Inmate Name: Jennifer Lynn Blake
Charge: First degree murder
Sentence: Life without parole
Prison: Fluvanna Correctional Center, Troy Virginia

Jennifer Lynn Blake was born in Puerto Rico in 1975. Four years later, her mother, Kathy Kraynick, gave birth to Jennifer?s brother, Michael. Jennifer?s father was in the Navy and the family moved from state to state as he was assigned to different bases. When Jennifer was 11, the Kraynick?s settled in Virginia. Jennifer claims that when her father was out to sea for months at a time, her mother would become verbally and physically abusive, and would go so far as to loan Jennifer out to men for cash. Michael, Jennifer?s brother adamantly refutes Jennifer?s claims, saying that Jennifer lied a lot. By the age of 12, Jennifer and her mother were constantly fighting about the rules of the house; the problem only escalated when Jennifer became a teenager.

The situation reached a crisis in 1990 when Jennifer attempted suicide while her father was away on duty, and she was committed to a psychiatric hospital. When she was released, however, she became more violent towards her mother, and in 1991, when Jennifer was 16, she was arrested and charged with assault and battery against her mother. She was placed on probation that she violated that summer by running away. In 1993, the 17 year old dropped out of high school, got married and had her first child, Jasmine. When the marriage ended in divorce three years later, Jennifer?s mother took her and Jasmine in to help them out. When Jennifer?s parents divorced, the 25-year-old single mother began dating another man and became pregnant. Two months into her pregnancy, Jennifer met 21-year-old dishwasher, Corey Jackson and began a torrid affair. In April 2000, Jennifer gave birth to her second daughter and broke up the relationship with the baby?s father. She did, however, continue to date Jackson while living at her mother?s home, and began to sneak Jackson into an empty room in her mother?s home to spend the night. When her mother found out, she was furious and forbade Jennifer to let Jackson stay there any more. When Jennifer refused to obey her mother?s rules, her mother, pushed to the breaking point, gave Jennifer an eviction notice.

On the night of December 10th, 2000, according to Corey Jackson?s testimony, Jackson snuck into the house and found Jennifer distraught. The couple allegedly devised a plan to kill Jennifer?s mother at dawn while the two children were asleep. In the early morning hours of December 11, Jennifer began arguing with her mother in the bathroom. Corey came in and according to police, the couple suffocated and strangled her mother. Then, to ensure that she was dead, they put her head in a tub of water to see if there were any bubbles. Jennifer denies having anything to do with her mother?s murder. She claims when she awoke on December 11, her mother was already dead. She does admit that instead of calling the police, she helped Jackson dispose of the body. First Jennifer and Jackson allegedly put the body in a trashcan and tried to burn it. When that didn?t work, they drove across the Virginia border to North Carolina and dumped the body on the side of a rural road. Two weeks after the murder, police found Kathy Kraynick?s body and quickly zeroed in on Jennifer and Jackson as suspects.

Almost a month after the murder, police arrested Jennifer and Jackson charging them with first-degree murder. In exchange for testimony against Jennifer, Jackson pled guilty to second-degree murder. Not only did Jackson testify against Jennifer but her daughter Jasmine, who said she had heard her grandmother crying for help, testified as well. On January 11, 2002 Jennifer was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She still maintains her innocence.