Spring Break
Ill. woman gets life for 4 murders
June 10, 2008
Beth Hundsdorfer - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 6/5/08 Section: Real News
BELLEVILLE, Ill. _ A week before she knocked her friend Jimella Tunstall unconscious and stripped her unborn baby from her womb, Tiffany Hall bought items for a makeshift birth kit: scissors, alcohol and a bulb syringe.
Three days after removing the fetus and killing Tunstall, Hall, of East St. Louis, Ill., got the murdered woman's three children and drowned them one at a time in the bathtub where she killed their mother.
Hall pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of first-degree murder and received four sentences of natural life in prison without parole for the deaths of Tunstall and her children, along with 60 years for the intentional homicide of Tunstall's unborn child.
"The kids? It didn't have to happen. None of it had to, but the kids .." said St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said. He added that Hall didn't provide any motive for killing DeMond, 7, Ivan, 2 ½ and Jinella, 1 ½.
At a hearing Monday on the plea agreement, Haida outlined the details of the crime.
Hall planned for weeks to kill Tunstall and take her unborn child, Haida said, but the plan went awry when the little girl she eventually named "Taylor Horne" was stillborn on Sept. 15, 2006, due to being cut from the womb. Hall took the baby's body to Frank Holten State Park and called Illinois State Police, telling them she gave birth to the child after she was raped.
Circuit Judge Milton Wharton asked Hall on Monday if she would tell him, in her own words, what the sentence meant.
"I will never get out," Hall responded in a soft voice.
Haida had announced his intention to seek the death penalty against Hall, if she was convicted of the murders. But he and Assistant State's Attorney Jim Piper about a month ago cemented the deal for life in prison after they were approached by Hall's defense attorneys, Jim Gomric and Jim Stern.
"In this circumstance, I don't know if there are any winners," Gomric said. "There are degrees of losing."
Three days after removing the fetus and killing Tunstall, Hall, of East St. Louis, Ill., got the murdered woman's three children and drowned them one at a time in the bathtub where she killed their mother.
Hall pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of first-degree murder and received four sentences of natural life in prison without parole for the deaths of Tunstall and her children, along with 60 years for the intentional homicide of Tunstall's unborn child.
"The kids? It didn't have to happen. None of it had to, but the kids .." said St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said. He added that Hall didn't provide any motive for killing DeMond, 7, Ivan, 2 ½ and Jinella, 1 ½.
At a hearing Monday on the plea agreement, Haida outlined the details of the crime.
Hall planned for weeks to kill Tunstall and take her unborn child, Haida said, but the plan went awry when the little girl she eventually named "Taylor Horne" was stillborn on Sept. 15, 2006, due to being cut from the womb. Hall took the baby's body to Frank Holten State Park and called Illinois State Police, telling them she gave birth to the child after she was raped.
Circuit Judge Milton Wharton asked Hall on Monday if she would tell him, in her own words, what the sentence meant.
"I will never get out," Hall responded in a soft voice.
Haida had announced his intention to seek the death penalty against Hall, if she was convicted of the murders. But he and Assistant State's Attorney Jim Piper about a month ago cemented the deal for life in prison after they were approached by Hall's defense attorneys, Jim Gomric and Jim Stern.
"In this circumstance, I don't know if there are any winners," Gomric said. "There are degrees of losing."
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