Chelsea Shipp

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A 28-year-old Winnie woman was sentenced to 40 years after she pled guilty to the 2022 fatal shooting of a 16-year-old female.

 

Chelsea Ann-Marie Shipp pled guilty to the murder of Kayelynn Nicole Stone on Judge John Stevens Criminal District Court Friday.

 

According to the probable cause affidavit Shipp shot and killed 16-year-old Katelynn Stone on March 26, 2022. Stone, of Vidor, had turned 16 less than one month prior. Through witness statements, the documents point towards pregnancy as a possible motive.  Stone had reportedly gotten a positive result from an at-home pregnancy test. 

 

Cody Lee Arnold, with whom Stone was living with at the time, allegedly told police Shipp shot and killed Stone between 2-3 p.m. on March 26, 2022. “Arnold advised that Chelsea was telling him he was going to get in trouble for getting her pregnant.” Stone, he told police, had gotten a positive result from an at-home pregnancy test.  

 

The teen was fatally shot in the head while sleeping in Arnold’s west Jefferson County residence.  A preliminary autopsy report released in the days following Stone’s death said no evidence of pregnancy was found.

 

Earlier in the day on March 26, Arnold reportedly told law enforcement, he and Shipp were using meth. At the time of her death, Stone was laying on Arnold’s bed sleeping. Arnold, then 22, walked out of the room, and said he returned to find Shipp pointing a gun at Stone. While there is no written record of Shipp telling authorities she shot the teenager, a witness that ultimately led to the discovery of the homicide said the woman confessed to her. After telling the witness she “got rid of her,” Shipp reportedly said she shot her before saying, “He asked me to take care of a problem and now he has to do what he has to do.”  The same witness told police the day prior, Shipp had called asking to trade vehicles because she “had some things she needed to do.”

 

After reportedly confessing to the shooting the next day, Shipp told the witness that Arnold was “freaking out” and asked her to get rid of the body for him, the documents say.  The witness reported the incident to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found Stone’s body in Arnold’s residence on Kolb’s Corner in Jefferson County. Her body had been covered half in a trash bag and half in a blanket, with a trashcan nearby that the responding deputy said was big enough to contain her body.  

 

Arnold was also charged in the murder of Stone and remains in the Jefferson County jail.