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PrintContrasting personalities of Christina Korbe were revealed in federal court yesterday during a hearing to decide if she should remain in jail to await trial on second-degree murder and other charges.
There was the woman who sat at the defense table: She crossed herself in prayer, kissed a black cross hanging around her neck and clutched a brown-covered, pocket-size copy of the New Testament.
And there was the woman who from jail, in recorded conversations, called late FBI Special Agent Samuel Hicks "the [expletive] cop," threatened in vulgar terms to kill her mother-in-law; and delighted in other inmates asking for her autograph.
The judge ruled that Mrs. Korbe should remain in custody.
She is charged with the Nov. 19 shooting death of Agent Hicks, who led a team of law enforcement officers trying to serve an arrest warrant on her husband, Robert, at their home in Indiana Township.
Mrs. Korbe has said she didn't know that those storming her home were police, and that she fired one shot blindly toward the front door from upstairs to protect herself and her two children, ages 5 and 10.
PG AUDIO- Admits to her sister Darlene Waksmunski that there was cocaine in her system
- Talks to father-in-law Stephen Korbe about being asked for an autograph.
- Talks with Teddi Kennington, a relative, about going on "Oprah."
- Talks to father-in-law about someone killing her mother-in-law.
- Threatens to have someone killed over a gun found at her husband's business.
- Tells her sister she wants more favorable press coverage.
Last week, following her initial court appearance, Mrs. Korbe's defense attorney, John Elash, told reporters that his client had "total remorse" for shooting Agent Hicks.
But in court yesterday, the government played snippets of recorded phone conversations for U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell to refute that claim.
"She is not the person she claims to be. She is not the PTA mom. She is not the pillar of the community. This isn't about whether she's a good mother," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti.
Though Mrs. Korbe holds herself out to be a soccer mom, the prosecutor said, she has taken pride in being called a cop killer.
In one call played yesterday between Mrs. Korbe and her father-in-law, she bragged about being asked for her autograph.
"I got all these women here, 'I'm saying special prayers for you, honey,' and this and that. How 'bout I got asked for my autograph today twice," she told Stephen Korbe. "Tell Bobby that. He'll laugh."
In another conversation, she talked about a book she'd been reading in jail and that she expects some day to go on "Oprah" to talk about her experiences.
"When you see me on 'Oprah' when I get out of here, and I say what saved me in here. 'Cause I'm gonna change the system when I get out, because this ain't right," she told a relative. "People aren't human to people in here."
Mr. Rivetti also focused on Mrs. Korbe's drug use.
After she was arrested, Mrs. Korbe told pretrial services employees that she had tried illegal drugs as a teen but had not used any since then.
"Sir, do you have evidence that's a complete lie?" Mr. Rivetti asked his only witness, FBI Special Agent Patrick M. McGlennon.
"I do," he answered.
Mr. Rivetti then played two recordings in which Mrs. Korbe told her relatives she had cocaine in her system the day of the shooting. She said she admitted it when she was taken to the hospital that day for pain.
"I wasn't gonna lie," she said in one conversation. "You know what I mean. I have no reason to lie. It's better not to."
Agent McGlennon said officers found a white ceramic plate and a blue gift card with white residue on a dresser in the Korbes' master bedroom.
In another call, Mrs. Korbe recounted to a relative how the other women in jail think she's tough.
"Better get that right. I says, 'Don't let the [expletive] suburbs fool you, [expletive]. Listen, I adapt to my circumstances. ... Don't think because I'm a soccer mom that I won't [expletive] sock it to your [expletive.]'"
The 2 1/2-hour hearing was held in a courtroom packed with Agent Hicks' family and colleagues, as well as Mrs. Korbe's family, which also gathered outside before the proceeding to rally support for her, carrying poster-board signs.
"This is a tragic accident," said Deborah Cintron, her sister. While acknowledging Agent Hicks' family and its pain, she said her sister "is the kindest, most unviolent person I know."
In some of her recorded calls, Mrs. Korbe said she was frustrated by the public outpouring for Agent Hicks' family.
She specifically mentioned a photograph of his family published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and said that one of her and her daughter should run as well.
"So they're gettin' all that public sympathy with him and his family, but what about my family?" she asked.
Mrs. Korbe also said in several calls that she was angry at her mother-in-law, and that the woman would not be permitted to see her children if she didn't start saying positive things about her in the media.
"I'll kill her," she said. "I'll kill her myself."
Her father-in-law, who is believed to be estranged from his wife, said in another conversation with her, "She needs a bullet in her head."
The defense called four witnesses. One was a longtime friend; another was the director of a children's religious education program; and two were fellow parents in the Fox Chapel Area School District.
"I'm particular with who my children interact with," said Heather Cullinan, a parent of five whose daughter is best friends with Mrs. Korbe's daughter. "I absolutely see the qualities I admire in a family -- all the qualities I want my children to be around."
She called Mrs. Korbe an "exceptional mother and woman" who shows "nothing but love, kindness."
On cross-examination, when asked by Mr. Rivetti if she knew Mrs. Korbe used cocaine, she said no, but if she did, she wouldn't want her children to be around her.
All of the women said they never knew Mrs. Korbe to be vulgar or violent.
After the hearing, as Mrs. Korbe was being taken from the courtroom, Mr. Elash admonished her: "No conversation. Don't talk to anybody on the phone."
Later, he told reporters that the phone conversations were taken out of context and that while in jail, Mrs. Korbe had to put on a tough exterior.
"She was talking the talk of the jail," he said. "There's a person she had to become to survive inside the county jail."
