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Background

Not much is known about Christian Ketchup’s early childhood, but according to Perfectgame, he was a decent high school baseball player at Holy Innocents Episcopal in Marietta, Georgia. He was an outfielder and was ranked in the top 50 at his position in the class of 2016 for Georgia.

Baseball-reference shows he played baseball at the NCAA Division II school South Wesleyan in Central, South Carolina, in 2017. That summer, he played for the Brookhaven Bucks in a Georgia-based collegiate summer league.

In 2018, he suited up for South Wesleyan again. It’s unclear if he played baseball again after that season.

Social Media

He was active on Twitter for years, posting 744 times, most of which were retweets. He would retweet content supporting his brothers, who were also upcoming baseball players. He would also retweet things about motivation, staying focused, grinding, and being built differently.

Crime

Based on his online presence, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, but looks can be deceiving.

According to WearTV, Christian Ketchup was 25 years old when he and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Rachel DeRise, were at Mugs and Jugs Sports Bar in Pensacola, Florida, on August 23rd, 2023.

At around 1 am, a fun night turned into chaos when DeRise got into it with 25-year-old Tierra Binion inside the establishment.

Eventually, things spilled into the parking lot, and the two women began fighting.

Ketchup could have let them resolve it or even broken them up, but instead, he decided to jump in and help his girlfriend. He sucker punched the 5-foot-5-inch Binion and knocked her out cold. DeRise started beating the unconscious woman, but things went way too far when Ketchup pulled out a handgun and shot Binon at least 7 times as she lay on the ground.

Ketchup and DeRise fled the scene with some friends, but the people they left with threw them out of the car at some point.

Ketchup later hopped on the phone and called 911, confessing to what he had done.

When authorities arrived, he was taken into custody. Despite his evil deed, he told deputies that “I’m not a f–ing killer. I don’t do that. That’s not me.”

Binon, a mother of two young twins, died at the scene.

Several witnesses were questioned, and the stories varied. One witness told police they saw Binon swing at DeRise first. Another witness said they saw DeRise start the physical altercation. Several people said they saw Ketchup pull a gun, wave it around, holster it, then pull it again and start shooting.

DeRise was arrested a day after the murder for misdemeanor battery.

Claims of Self-defense

After his arrest, Ketchup’s lawyer Thomas F. McGuire III  told Law&Crime that his client thought Binon “was inflicting deadly force, or it appeared that she was inflicting deadly force, on Ketchup’s girlfriend.”

McGuire also stated that Ketchup heard Binon yell, “Where is my gun?” so he “freak[ed] out.”

Legal Proceedings

When Ketchup went to trial, he claimed self-defense, saying that Binion made a statement implying she had a gun.

The prosecution said his actions were unreasonable, and he was convicted of second-degree murder.

The 27-year-old returned to court on November 19th, 2025. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.