By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, has refused to hear an appeal from a former Russell woman who was convicted and sentenced to death for her role in the murder of two people in Hattiesburg, Miss.

The bodies ultimately were found in a freezer hidden in a building at a Russell County farmstead near Waldo.

She had appealed her convictions based on statements she made to Russell County Undersheriff Max Barrett and evidence that subsequently was found at the Russell County Landfill.

Lisa Jo Chamberlin, 36, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 in connection with the 2004 murder of Vernon Hulett and Linda Heintzelman. Both Hulett and Heintzelman were brutally murdered in Mississippi, less than a mile from where Chamberlin and her boyfriend, Roger Gillett, had been convicted and sentenced to death. Gillett, 34, Hulett's cousin, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007.

The Mississippi Supreme Court in August confirmed Chamberlin's conviction and sentencing, detailing gruesome facts about the case in its 51-page ruling.

Gillett, incidentally, is appealing his conviction to the Mississippi court, but a decision won't be forthcoming until later this year. The court there has granted an extension allowing the last brief to be filed in the case May 12. Gillett's attorney was supposed to have filed his appeal brief Monday -- the same day the U.S. Supreme Court refused Chamberlin's appeal.

While the murders and convictions took place in Hattiesburg, discovery of the crimes came shortly after 5 p.m. March 29, 2004, on the Russell County farm not far from Waldo.

There, Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents discovered a freezer inside a shed.

Inside the freezer were the frozen remains of Heintzelman and Hulett, which had been driven nearly a thousand miles. Seven trash bags of evidence also made the trip, all of them dumped -- and then later recovered by law enforcement officers -- at the landfill north of Russell.

Chamberlin told Barrett about the bags of trash and accompanied him to the landfill and pointed out the area where they had been dumped.

In her appeal, she claimed statements she made during the interrogation shouldn't have been admitted. She also claims evidence from the landfill was improper.

Barrett was aware of the court's refusal to hear the appeal.

He scoffed at the basis of her appeal.

"She confessed everything," he said of a discussion she initiated with him.

"I think she's grasping at straws," he said of the appeal.

Barrett said Chamberlin never refused to talk with authorities.

"She said she just didn't want to talk," he said.

Until she asked to talk with Barrett.

That's when he asked if she wanted an attorney.

"She said, 'No, I don't,' " Barrett said of the conversation. "She came to me and didn't want an attorney."

During that interview, Chamberlin told of the bags of trash that had been disposed of at the landfill and agreed to ride out there with Barrett. She then pointed out the area where they had been disposed of.

While no execution date has been set for Chamberlin, Barrett said he's been told it's generally at least eight years from when an inmate is sentenced to the time the person is executed.

In Mississippi right now, 61 inmates are on death row, three of them female.

Barrett said he still would make the trip down to Mississippi when the time comes for Chamberlin's execution.

"I'm just assuming it's going to be a waiting game," he said.