Inmate Name: Celeste Fox
Charge: First-degree murder, reduced to second-degree murder
Sentence: 25 years in prison
Prison: Lowell Correctional Institute -- Ocala, Florida

Celeste Fox was born in 1971, the eldest of six brothers and sisters, and grew up in St. Augustine Florida. When Celeste was in the eighth grade she says her mother made her drop out of school so that she could help care for her siblings. Celeste claims her mother was often abusive and was especially hard on her and her brother James. To make matters worse, when Celeste was 15 years old, her father was killed in a plane crash. It was then that Celeste?s mother sent her and her siblings to live with relatives. When that arrangement didn?t work out, Celeste ended up in foster homes. At age 17, she returned to St. Augustine, getting involved with several boyfriends, and giving birth to a boy and a girl, both of whom she lost custody of.

Celeste's downward spiral continued as she began using crack cocaine. Then, in 1999 she was arrested for failure to appear in court for an alleged assault against her grandmother, but the charges were dropped. Her brother James also had brushes with the law. Since both brother and sister were having a difficult time and were estranged from their mother, their Uncle Danny and Aunt Lynne took them in ? and their grandmother, Celestine, offered James and Celeste the trailer behind her home in exchange for work around her house. For the next few years, James and Celeste lived on and off at both their uncle?s home and their grandmother?s trailer.

On June 2, 2001 Celeste spent the day helping her grandmother do yard work. While her grandmother was hanging laundry on the clothesline, investigators say Celeste snuck into her grandmother?s bedroom and took her jewelry so that she could purchase drugs. When she went to take a shower, her grandmother told her the water wasn?t working and to take a shower at her neighbor?s home. When her grandmother mentioned that she invited Celeste?s brother, James, with whom she didn't get along, to stay in her trailer for the night, a heated argument broke out between grandmother and granddaughter. Celeste claims when she left her grandmother, she was alive, but police contend otherwise.

According to police, Celeste admitted in a statement that before taking a shower she and her neighbor got high on cocaine. Then she and two of her neighbor?s tenants used her grandmother?s jewelry to buy more drugs; Celeste spent the rest of the night at her neighbor?s home getting high. The following day Celeste?s grandmother was found dead in her home. The detectives found evidence linking Celeste to the crime and she quickly became the prime suspect in the murder. Two days after the killing police charged Celeste with burglarizing her grandmother?s home and dealing in stolen property. Three months later, a county grand jury indicted her on first-degree murder. Celeste waited almost three years for her case to go to trial. On July 9, 2004, against the wishes of her lawyer, Celeste entered a plea of no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree murder along with the other burglary and stolen property charges. A judge sentenced her to 25 years in prison with credit of three years for time already served. Now, more than three years later, Celeste regrets pleading guilty, saying that she did not understand the charges against her and maintains her innocence. In February 2005 Celeste appealed her case but lost. She will be 61 years old when she is released from prison.