Tiffany Hall

From time to time I come across a case where I just cannot comprehend what happened. This is one of them. It is also a case in which makes me question the M'Naghten Rule. This is the rule that determines the sanity of defendants. The problem I have always had with this is that the standard is way too simple. If a person knows that they did was wrong then they are sane and are fit for trial. Now, for one this case never went to trial because the defendant struck a deal to prevent the death penalty but allegedly she had been tested and said to be sane. I doubt that anyone who continues to read this story will believe that this woman was sane. Does that mean I think she should get a pass for what she? Absolutely not. But Tiffany Hall is not your average murderer.

On September 21, 2006 Tiffany Hall had a funeral for a baby she had said she had given birth to nearly a week prior. On the night of September 15^th Tiffany had called the police in Belleville Illinois to a park. When they arrived Tiffany told officers that she had been sexually assaulted and that just after she had given birth to a stillborn baby girl. Tiffany was found with the deceased baby in her arms. The officers seemingly had to insist that Tiffany go to the hospital. Once there she allowed the doctors and later the medical examiner to look at the baby but she refused to allow them to examine her. It was said that while she was there her story seem to change, possibly more than once! But it seems that nothing was really done other than the fact that the hospital took custody of the baby. Tiffany was apparently sent on her way. Then on the 21^st while at the funeral Tiffany told her boyfriend, who was on leave from the military, that not only was the child not his, the child was not hers either. She proceeded to tell him that she had killed a woman and cut the child out of her. It seems he wasted no time telling the police. Within a few hours it seems that Tiffany Hall was arrested. By all appearances she told her story and led authorities to the body of twenty-three year old Jimella Tunstall.

Tiffany Hall and Jimella Tunstall were friends and apparently had been since they were children. I did not hear a lot about Tiffany Hall's childhood but according to the research Jimella Tunstall had not had an easy one. She had apparently lived in several foster homes as a child. I found nothing that stated why she was “bounced” from home to home but it appears that she remained close with several of the families. Tiffany had become a teenage mother when at sixteen she had given birth to her first child. By the time of her death she was pregnant with her fourth. At her funeral it was said that at some point she had lost her children to child services but that she had learned a lesson, got them back and pulled her life together. Jimella and Tiffany were close enough that Tiffany often babysat for Jimella while having two of her own children. On September 15, 2006 Jimella was with Tiffany at Tiffany's mother's home in Belleville. It was not made clear whether Tiffany also lived there. At some point Tiffany hit Jimella on the back of the head with the leg of a table, knocking her unconscious. Tiffany then drug Jimella, who was seven months pregnant, to the bathroom where she placed her in the tub. It was there that Tiffany cut into Jimella's womb, using scissors, and removed the baby she was carrying. It was never made clear if the baby, a girl, ever took a breath or could have possibly survived outside of the womb had there been proper medical care. At some point Tiffany moved Jimella's body and took her to a field where she would dump her body. An autopsy would show that Jimella's cause of death had come from the blood loss she had suffered.

It was apparently a few hours after this that she called the police with the story about the sexual assault and giving birth to a stillborn baby. As I noted above, while at the hospital Tiffany refused treatment for herself or for her to be examined. Now, I understand that people have the right to refuse care, and they could not force her to accept care, but it seems to me that someone should have thrown a flag on this play. Here was a woman who not only was claiming she had been sexually assaulted but had allegedly given birth to a baby within the last few hours and yet apparently because of her refusal for care she was sent on her way while the baby she allegedly gave birth to went to the morgue.

When police arrested Tiffany on Thursday September 21^st and she told her story, police at some point went to Jimella's East St. Louis, Illinois apartment looking for pictures of Jimella's three other children. At this point no one knew where they were and authorities wanted pictures to pass out to law enforcement and the media. They were looking for seven year old DeMond, two year old Ivan and one year old Jinella. It appears that nothing seemed amiss at the apartment and the quick search simply produced the pictures and authorities left. Police had to suspect already that Tiffany knew where the children were because it would seem that they would have already talked to people.

Jimella had been murdered on a Friday. My research states that “about three days later” Tiffany had gone to the home of a man who had all of Jimella's children. It was not clear just who the man was but he was apparently at least the father of one, if not more of the children. It was said that the man, who I never caught his name, was close to all of Jimella's children and treated them all as his own. He would tell authorities that a woman, it was not clear if he knew Tiffany or he had just described her, had picked the children up saying it was at Jimella's request. I suspect that while it was non specific on when this occurred that it was likely on that Sunday evening. The father would say this was the last time he saw his children. So, it is plausible that police had spoken to him already, not to mention they already had a woman who had confessed to killing the mother of the children and removing a child from her womb, why would they not suspect she was involved in the disappearance of the other children?

