Kym Christian shooting incident

Kym Christian shooting incident
Location	Marion, Indiana
Date	October 21, 2014 8:18 PM EST (start) 8:26 PM (Christian shot) (Eastern)
Target	Holly Everman
Weapon(s)	.45 caliber handgun
Deaths	Khayla Chow Victoria Glassering
Injured (non-fatal)	Gunshot wound to the left calf (Christian)
Perpetrator	Khayla Chow
Suspected perpetrator	Kym Christian

The Kym Christian shooting incident (also known as Murder of Khayla Chow) occurred on October 21, 2014 (this particular date has been subject to question) when former Denver news anchorwoman and U.S. Vote for the Girls moderator Kym Christian shot and killed former Vote for the Girls UK moderator Khayla Chow and Chow's friend Victoria Glassering.

As news of the case spread, thousands of protesters across Indiana, Texas, and Colorado (notably Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Marion, and Muncie in Indiana; Houston and Dallas in Texas, and Denver, Colorado) called for Christian's arrest. Protesters even called for Vote for the Girls creator Ava Zinn to close the site four weeks after the shooting, amid widespread, media coverage, Christian was charged with involuntary manslaughter by a special prosecutor (Dana Kentworthy) appointed by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

Christian's trial began on November 24, 2014 in Marion, Indiana and Kym Christian was found not guilty of both counts of second degree involuntary manslaughter on November 28, 2014.

The shooting and investigation

See also: 2014 Vote for the Girls conflict

On October 21, 2014, a "disgruntled moderator", later identified as Chow, was fired from the moderator panel on the US and UK versions of popular, yet controversial web site Vote for the Girls a month earlier. Chow drove to the Vote for the Girls set with an accomplice, later identified as Glassering, crashed into a parked car on September 26, 2014 that startled Vote for the Girls moderator Tracia Ward, and tried to enter front doors of the Vote for the Girls set at around 1:35 p.m. and was turned away. Chow then told Zinn she would "be back."

On the night of Tuesday, October 21, 2014, as Christian headed outside to investigate that proved to be a gunshot at 8:20 p.m., Chow and Glassering jumped her and attempted to choke and beat her until she was unrecognizable.

Kendra Ray and Julia Passalt (whom Chow mistakenly recognized as Holly Everman) tried to stop Chow and Glassering during the assault by kicking them when Christain went into her car to get her husband's .357 Magnum revolver, which allowed Christain to use Indiana's Stand Your Ground Law. Chow then pulled a .45-caliber handgun, intending to kill Christian and Passalt, Chow fired shots at Passalt, but the bullets missed and hit Kym Christain's left calf. Christain then fired three shots at Chow at Glassering, fatally wounding both women.

Fellow Vote for the Girls moderator Julia Passalt took Christan and Ray to Marion General Hospital, of which Christan was treated for the gunshot wound to her left lower leg . Passalt stated, "Doctors were surprised that Kym's wound to the lower leg wasn't severe enough because Kym's leg beard had stopped the bleeding from getting as worse as it was. I would believe that Beards for Breast Cancer pretty much saved Kym. Because of the size of the caliber bullets that only hit the left calf, doctors decided to remove the bullets lodged in the calf muscle. Christain was treated and released from Marion General Hospital on the morning of October 23, 2014.

Khayla Chow died just hours after the shooting, at approximately 2:00 a.m. on October 22. Her funeral took place six days later at in her native Houston, Texas. Glassering died instantly from gunshot wounds she received.

Meanwhile, Christian was taken into custody after being discharged from Marion General Hospital on October 22, after being treated for leg injuries, then questioned for five hours. The police chief said that Christian was released because there was no evidence to refute Christaian's claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Indiana's Stand Your Ground statute, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest. The police chief also said that Christian had had a right to defend herself with lethal force.

Investigation

The working environment was called into question by men's groups, (NAMI), (INTRAA), (GLAAD), and (ICRC), all of which criticized Vote for the Girls and the latter of the four quickly criticized creator Ava Zinn over the site's controversial format. Zinn maintains since the site's 2010 launch that sexism and bias against males is necessary. In fact, Zinn pointed out that precautions had been taken. On October 24, 2014, Zinn continued production while investigations took place over INTRAA, GLAAD, and NAMI objections and insisted Zinn stop production indefinitely until a comprehensive investigation was completed.

