery and possession of a firearm by a felon charges. On May 23 and 24, 2022, McCrackin, Smith and Wilson were all arrested and charged with various accessory crimes related to the murder. In August 2022, a grand jury returned a true bill of indictment against Shields for first-degree murder.
According to court documents, Shields’ attorney Tony Dalton argued against the Rule 24 transfer and asked for a bond, saying he wasn’t a flight risk. Dalton’s bond motion also was denied. Additionally, Shields will remain detained in the custody of the N.C. Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state prison system.
Shields has seldom been in the Macon County Detention Center. In August, Coward approved the Macon County Sheriff’s Office’s safekeeping order to have Shields held in a higher-security prison system. It’s not the first safekeeping order MCSO has received in this case. According to the petition, Shields posed a security risk, a serious escape risk, exhibited violently aggressive behavior, posed an imminent danger to county jail staff and other prisoners, and was in danger himself.
In 2022, then-Sheriff Robert Holland said Shields had quickly been transferred to Raleigh Central Prison because he had been a problem in the Macon County Detention Center.
Current Sheriff Brent Holbrooks said security at the courthouse was increased during Shields’s Rule 24 hearing last week.
“Hit list”
According to the District Attorney’s office, Shields made a “hit list” to threaten witnesses and potential witnesses of the May 2022 murder.
One of the witnesses was Angela Ledford, the subject of one of the first-degree kidnapping charges from May 2022. A woman’s headless body was found in Chattahoochee National Forest in Rabun County, Georgia, in early August. The body is believed to be Ledford’s although positive identification has not been released by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The Rabun County Sheriff’s Office said that Ledford was missing in the same release announcing the finding of the unidentified remains but didn’t directly connect the two. RCSO directed The Franklin Press to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has not returned a request for comment. Ledford’s family posted an obituary announcing her death the same week.
On Aug. 8 and 9, Keegan Cleve Phillips, 23, of Otto, was arrested and charged with the murder of the woman found in the woods. Robert Lee Peppers, 62, of Clayton, Georgia, was charged with concealing a death and abandonment of a dead body. Phillips is still being held in the Rabun County Detention Center while Peppers has posted bond, officials at the detention center confirmed.
According to the Rabun County Clerk of Court’s office, Phillips and Peppers have not been indicted yet. The Rabun County grand jury convenes this week, where indictments could be handed down.
Phillips was identified in affidavits as a witness to the Frizsell case, seeing her tied to a chair in the shed where she was later allegedly killed.
RCSO reported that on the morning of Aug. 7, investigators and GBI agents learned of a body in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. Later that afternoon, investigators and GBI agents executed a search warrant at 128 Pepper Lane in Clayton, Georgia, with a K9 cadaver dog finding human remains in a shallow grave. Later, the K9 found a deceased human body in the Chattahoochee National Forest on Patterson Gap Road and a third crime scene on Alexander Lane in Clayton, Georgia.
In the Frizsell affidavit, Ledford was with Shields when deputies first arrived on May 20, 2022, to search his shed. During that initial visit, Ledford whispered to deputies that she witnessed Shields shooting Frizsell through her mouth on May 16. Meeting with deputies later, Ledford said she feared for her life as Shields had threatened her, the affidavit states.
Frizsell murder details
The kidnapping and murder stem from a made-up story that Frizsell and others killed Shields’ girlfriend and chopped up the body.
During an interview on May 26, 2022, Crystal Chastain McFarland told investigators that Shields had kidnapped her and Frizsell from Peterman’s house on May 15 and took them to a shed on his property on Tryphosa Road. Ledford was already in the shed.
When detectives were at Smith’s Tryphosa Road residence on May 20, Ledford quietly told detectives that Shields shot Frizsell on May 16 and the body had been in the shed for two days. Ledford also asked detectives to help her leave “because she was afraid for her life.”
Jessica Smith told detectives she was at the shed on May 18, 2022, and saw a female body lying on the floor. She assumed it was Frizsell.
Ledford told detectives Shields and others moved the body from the shed to the property on Mulberry Road. Also, Shields allgedly forced Smith and Derek McCrackin to help burn the body.
During a search of Shields’ truck, detectives found shovels and a black flip-flop that matched the description of what Frizsell was last seen wearing. Detectives filed search warrants for the property off Mulberry Road belonging to Bashey Arizona B. McCracken, where they found the human remains.
Other charges
Jessica Rita Smith is charged with accessory after the fact, concealing/failing to report death, destroying body/remains in concealing an unnatural death and felony conspiracy. Smith posted a $20,000 bond last September.
Andrew Derek McCrackin is charged with accessory after the fact, concealing/failing to report death, destroying body/remains in concealing an unnatural death and felony conspiracy. McCrackin is held on a $350,000 secured bond.
Lenor Lenoka Wilson is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping and two charges of first-degree kidnapping. Wilson is held on a $250,000 secured bond.
All three next appear in court on Nov. 13.