East St. Louis Woman Gets Life for Four Murders

By Beth Hundsdorfer, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.

Jun. 9–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 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 1/2 and Jinella, 1 1/2.

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.”

Tunstall’s family members expressed opposition to the death penalty, Haida said, and the proceedings stressed the grieving family.

When she walked into the courtroom, Hall looked around the courtroom packed with the victims’ family members, reporters, Illinois State Police investigators, command staff and crime-scene technicians and East St. Louis Police investigators, but didn’t show any emotion.

Sandra Myers, Tunstall’s mother, trembled and clutched a tissue as Hall took her seat.

Hall had a funeral for the baby on Sept. 18, 2006. But Hall confessed to her boyfriend, Keith Horne, that she was not the baby’s mother, and that she killed Tunstall to get the baby. Tunstall’s body was found in high weeds near Hall’s home. Earlier that day, Hall lied to Ivan Collins, the father of Tunstall’s children, telling him Tunstall wanted her children and her car. That allowed Hall to pick up DeMond, Ivan and Jinella. Hall drowned them, then hid their naked bodies in a washer and dryer in Tunstall’s apartment in the John DeShields housing complex.

Illinois State Police arrested Hall that night.

East St. Louis and Illinois State Police found the children’s bodies two days later.

As Haida described the crime, Myers, overcome with emotion, left the courtroom hand-in-hand with Illinois State Police Det. David Bivens. She returned, trembling.

“I’m going to have deal with this the rest of my life,” Myers said after the hearing. “I’m going to put it in God’s hands. I have to forgive her. We all make mistakes. We all will need forgiveness. Being a spiritual person, I have to find a way to forgive.”

Hall, 26, had only one previous felony conviction, for retail theft.

But her young life was troubled. Adjudicated a juvenile delinquent at 14, Hall failed to keep a curfew, failed to appear for drug tests and didn’t attend school. At 16, Hall gave birth to her first child. A year later, she delivered her second.

Hall lost custody of her daughters in 1999 after a court found evidence her 2-month-old daughter was abused.

In 2001, both girls were returned to Hall’s care. They returned to foster care after Hall was arrested for the murders.

Hall, who Gomric said is mildly retarded and sufferes from mild mental illness, wore shackles and shuffled out of the courtroom. She never looked back at spectators.

Contact reporter Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.

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