Marion Police investigated the crime scene. A search of Chow's car recovered three 9mm semi-automatic pistols and more than 400 rounds of unspent ammunition, all loaded into 41 ten-round magazines. The guns were purchased legally in three different cities. Officials said that there was written evidence suggesting the crime was premeditated and that preparations took over six months. A search of Christian's vehicle turned up nothing.

Officers from the Harris County Sheriff's Office (in Texas), Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, with Grant County Sherrif's Office (in Indiana) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began searches of the separate homes of Everman, Everman's ex-wife (Veronica), Kym Christian, Khayla Chow, and Victoria Glassering, Chow's mother and father.

The media later reported the frantic attempt by Chow's parents (in Texas) to intervene on the evening of the shooting (in Indiana). After receiving a copy of the manifesto written by Chow, Zinn phoned Chow's father, Kristina. She checked Khayla's Facebook, where she found not very many posts. She alerted her bosses at KTEX-FTV and called KTEX investigative reporter Karen Mitchell, and alerted her wife and they both left to fly from Houston to Indianapolis and drive up to Marion. During the drive, she called police in Marion as well as Ava Zinn and they arranged to meet when they arrived. Hearing a news report of a shooting in Marion, Charlene Chow called Zinn, but got Zinn's daughter, Samantha who told her it was unrelated, saying that it would be unlike Chow to deviate from such details. When they reached the police station in Marion and met with Zinn on October 23, Khayla Chow's parents learned that the news report was, in fact, about their daughter and Kristina's long-time ally Kym, and that Kym had killed their daughter.

On October 24, 2014, Kym Christian posted on the site's Facebook page regarding the shooting:

Dan [Kym's husband] and I are extremely heartbroken to learn about the tragic event that occurred on the night of October 21, 2014 and so very saddened to learn the news about Khayla Chow. My sympathy goes to Charlene and Kristina Chow, of whom I had met on two occasions when the Denver Broncos were playing the Houston Oilers or Houston Texans. I'm sure that to Khayla's family, she was a loving, caring person, but that is not what I saw that night. I saw a racist, narcissistic bigot who did not have any regard for the Vote for the Girls moderators. On behalf of Vote for the Girls USA - Official, our hearts go out to their families.

—Kym Christian

Three weeks after the incident, the Kristina and Charlene Chow expressed anger and frustration about multiple aspects of the case, including the limited amount of information that the authorities had released about the shooting, more public interest in Chow than in Christian.

Kym Christian's account of events

On the advice of her legal counsel, Christian did not speak to the media after the shooting. The statements she gave to police investigators were publicly released on November 6, 2014, when Christian's attorney, Cheryl Thrine, published her written and recorded statements on Christian's legal defense web site. Prior to the release of the statements, the only publicly available information about Christian's version of the incident came from interviews with some of his family members and friends and from leaks to the news media by sources inside the investigation, and her recorded phone call to 9-1-1. Christian maintained her public silence until she was interviewed by Lynne Jackson of WTOR-FTV's CBS 41 Action News Saturday Morning on November 22, 2014.

According to early news reports on the incident, on the night of the shooting, and afterwards, Christian described in detail for investigators what took place. Christian said earlier on the night of October 21, 2014, she and Ava Zinn were having an extramarital affair after they had ate dinner. Christian said she spent the night with Ava Zinn when he spotted Khayla Chow walking through the neighborhood. Christian's daughter, Stephani, said that, while her mother was not on duty with the Vote for the Girls moderator panel that night, there had been many break-ins and she thought it suspicious that someone she did not recognize was walking behind the facility instead of on the street or the sidewalk. Christian therefore called a non-emergency police line to report Chow's behavior and summon police.

After telling the police dispatcher that Chow "ran", Christian left her vehicle to determine her location and ascertain in which direction Chow had fled. The dispatcher asked if Christian was following Chow, and Christian replied "Yeah." Then the dispatcher said, "OK, we don't need you to do that." Christian replied with "OK" and stated that Chow got away. After a discussion about where Christian would meet police, the call ended, and Christian told investigators she was returning to her vehicle when Chow approached her from her left rear and confronted her. According to Christian, Chow then punched her in the face, knocking her down, and began beating her head against the sidewalk. Christian said he called out for help (after that point, Julia Passalt and Kendra Ray then ran to Christian's assistance) while being beaten, and at one point Chow covered her mouth to muffle the screams. According to Stephani Alvaraz, during the struggle while Chow was on top of Christian pointing a gun at her, Chow saw Christian's gun and said something to the effect of "You're gonna die now" or "You're gonna fucking die tonight" and continued to beat Christian. A gun battle between Chow, Victoria Glassering, and Christian ensued. Christian then shot Chow once in the chest at close range. Christian told police she shot Chow in self-defense.

