Naman Shrestha
When the millionaire entrepreneur Lance Herndon was found murdered in his house in August 1996, a thorough investigation was launched immediately. As a result, the detectives zeroed in on one of the women the victim was involved with at the time — Dionne Baugh. The episode titled ‘The Killer Among Them’ of NBC’s ‘Dateline’ not only explores the circumstances surrounding the brutal killing but also the investigation and trial of the suspected killer. It also features insightful interviews with the victim’s loved ones and the officials linked to the complicated case.
Dionne Baugh Was Convicted and Sentenced For the Murder of Lance Herndon
In the 1990s, Lance Herndon was a renowned public figure known for founding Access, Inc., which revolutionized Atlanta’s 911 system. Unfortunately, the self-made millionaire’s life came to a sudden halt on August 9, 1996, when he was found bludgeoned to death in his Atlanta residence. An extensive investigation ensued, which was complicated by his romantic life with multiple women, including Kathy Collins, Jeannine Price, Talana Carraway, and Dionna Andrea Baugh. While the authorities suspected the women in his life, most of the focus was on the victim’s estranged girlfriend — Dionna. Born in 1969, she was suspected of being responsible for Lance’s murder due to jealousy and obsession.
When the first time Dionne’s path crossed with Lance, she was a student at Georgia State University and was employed at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. Not long after their first meeting, the two began dating despite the fact that she was a married woman whose husband, Shaun Nelson, was in Jamaica. As per Dionne’s accounts, she and Lance were madly in love and she had told her husband that Lance was just a mentor. However, when Dionne learned that the millionaire had been seeing other women on at least one occasion, their relationship soon turned tumultuous. A month prior to his murder, Dionne had caught him with Kathy Collins in his house and caused a scene outside his residence by aggressively banging on his door repeatedly.
The police were called and Dionne was arrested for criminal trespassing. On the day of his death, she was supposed to stand on trial for the trespassing charge. When the detectives interviewed her, she claimed that although she had seen him the previous night, she knew nothing about the murder. Despite finding several holes in her story, the investigators could not take any action against her due to a lack of evidence. Several months later, during her divorce proceedings, the case was cracked wide open again when Dionne’s estranged husband, Shaun, claimed that she threatened to kill him just like she had killed Lance during a heated argument. At last, in 1998, when her DNA linked her to the crime scene, the authorities arrested and charged her with the murder and aggravated assault of Lance Herndon.
Dionne Baugh Has Kept a Low Profile After Her Release From Prison
About three years after her arrest, in 2001, Dionne Baugh stood trial for the killing of Lance Herndon. During the trial, she claimed that she was only friends with the victim, totally deviating from what she told the police after her arrest. She also told the court that on the fateful night, she went to his house to pick up the laptop. According to the prosecution, she indulged in sex with him, after which she brutally beat him to death with a wrench and left through the garage area with the laptop. Despite the case built on circumstantial evidence, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and convicted her of the murder charges. Thus, in the same year, she was sentenced to life in prison.
Upon the defense’s appeal, Dionne’s conviction was successfully overturned in 2003 based on a technicality concerning detectives’ testimony. When the judge declared a mistrial, she took a guilty plea on September 27, 2004, and agreed to the reduced charge of manslaughter. According to the deal, she served ten years behind bars and an additional ten years on probation. After serving most of her sentence at medium-security Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville, she got out of prison on parole in July 2011. Ever since her release, the former convict has stayed out of the prying eyes of the media and focused on getting her life back on track with her loved ones.
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