By Saturday the 23^rd it seems authorities had had enough. They needed to know where the children were and they were back talking to Tiffany. She directed them back to Jimella's East St. Louis apartment. Authorities were perplexed considering they had already been there once and Tiffany had been in custody all that time. According to Tiffany the police simply had not looked hard enough. They needed to look in the washer and dryer! Tiffany only admitted to knowing where they were, she did not at that point admit to killing the children. Authorities stated that by the time they re-entered the apartment on Saturday it was obvious there was something there, just by the smell. And, just as Tiffany had stated, the children were found in the appliances. Seven year old DeMond was found in the dryer while the two toddlers were found together in the washer. Two of the children were stripped naked while the third was only dressed in underwear. Autopsies would have to be performed to determine their cause of death. Between the autopsies and apparently Tiffany finally coming forward with more of her story the devastating end for the children was revealed. After picking the children up from the father's home she had taken the children back to where she had murdered their mother just a few days before. She apparently placed each in the same bathtub, drowning them. She then took their bodies back to the apartment they shared with their mother.

The community was devastated. It was not like they were not used to crime. In fact, East St. Louis is said to have an extremely high rate in crime. I found statistics and studies that have been done that determined they actually had a higher murder rate than Chicago for several years running. New statistics are not out but the trend did not seem to be going down. But even with all of that, this crime was heinous by all standards. It was said that a fund was established to help raise money for the funerals and that over $30,000 was raised in less than three days. More than 500 people would attend the joint funeral. One of Jimella's former foster fathers was a minister and conducted the services.

Tiffany Hall would not go to trial. In June of 2008 she pleaded guilty. Articles say that she pleaded to four counts of murder and one count of intentional homicide for the death of the baby girl she removed from Jimella's womb. However a look at the Illinois Department of Correction website indicates that she was only convicted (hence the guilty plea) to three counts of murder. Regardless she was given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole. It was said she did this to completely avoid the death penalty, which is often the case. The families of the victims were notified and agreed to the deal. The problem with not having a trial is that so much gets lost and and leaves many unanswered questions. Here no motive has ever been publicized. No one knows why Tiffany Hall did this.

According to her lawyer Tiffany had been evaluated and had been thought to be competent for trial but he would say she had some “unresolved mental issues.” Ya think?? He would also claim that her IQ was said to be in the low to mid-70's which means she was obviously of lower intelligence. It was not low enough to prevent the death penalty from being carried out. There is a part of me that thinks if the murders had all happened at one time or even within hours of each other Tiffany would have likely not been considered sane by the courts. I believe the fact that the crimes stretched over days made a difference here. Now, that is not to say that while she may not meet the standards of insanity by the courts that I believe this woman to be sane. I do not say this lightly, nor do I think the crimes alone is what makes me feel this way. Her behavior is what draws me to this conclusion. Authorities would say they believed that Tiffany had planned this for a while. They claim that about a week before she murdered Jimella she had bought rubbing alcohol, “a sharp object,” and a nasal aspirator. This I am sure added to their belief that she was sane and knew what she was doing. And maybe she really did know what she was doing, and again, it does goes against court standards for insanity, but in my opinion it did not make her sane.

The two things that jump out at me as far as her behavior leading me to believe that legitimate sanity was not Tiffany's strong suit was first her call to the police several hours after she had murdered Jimella. Why would she do this? Of course eventually someone would have discovered that Jimella was missing and likely come across her body and it be obvious someone had removed the baby from her womb but it still makes no sense that Tiffany would call the police, especially when the baby was not alive. I mean she had already “dumped” a body. What was one more? She would obviously show over the next couple of days that she had little issue with that. What was the motive in calling the police to report a false sexual assault? But hey, no one caught her then, and for whatever reason her story was not looked into more. Then she has seemingly gotten away with things and she tells her boyfriend at the funeral for the baby that it is not his and she had killed a woman. Again... why? Her logic, aside from the fact by that time she had murdered four people, three of them young children, and had removed a baby from a womb, seems skewed to say the very, very least. One thing that I never saw mentioned that I am curious about was what condition the bathroom had been left in. It was said that his home was Tiffany's mother's home but there was never mention of her mother. Did she live there? Was she even alive? Had Tiffany scrubbed every drop of blood out of that bathroom? Was there no evidence that four murders were committed there? The condition that the bathroom was in, especially after a week could also tell us a lot about Tiffany's state of mind.

Tiffany apparently had two children of her own and by all accounts it appears that they were well taken care of. People forget that innocent victims are not all deceased. Her own children lost their mother to prison. I would imagine they also lost friends considering Tiffany babysat for the children she would later murder, it would stand to reason that the children had all played together. Some say avoiding the death penalty was the best thing that could have happened because those behind prison walls do not look kindly at child killers, and this one was especially heinous. This is probably true but as an advocate for those with legitimate mental issues I want to know more and know if she is receiving any kind of treatment while in prison.