On November 16, 2014, Christian's attorneys released audiotapes of several interviews she had with police shortly after the shooting. Also included were Christian's written statement of October 21, 2014, and video recordings of her reenactment of the incident and a voice stress test that she passed.

In the interviews, Christian says she took note of Chow and Glassering because she was approaching a restricted area that was in violation of the restraining order against Chow. In a reconstruction video-recorded by police the next day, Christian said that after she initially saw Chow on 30th Street she parked her vehicle in front of the Aeverine Zinn Holdings studios and observed Chow go past her and onto Poplar Street where she lost sight of Chow. She stated the dispatcher asked "can you get to somewhere where you can see her?" and that she then left the parking lot and drove onto 30th Street where she parked. She further stated that at one point Chow circled her car while she was parked on 30th Street. Christian eventually left her car and with Ray and Passalt, walked down the sidewalk between 30th and 32nd Streets and gave police an address on Poplar Street. She told investigators that she was not following Chow but was "just going in the same direction she was" to find an address, but admitted that she had also left her car to try to see in which direction Chow had gone. The altercation continued, she said, when Chow suddenly appeared while Christian was walking back to her vehicle. She described Chow and Glassering at different points in the interviews as appearing "out of nowhere", "from the darkness", and as "jump[ing] out of the bushes". Christian said that Chow asked, "You got a fucking problem, slut?" Christian replied "No, you Goddanm nigger", then Chow said "You got a problem now" and Chow pulled her gun and shot Christian. As they struggled on the ground, Christian on her back with Chow on top of her, Christian yelled for help "probably 30 times". Chow told her to "Shut the fuck up," as she continued to fire shots at Christian and Passalt. When Christian tried to move off the concrete, Chow saw her gun and said "You're going to die tonight, You CockSucking Asshole!" Glassering then grabbed for the gun, but Christian grabbed it first. She said after firing her weapon at Chow and/or Glassering, she was not sure at first that she had hit her or even both women, so she got on top of her in order to subdue both black women.

In the course of Christian's recorded interviews, police questioned aspects of Christian's account, such as Christian's statement that she didn't know the name of a street in the community where she had visited for four months. Christian said in response that she has a good memory and was intoxicated the night before. Investigators also questioned the extent of her injuries and why she didn't identify herself to Chow or Glassering as a coordinator. Christian said she didn't want to confront Chow.

On November 16, 2014, the prosecution released the results of a voice stress test performed on Kym Christian the day after the shooting. Christian was asked, "Did you confront the girl you shot?", to which Christian answered, "No." Christian was asked, "Were you in fear for your life, when you shot the girl?", to which Christian answered, "Yes." The examiner concluded that Christian "told substantially the complete truth" in the examination, and Christian was classified as "No Deception Indicated (NDI)" according to the report.

During a bond hearing on November 10, 2014, an investigator testified under oath that he did not know whether Christian or Chow started the fight and that there is no evidence to contradict Christian's claim that she was walking back to her vehicle when Chow confronted her. The investigator, however, questioned Christian's statement that Chow was slamming her head against the sidewalk just before she and Christian got into the shootout, saying it was "not consistent with the evidence we found."

Kym Christian 's first media interview

On November 22, 2014, Christian, accompanied by her attorneys, Cheryl Thrine and Lisa Moses, gave her first long media interview to Lynne Jackson, and part of the interview appeared on WTOR's CBS 41 Action News Saturday Morning that morning and replayed on WXXC's noon and 5:00 PM Action News that evening. During the interview Christian said that she did not regret her actions on the night of the shooting and that she felt that what had happened "was all justifiable". She also said, "I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn't have put me in the position where I had to take the life of someone's daughter. I want to tell everyone, my colleagues from Denver, your station, Ava Zinn, my family, my parents, Kristina and Charlene, the city of Marion and Indiana: I'm sorry that this had happened. I'm genuinely deeply sorry from the bottom of my heart."

