Mother’s Day is a time of celebration. But on May 11, 1997, festivities in Augusta, Georgia, were overshadowed by violence.

Kevin Spann, 35, a decorated Army veteran, was found dead from two gunshot wounds inside his home.

“The first shot was fatal, right under the eye,” prosecutor Nancy Johnson told Snapped, airing Sundays at 6/5c p.m. on Oxygen. “The second one went into his upper torso, neck and chest area.” 

Spann’s wife, Gina, 31, had called 911, frantically declaring in the recorded dispatch, “There’s blood everywhere.” She’d made the discovery after coming home with her 11-year-old son and an 18-year-old friend, Larry Kelley.

Who was Kevin Spann?

Born in 1962 in Sioux City, Iowa, Kevin grew up with his siblings in Lebanon, Illinois. His now-adult daughter, Crystal Morrison, said he had a reputation for being “good at heart.” 

After high school, Kevin enlisted in the U.S. Army. He became a signal operations specialist.

Back from his first tour of duty in 1986, he began a relationship with Gina Athmer, a single mom. She became pregnant with Crystal in January 1988.

The couple amicably called it quits as Kevin reenlisted and, because she had a new man in her life, Kevin made the difficult decision to remove himself from Crystal’s life.

A year later, he met Gina Pierce, a 23-year-old single mom. Within months, they married. She encouraged him to reenlist.

In 1995, Kevin was stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta. The couple settled down there with Gina’s son. 

Gina Spann’s “boyfriend” emerges

At the crime scene, Gina told sheriffs that Larry was “her boyfriend,” according to Jimmy Vowell, former Richmond County Sheriff’s investigator. That raised a red flag. 

Gina Spann gave authorities a detailed account of going to a video store, gas station, and a friend’s house before finding Kevin’s body. Larry’s version matched hers.

Sheriffs learned that the night before Kevin was killed, he’d reported that someone fired a gunshot into his house and stole his car. 

“Two firearm incidents within a 24-hour time frame,” said Johnson. “It’s a little suspicious.”

Gina and Larry met as coworkers at a fast-food restaurant. Though she was in her 30s, Christopher Bargeron, a former friend of Larry, said “she constantly wanted to hang out” with her teenaged employees. 

Larry told officials that the Spanns had an open relationship. “She stayed married to him,” said Johnson, “because he paid the bills.”

Gina Spann gave Larry things he’d ever had before—“sex, alcohol, drugs,” said defense attorney, Richard Ingram, “and a place to stay.” 

Larry Kelley cracks under pressure

Hours into being questioned, Larry told police that Gina Spann told him that she’d gotten pregnant and miscarried after Kevin raped her. 

The incident festered. Johnson said, “Gina told Larry, ‘We ought to just kill him.’” 

Larry eventually admitted that Gina Spann and he conspired to have Kevin shot. Former WJBF news anchor Bob Young told Snapped: “Larry says that he engaged his friend Chris Bargeron.”

The scheme ended up getting botched. Chris said he knew two individuals—Matthew Piazzi and Gerald Horne—who’d step up. 

They were promised $15,000 for the hit, Larry told police in a recorded interview. The money would come from Kevin’s $300,000 life insurance policy payout.

On May 10, Piazzi and Horne went to Kevin’s house and fired the shot at the window and stole the car. On May 11, they returned and knocked on the door. When Kevin answered, he was shot point-blank. 

Gina Spann claimed, according to Young, that she wanted out of the marriage by a separation, not a gun. 

She also claimed, per Vowell, that Larry Kelley carried out her original plan himself. 

Gina Spann and Larry Kelley arrested

Despite her denials, authorities arrested Gina and Larry. On May 12, then-16-year-old Bargeron was arrested. Piazzi and Horne were also taken into custody. 

“We were all charged,” said Bargeron, “with malice murder, felony murder, possession of firearm during the commission of a crime.” 

Piazzi told sheriffs that he pulled the trigger and where they’d find the gun. Horne’s statement corroborated his version.

As prosecutors built their trial case, they found that Gina faked the miscarriage story to manipulate Larry.

The story of her losing the baby was fake. “We knew it was a lie, because Gina had had her tubes tied,” said Johnson. “It was impossible for her to get pregnant.” 

Kevin’s ex Gina Athmer gave officials insight into a possible motive. According to her, as seen in Snapped, Kevin planned to divorce Gina and relocate to Illinois to be closer to Crystal.

“My mom sat down with me,” Crystal told Snapped, “and she was like, ‘You’re gonna meet your father.’ I was so excited that he wanted to meet me.”

Investigators knew that Gina stood to lose everything if Kevin divorced her. When they searched her vehicle, they found evidence that he was worth more to her dead than alive. 

“That’s when we found the two insurance policies,” said Vowell. “At the time, she was still listed as the beneficiary.”

Facing the death penalty, Gina pleaded guilty and got a life sentence. Piazzi and Horne pleaded guilty to murder and received life sentences. Horne was released on parole in 2021.

For his role as a go-between, Bargeron received a 5-year sentence. He was released in 2002.

Larry Kelley went to trial, and he was found guilty. He is serving a life sentence. 

Snapped airs Sunday at 6/5c p.m. on Oxygen.