Tiffany Hall

Background

Tiffany Hall was 24 when she was charged in September 2006. She later entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to life in prison without parole on June 9, 2008.

Hall was described as a baby sitter who was often baby-sitting for Jimella Tunstall’s children. Relatives of both women said the two grew up together and attended alternative schools. Tunstall never expressed worry about leaving her children in Hall’s care.

The offence

Hall struck Jimella Tunstall, 23, on the head repeatedly with a table leg. Hall then cut Tunstall’s fetus from her womb in a bathtub. Tunstall bled to death.

Hall dumped Tunstall’s body in an East St. Louis lot.

Hall later told police in Illinois that she had given birth to a stillborn child. When police arrived, she had the dead fetus with her. Hall refused to be examined at a hospital.

Three children of Jimella Tunstall were killed: DeMond Tunstall, 7; Ivan Tunstall-Collins, 2; and Jinela Tunstall, 1. Hall drowned the three children in the same bathtub where she killed their mother.

After the killings, the bodies of the children were found in the washer and dryer inside the East St. Louis apartment where the children had lived with their mother.

During a coroner’s inquest, Illinois State Police investigator David Bivens testified about admissions Hall made. Bivens testified that Hall admitted beating Tunstall over the head with a table leg, then cutting her fetus from the womb in a bathtub, where she later drowned Tunstall’s three young children.

Bivens testified that Hall confessed on videotape that she hit Tunstall twice over the head with a table leg in Hall’s mother’s East St. Louis house on Sept. 15, then bound the woman’s hands and feet with duct tape. Bivens testified that when Tunstall tried to wriggle free, Hall hit her again and taped the woman’s mouth shut before dragging the unconscious woman to the bathtub. Bivens testified that Hall used a scissor-like implement to cut open the woman’s womb and remove the fetus. The coroner’s jury ruled Tunstall bled to death.

Bivens also testified that Hall admitted she drowned Ivan Tunstall-Collins and Jinela Tunstall in the same bathtub where their mother had been slain, then found their 7-year-old brother, DeMond Tunstall.

“She told DeMond it was time to take a bath, and she drowned him, too,” Bivens said.

The coroner’s jury found the deaths of the children, their mother, Jimella Tunstall, and her fetus to be homicides.

Hall’s actions regarding the evidence included hiding Tunstall’s body first in a plastic container in the basement and later dragging it outside into high weeds behind the house where it was found.

Investigation

Authorities said Hall’s story began to unravel on Sept. 21, 2006, about a week after Tunstall’s death, when she told her boyfriend that she killed a pregnant woman and stole the fetus. He told police.

On Sept. 21, during the baby’s funeral, Bivens testified, Hall confessed to her boyfriend that the baby wasn’t his and that she had killed the mother to get it. The boyfriend notified police. Police found Tunstall’s body and arrested Hall.

Investigators said Hall’s direction to check the washer and dryer led to discovery of the children’s bodies. Authorities searched the apartment earlier but did not look in the washer and dryer.

Officials suspect Tunstall was slain on or about Sept. 15.

Police and investigators searched multiple sites in and around East St. Louis while looking for the children unharmed. Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said the search would not end until the children were found. St. Louis Police Chief James Mister said: “They know how to survive.”

Authorities described Hall summoning police to a park, Frank Holten park, saying she had gone into labor. Ace Hart, a deputy St. Clair County coroner, said the dead baby showed no signs of trauma and an autopsy the next day failed to pinpoint a cause of death. Hart said Hall would not let doctors at the hospital examine her and offered conflicting reasons for why she went into labor, alternately saying she had consensual sex and was raped.

Arrest and custody

Hall was jailed on $5 million bond.

Hall was taken into custody and was charged with first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. She pleaded not guilty in those deaths.

Trial

The deaths were ruled homicides by a coroner’s jury after deliberations described as lasting a few minutes.

One of Hall’s attorneys, James Gomric, said he could not speak to a motive or discuss whether Hall had shown remorse. Gomric said Hall had been mentally fit to stand trial, but had unresolved mental health issues and had an IQ in the mid-70s.

Sentencing

On June 9, 2008, Hall pleaded guilty to killing Jimella Tunstall, her unborn child (the fetus), and her three children, and entered a plea deal allowing her to avoid the death penalty. Hall was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Before sentencing, the prosecutor Robert Haida prepared to present the case for possible death penalty, and described the slayings as “cold, calculated and premeditated.” Haida also said: “The slayings, he said, were 'cold, calculated and premeditated.'”

In remarks attributed to Robert Haida, he said:

“The senseless taking of the lives of defenseless children must be answered with appropriate punishment,”

and he said:

“Any time you’re talking about the ultimate punishment, it's something we take very seriously,”

Outcome

The plea deal resulted in Hall receiving life in prison without the possibility of parole on June 9, 2008.

Aftermath

Sandra Myers, Jimella Tunstall’s mother, said in connection with the plea that taking one life would not have been justice for losing the lives of others, and she said: “I have to forgive her.”

A cousin of Tunstall’s, Regina Kizer, said she felt sorry for Hall and did not believe the death penalty should be in play, adding: “I just think she should be in prison the rest of her life to think about what she did” and “God's gonna have the upper hand.”

Other details

A coroner’s inquest involved testimony by Illinois State Police investigator David Bivens.

Hall’s boyfriend was described as a sailor home on leave, who told police after Hall’s confession.

Hall had visited the father of two of Tunstall’s children and the unborn child, and told the father that Tunstall wanted her to pick up the children and Tunstall’s vehicle. The father told officers that was the last time he saw his children.

Authorities said the father was caring for all the children at the time, and the last time he saw the children was before they were drowned.