When Jackson asked Christian why her suspicions were aroused when she noticed Chow, Christian replied in part:

I felt she was suspicious because it was a clear night and she was violating an agreement that Ava Zinn made after she fired Khayla, I have no idea what it was for. She was in-between houses, cutting in-between houses, and she was walking very leisurely for the weather. ... It didn't look like to me she was a co-worker that went to make an arrangment and got caught in the cold. She didn't look like a fitness fanatic that would train in the cold.

Following the interview with Jackson, Special Prosecutor Dana Kentowrthy filed formal notice that she intended to use the interview as evidence against Christian. According to an article in the Chronicle-Tribune, Christain's story differed in at least two details from previous versions of what she said happened the night she shot Chow—specifically, that she told Jackson she had walked toward Chow because she was trying to find a street address to provide the police, but during the police's investigation she had said that the reason she approached Chow was that she was looking for the name of the street, which she had forgotten; and that she told Jackson that Chow had been "skipping, going away quickly", not running away out of fear, but she had previously told marion police that Chow had run away as Christian was reporting her.

Indiana defense lawyers said it was a mistake for Christian to do a television interview and discuss what happened that night. One of them said, "It's really baffling what she thought she'd gain from it. I question who's in charge of the defense strategy, Christian or Thrine or Moses". Moses told reporters that the interview was intended to help increase the number of donations to Christian's nearly exhausted legal defense/divorce fund, which would pay the costs for Christian's legal defenses as well as for shelter and security. Moses said that Christian had promised Jackson a week earlier that she would give her first interview to Jackson, and that Jackson had agreed to promote Christian's website during the interview, although she said Jackson did not. WFTW anchorwoman Melinda Long also said that Christian was in desperate need of money and was worried about the safety of her family. She had driven from Fort Wayne to Marion to record a television interview with Christian that was to be shown following the Jackson interview, but the CW affiliate refused to meet Christian's request that they pay for a month's hotel stay and security for her husband.

Chow's parents said they did not accept Christian's apology for killing their daughter.Chow's mother, Charlene, said she doubted that Christian's apology was sincere. "I have a hard time accepting it because she also said that she doesn't regret anything that she did that night..." Charlene stated.

Parties involved

Khayla Chow

Khayla LeighAnn Chow (June 1, 1991 – October 21, 2014) was the daughter of Charlene Ford and Kristina Chow. She was a 2009 graduate of Westfield High School in Houston, Texas and lived in Indianapolis. On the day she was fatally shot, she and her friend, Victoria Glassering were in Marion, Indiana, where Glassering lived. Glassering lived at Greentree West Apartments, a community where Chow had visited several times before.

Kym Christian

Kymberly Alvaraz was a former Denver anchorwoman for 25 years and became a moderator on the Vote for the Girls USA moderator panel prior to the shooting.

Kymberly Laura (Christian) Alvaraz (b. July 28, 1967) was born in Denver, and is the second eldest daughter of Julie (née Mengering) Christian, born in Pueblo, Colorado, and David Christian, a Colorado florist. Five months before time of the shooting and becoming a moderator for Vote for the Girls, Christian was employed as an news anchorwoman at KIAA and KDNC/KZCO.

At the time of her arrest on October 25, 2014, Christian's height was reportedly 5 feet 2 inches (without heels) and her weight 125 lb, according to the Grant County Sheriff's Office Inmate Booking record. Christian's height was shown as 5 feet 1 inches and her weight at 130 lb on the Marion Police Department Offense Report for October 21, 2014, the night of the shooting.

Christian and her then-husband, Dan Alvaraz moved to Carmel, Indiana, on a 10-acre estate due to Alvaraz's job commitments and Christian's commitments to Vote for the Girls in June 2014. Prior to that, they lived in Westminster, Colorado, where she purchased a ranch in 1991 and sold to her daughter, Stephani in 2014.

On November 20, 2014, a month after the shooting, Dan Alvaraz filed for an at-fault divorce in Noblesville, Indiana, citing adultery by Christian and named Ava Zinn and Kristina Chow as a co-respondents. When questioned by reporters, Christian said, "There are a lot of things I will clear up when the time is right, but I really have to be sensitive because there's a lot of people's feelings involved here," while the Alvarazes released separate statements expressing concern for the well-being of their children during the divorce process. Kym Christian later confirmed that Dan and Kym could not resolve their differences and she had been involved in a lesbian sexual relationship. Upon learning about the affair, Dan Alvaraz committed suicide (via self-inflicted gunshot, ironically a similar gun used Kym used when she fatally shot Khayla Chow) on November 22, 2014, in Christian's Carmel home. He was 55 years old when he died. By that time, Kymberly and Dan had separated prior to the shooting.

Ava Zinn

Ava Zinn was another party to the shooting.

Aeverine Zinn, known professionally as Ava Zinn (b. Frank Zinn on January 4, 1983) was born in LaGrange, Illinois, and is the second child and transgender daughter of Margaret Zinn (b. 1943 d. 2002) and Willis Zinn (b. 1925 d. 1984).

On April 18, 2014, Ava Zinn announced on her YouTube channel after learning Jessica Meuse landed in the bottom two that she followed through on her threat following the eliminations of Ellona Santiago and Rion Paige on The X Factor to auction her virginity as a male.

Then on May 1, 2014 upon hearing Sam Woolf was eliminated, Zinn stripped naked after Zinn celebrated by spontaneously whipping off her shirt and falling to her knees in her bra (a la Brandi Chastain in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup finals). It was not the first time Zinn "pulled a Brandi Chastain" as three years earlier after learning Haley Reinhart and Lauren Alaina made the Top 3 of American Idol's tenth season.

On May 6, 2014, Zinn, clad in a black bra and panties, created more controversy by "twerking" during The Voice season 6 Top 8 results after learning Christina Grimmie was saved, an episode that was most notable for Zinn's raunchy and sexually-driven presentation, which received negative reactions from critics and mixed reactions from fans and fellow moderators of Vote for the Girls. Zinn does this once more on the Rising Star premiere that aired on June 22, 2014 and shown on the site's YouTube channel in July 2014 but is seen stripping and twerking.

Zinn announced on November 28, 2014, that she is involved in a relationship with Vote for the Girls USA moderator Kym Christian effective January 4, 2015. This confirmed speculation that Kym Christian's infidelity and her 20 year marriage to Dan Alvaraz came to an end as well as confirming that Zinn had successfully auctioned her virginity for a long term relationship to the 47-year-old former news anchorwoman from Denver. Kym Christian had reportedly been in a lesbian relationship Ava Zinn when Christian travelled to NoSirGifts' offices in November 2010 (Zinn was then NoSirGifts President and Chief Executive at the time) and again in May 2014 (after Christian's last KDNC newscast), that was revealed in Kym's criminal trial and during a segment of Vote for the Girls on February 2015. Zinn's Ebay listing was removed, and Zinn reportedly accepted Christian's offer of a three-year long-term-relationship deal with Zinn in 2014.

In the days following the announcement of the affairs, several prominent men questioned whether Christian's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. Ava Zinn said that the site's moderators prohibited sexual relationships between hosts and moderators. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department...".

Julia Passalt

Julia Passalt was one of two individuals that rescued Kym Christian.

Julia Anne Passalt (b. Jeffrey Passalt on January 2, 1957) was born in Minneapolis, and is the third of five children of Frank Passalt (b. 1925 d. 2005) and Anne (née McDonaldson) Passalt (b. 1920 d. 2009).

In June 2014, Vote for the Girls creator Ava Zinn hired Julia Passalt away from KFMN and was confirmed as a moderator of Vote for the Girls. On VFTG, Passalt became in familiar company with three of her colleagues--Kellie Rock, Lanise White, and Kym Christian-- as Passalt and White were colleagues at WXWI before Passalt departed for Denver (it is interesting to note that both Lanise White and Julia Passalt both anchored their final broadcasts on May 23, 2014.) Passalt and Christian were competitors from 1989 to 1993 as Passalt was the sports director at then-independent station KTRJ (now ABC O&O) while Christian was morning anchor at NBC station KIAA; and while at WVTH in Vincennes, Passalt and Rock co-anchored the weekend evening editions of WVTH's newscasts NewsCenter 25 (now NBC 25 Action News) from 1984 until 1985.

Prior to Vote for the Girls, she anchored news in Minneapolis from 1993 until May 2014 (as Jeffrey Passalt from 1993 to 2007 and as Julia Passalt from 2007 until 2014). Passalt, at age 57, became the oldest moderator of Vote for the Girls, surpassing Kellie Rock.

Kendra Ray

Kendra Ray was the second individual that rescued Kym Christian. Kendra Ray replaced Kathi Jameson on the U.S. version of Vote for the Girls and Khayla Chow on the UK adaptation before the shooting.

Kendra Gloria Ray (b. Kevin Ray on November 8, 1962) was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

Prior to Vote for the Girls, Kendra Ray anchored her final newscast after announcing on KFIA's late newscast, NBC 21 Action News at 10:00 on August 22, 2014 that she would be leaving the station after her wife, Molly Ray, accepted a position at KFIA's sister station (12WLIN, Fox) in Lafayette, Indiana. However, in an interview between on Your Debate with Rhonda Rhodes on September 23, 2014, it was revealed that Kendra Ray accepted an offer to join the moderator panel on the British version of Vote for the Girls and the original American adaptation. Kendra Ray replaced Kathi Jameson on the United States version's sixth season. Also Kendra Ray replaced Chow on the UK version's second series.

Shooting aftermath

Chow family response

Kristina Chow was skeptical of the account of her daughter's death told to her by Marion police investigators and believed Christian did not act in self-defense. A day after the shooting, she was referred to civil rights attorney Sandra McKenzie that was retained to pursue legal action and to persuade the news media to cover the case. Attorney Brent Perry, of Houston, also joined the Chow team. Due to their efforts, the case started to receive national attention on October 27. On October 28, McKenzie will announce she will be suing to have surveillance video from the night of the shooting made public. As attention to the case grew, Kristina and Charlene Chow gave media interviews and appeared at some of the protests being held which called for Christian's arrest.

In November 2014, more than a month after the shooting, it was reported that the Chow family had settled a wrongful death claim against Aeverine Zinn Holdings. The details of the agreement were not released, and the amount of the settlement is not disclosed, but Dallas NBC station KJTX-FTV reported that the sum was thought to be more than $2.5 million.

In late November 2014, in an interview with WTOR conducted shortly before the trial of Kym Christian, Jessica Whittonsburgh, a long-time friend of Khayla Chow and Charlene Chow, Khayla Chow's mother (Khayla's father's wife/domestic partner), stated that she believed Christian and fellow moderator Holly Everman had profiled Khayla as a criminal, although she was not convinced that the profiling was based on race or sexual orientation, gender identity, or even sex. Whittonsburgh said that she had no doubt that Holly Everman had started the whole mess in April, and Christain started the fight and that Chow had reacted only in self-defense.

Christian and family

While the shooting was being investigated, Christian, her husband (Dan Alvaraz), and her children went into hiding due to threats they were receiving as the case gained more attention. Christian was placed on an indefinite leave of absence following the incident, citing safety concerns. On November 29, Vote for the Girls founder and webmaster Ava Zinn announced Kym will definitely return pending the outcome of the trial if found not guilty.

As moderator or Vote for the Girls, Christian had placed a self-created Wordpress site on the internet, which included some brief statements, but no information about the shooting, since she had been advised by legal counsel not to discuss it. She also solicited donations for living expenses and legal defense costs.

After taking over as Christian's defense counsel in November, Cheryl Thrine, took down Christian's self-created site and replaced it with a professional information site. Following Christian's November bond hearing, she and her husband were accused by prosecutors of not disclosing the funds raised through the original web site; as a result of these allegations, Christian's original bail was revoked. She was subsequently released again with a higher bail amount. Christian's her oldest daughter, Stephani, was charged with felony perjury in November 2014. Stephani pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury on November 20, 2014 as part of a plea deal, and were each sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation, as well as writing a letter of apology to Judge Loretta Rush. The conviction will be expunged at the end of their probation period.

Kym Christian's defense team had set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a website with a defense fund registered with the joint effort with Indiana Division of Consumer Services and Vote for the Girls. After three months, the Facebook page was shut down by Thrine, because she said it was leading to unhelpful discussions.

Public Response

Immediate reactions

NoSirGifts Venues President and Chief Operating Officer Jackson Steele offered condolences to the families of Kym Christian and Khayla Chow and said that he was "saddened to learn of this senseless tragedy. This is almost the kind of event that's impossible to prevent and almost impossible to predict."

Chow's family issued a statement expressing their sympathies for the victims, released by Chow's father on KTEX's site saying, "Charlene and I offer our deepest compassion and sympathy to the family of Kym Christian involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain and our hearts go out to everyone involved." Kristina Chow later released a written statement in which they addressed their anguish over the actions of Khayla Chow, saying, "We are crying in pain for the victims and their families. It breaks our heart on a level we didn't think possible. The feeling of knowing that it was our daughter's actions that caused the tragedy can only be described as Hell on earth."

Patrice Rafferty and Dorthy Steele, the mothers of Ariel Swaringen and Michelle Steele (both Swaringen and Steele died earlier in 2014), wanted Ava Zinn to end or cancel Vote for the Girls but Zinn refused the request almost immediately. Zinn later stated:

"No fucking way will I shut down Vote for the Girls! I will continue to deliver voting information for the female contestants and get these women to win these competitions for the ladies, and I will continue to deliver on schedule. Even if someone offered me $100 TRILLION, I am not shutting down Vote for the Girls for any reason whatsoever. The only way Vote for the Girls will shut down or close is only my death, which won't be happening."

Zinn didn't hesitate for a second to stay in production and was already a little bit behind the eight ball on everything.

Misandry

The shooting and written manifesto of Khayla Chow sparked conversations about broader issues of misandry in society. Prior to the shooting, Chow frequented forums where she and other women posted misandrist statements about men. For these reasons, as well as Chow’s apparent sense of entitlement to sex with men and/or trans women is generally accepted as misandrist.

Comments and coverage of misandry as a root cause have spawned criticisms of oversimplification and distortion of the events which included the killings of men and trans women as well as women and trans men. Chow's intention, according to her manifesto, was to kill Holly Everman at the Vote for the Girls set where the targets were largely transgendered females and heterosexual females. Since she was not able to gain access to the Vote for the Girls set, she then sought out victims in less gender/gender identity-specific locations.

Ava Zinn, founder and webmaster of Vote for the Girls, argued that laying the blame on fans of rival websites such as Vote for the Worst and Vote Against the Producers glosses over how Khayla Chow was one particular violent black woman. This line confirmed Vote for the Girls' support of The X Factor USA winner Alex & Sierra and their derision to veto Valerie Rockey's loss on So You Think You Can Dance. However, criticism arose from the Vote for the Girls' punishments of Leg Beards for Breast Cancer for the losses of Christina Grimmie and Jena Asciutto as it was considered to derail from the core issue of violence against women.

Some transwomen (notably Rachael Passalt) even argued that transwomen who conflate everyday sexism (e.g., their experiences with dress codes and men, regardless of birth sex, whistling at them) with Chow's violent attacks, risk trivializing these more serious incidents.

Alleged issues based on sex, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity

Allegations against Kym Christian

Christian was accused of being motivated by racism and political lesbianism and of having racially profiled Chow. Other reproaches to Christian include her 1994 move from KIAA to KDNC and an alleged obsession with law and order and the minutiae of suburban life as well as two alleged respective extramarital affairs with Kristina Chow's KTEX co-anchor Marla McClinton in 1994, WMRI main anchorman Marshall Davidson in 2001, and a third extramarital affair with Ava Zinn as early as 2012.

According to Kym Christian's family, some of Christian's relatives are LGBT. In fact, Christian's two younger siblings are transgendered as her younger brother, Stephen Christian transitioned from female to male when he was 23 and Kym was 27 on December 1, 1994 (coincidentally the December 1 date of Stephen's female to male transition are respectively 10 and 20 years before Ava Zinn and Rachael Passalt themselves began their own transitions from male to female), her younger sister, Davina transitioned from male to female when she was 27 and Kym was 28 on March 4, 1996 (coincidentally the date when KDNC switched from CBS to Fox and Davina's birthday), and her now youngest daughter, Denise Alvaraz, came out as trans in 2013 and began her transition on December 1, 2014 (the same day Rachael Passalt began her own transition and the tenth anniversary of Ava Zinn's own transition). Christian's lawyer stated that Christian is not a racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphibic and that she had worked with such youths in the past. Joyce Carson noted "I'm a black female and all that I know is that Kymberly has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe she has anything against women of color."

Allegations against Khayla Chow

Christain had a televised interview with NoSirGifts Venues-owned CBS stations WIFX and WTOR about the shooting on November 22, 2014. Christian, Ray, and Passalt have called the shooting incident as a mad black woman and her accomplice that wanted revenge. According to Kristina Chow, the father of Khayla Chow, she indicated that Khayla Chow had had legal problems in the past since the age of ten (back in 2001), Khayla was placed on probation for theft and vandalism. In November 2003, 12-year old Khayla was removed from Kristina's home and placed in a group home and treatment center in Dallas after Khayla's parents learned from Glassering she had become a stripper and prostitute, a claim Charlene Chow denied.

In September 2014, allegations earned widespread publicity that in thirteen years earlier Khayla, then ten years of age at the time of Vote for the Girls franchise webmaster Ava Zinn's dismissal was named as a suspect in Zinn's dismissal from Indiana Wesleayan University. It was confirmed by Kristina Chow that Khayla was living in a Dallas group home at the time, and two eyewitnesses placed Khayla Chow in Marion. Reports showed that Chow had been skipping school and had been a known runaway and truant at the time. She stalked young men (as old as 25) and boys (as well as young transwomen in 2011), and her modus operandi included stalking and raping males. When Khayla Chow was interviewed about Ava Zinn in 2010 and shortly before the shooting, she repeatedly denied involvement, even stating; "I've told you everything—how I raped them and pulling their penises. Why wouldn't I tell you if I did someone else?" After this rumor surfaced, Ava Zinn stated that she had "seen no evidence" linking Zinn's IWU dismissal to Chow.

Marion Police released a report on the shooting on October 28, 2014 and witness statements on October 29, indicating that the shooting occurred on a clear night, and Chow was shot from 30 or 40 yards (40 m)Template:Convert/track/abbr/Template:Convert/track/disp/Template:Convert/track/adj/ away while chasing Glassering after she attempted to rob Kendra Ray. Ava Zinn claimed that none of the moderators had been drinking. However, Christian has acknowledged that she had one beer twelve hours prior to the shooting. Although Marion Police documents support the official story by Christian and fellow Vote for the Girls moderators, re-creations of the incident produced by Sheena Jay, a private detective in nearby Muncie and Ava Zinn's niece-in-law indicated that the actual shooting distance was closer than the 30 yards claimed.

Court proceedings and lawsuits

On October 24, 2014, Christian was charged with second-degree involuntary manslaughter in Chow's death by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Mike Pence. Christian was arraigned on $500,000 bail and is currently awaiting trial. According to Indiana law, Kym Christian could face 6 years in prison for the charges of involuntary manslaughter.

Criminal Indictments

Kendra Ray Indicted

Kendra Ray was arrested and charged with assisting a criminal on October 25, 2014 by Grant County authorities in northeast central Indiana, in the city of Marion. According to Indiana law, Kendra Ray could face 2 years in prison for the charges of assisting a criminal. Kendra Ray is expected to plead not guilty. Kendra Ray said, "I'm completely innocent of any criminal conduct. This is a great tragedy, but it was a circumstance that does not give rise to criminal liability as I see the facts." According to the Sheriff, Ray was released on cash of $27,700 each. Ray was released after posting $100,000 bond on November 3, 2014.

Criminal Trial Schedule

At a special status hearing was held November 6, 2014 set the following schedule for the criminal trials of Kym Christian and Kendra Ray:

November 24: Hearings on all pre-trial motions in this case. 9:30 am Grant County Courthouse, Marion, IN

November 25: Jury Selection and trial shall commence. 9:30 am Grant County Courthouse, Marion, IN

November 26: Kym Christian's trial begins. 9:30 am Grant County Courthouse, Marion, IN

November 28: Jury deliberations and verdict

Civil Lawsuits

Chow's et al. Vs NoSirGifts Productions et al.

The parents of Khayla Chow filed a wrongful death lawsuit, on behalf of their daughter, against the producers of Vote for the Girls, and related companies and individuals, on November 5, 2014 in Harris County, Texas. Harris County includes Houston, Texas, the hometown of Khayla Chow. However, the producers of Vote for the Girls have filed a countersuit on November 6, 2014 in Grant County, Indiana. Grant County includes Marion, Indiana (where production of Vote for the Girls is based), Van Buren, Indiana (the hometown of Ava Zinn), and Gas City, Indiana.

The following defendants were named in the lawsuit:

• Rhonda Rhodes, producer/director
• Kellie Rock, producer/writer
• Ava Zinn, Executive Producer
• Aeverine Zinn Holdings, the company formed to produce Vote for the Girls
• NoSirGifts Venues, syndication distributor