Tiffany Hall Lives—Unlike Her Victims
We covered this case when it broke. What a terrible tragedy of enormous proportions this case is. Here we see evil in its organic sense. The worst kind of immorality imaginable.
Tiffany Hall hit her friend, Jimella Tunstall, who was pregnant, repeatedly on the head with a table leg. When she was finished beating the woman, she then—ala Lisa Montgomery—cut Jimella’s fetus from her womb in a bathtub, leaving her “friend” to bleed to death.
After that, Hall tossed Jimella’s tortured corpse in an East St. Louis parking lot and drove off as if it were just another day at the office.
That same afternoon, Hall summoned police and said she had given birth to a stillborn child. When police arrived, Hall had the dead fetus in her hands.
But refused medical treatment of any kind.
(Hey, we never said we cover only the smart criminals here on Crime Rant).
Three days later, Hall decided to continue to her killing spree: apparently, killing her best friend and her unborn child wasn’t enough.
So she went to visit with the father of two of Jimella’s children and the unborn child. At the time, the father was watching all of the children.
Hall told him, “Jimella wants me to pick up the children.”
He bought it.
From there, Hall drove the children back to Jimella’s and drowned them (DeMond, 7; Ivan, 2; and Jinella, 1) in the same bathtub where she had killed Jimella and her fetus days before.
The bodies of the three children were found two days later in a washer and dryer inside the apartment.
Some might say there is a special place in Lucifer’s flat for this woman.
Saving herself, of course, Hall pleaded guilty this week to killing her pregnant friend, the unborn child and the victim’s three children. In this plea deal, Hall was able to escape the death penalty.
She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
From the wires:
One of Hall’s attorneys, James Gomric, said he could not speak to a motive or discuss whether his client had shown remorse. He said Hall had been mentally fit to stand trial, but she also had unresolved mental health issues and had an IQ in the mid-70s.
After the hearing, some of Tunstall’s relatives said they had already forgiven Hall. Sandra Myers, Jimella Tunstall’s mother, said taking one life would not have been justice for losing the lives of others. “I have to forgive her,” she said.
Forgiveness is something we all need to look into a bit more, perhaps. It would certainly make our lives a heck of a lot more simple if we were able to, like this family, forgive those who have harmed us.
The story here is in this family’s will to absolve a woman of her malevolently wicked behavior. This is a killer who literally took out an entire family, methodically, coldly, torturously, and then escaped with her own life.
Not hating this woman takes tremendous courage.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I would find it hard, if not impossible to forgive something like this. If someone caused the death of one of my friends or family through an accident maybe somehow I could find forgiveness. Some people and things are just beyond forgiving, in my opinion.
Things like the OJ murders, BTK, the two little girls they just found shot to death in Oklahoma, the Keddie murders, Janet Chandler, the two boys who killed Dan Sorenson, the jerk in Texas that stomped the 3 month old baby….etc etc and so on into infinity.
If not being able to forgive in certain situations makes me morally lacking in some way, so be it. Maybe there’s just too much forgiveness being spread around, I think it’s time to end all this carnage and senseless debauchery of violence once and for all. No tolerance, no forgiveness, period.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am
That kind of courage……………. NOT.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Personally, I think the mother is very courageous, but someone like Tiffany Hall wouldn’t get it from me. Personally I think it is up to the victim, or God to forgive. With friends like her, who needs enemies? As Michelle G. said earlier, I’d want to tear her into pieces and stamp on them sooner than let someone like that harm my kids. ( Don’t annoy a Scorpio!)
June 12th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Forgiveness is overrated
June 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Forgiveness is a personal thing. I have been able to forgive people that I never thought I would. But timing, life experiences and grace have had a lot to do in helping me get to that place. I am thankful that I have never had to forgive someone for something as tracic as this because I am not sure I ever could.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am
It does take tremendous courage, or more like tremendous character. That being said, I don’t know if I could do it even given a lifetime to forgive. I personally highly respect Sandra Myers. You’d have to be God to fully forgive and forget something like this, so she probably battles back and forth with her emotions, but to even be able to forgive for an instant, she definitely has my respect.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I suppose it is noble to forgive, but there is much in this story that disturbs me. If this woman is as mentally ill as they claim and has a such a low IQ, how did everyone miss her problems?
The story I read said Hall’s story came apart when they were planning a service for “her miscarried” fetus. The mother was murdered on the September 15, and the children would have been murdered on the 18th, and the service was on the 21st. Was no one looking for any of the victims before she confessed? How unconscious are these people? All these victims suffered horrible deaths, and Tiffany raised no suspicions.
Good grief, this is broken, and someone should have done more when it counted. I am not impressed with a family that had such little interest in their loved ones when they were living and now has forgiveness to spare for the murderer.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Not only that Compassrose, but the mother was missing a day or two when Tiffany went to Jimella’s children’s father and told him that their mother sent her to come and get the kids. WTF!
June 12th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Good points Compassrose. I’m not sure how Jimella’s mom plays into this picture. There are lots of daughters that don’t talk to their moms every day, me being one of them. However, very good points and well said.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I doubt that it’s even possible to truly forgive, at the stage that these people are seeming to offer it here.
Real forgiveness requires the knowledge of all wrongs that were done, and if this story is still pre-trial, then the family hasn’t been through the worst of it. Maybe they choose not to know (denial), but then it really isn’t forgiveness.
I think the process is complicated. Life continually brings new realms of context for loss, and then the whole process starts again…
I respect and admire this family for their willingness to forgive, but it’s just not realistic for it to have taken root yet.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
The trial is over A. She was sentenced. And its been 2 years. I think that what she probably meant by forgivness is that she doesnt see the point in punishing her further than her sentence, which is LWOP.
I am guessing the father was separated from Jimilla. Thats the only explanation I can think of with the dad situation.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Ok. I now see that she pled guilty, and avoided a trial.
I do wonder why her attorney wouldn’t speak to motive or discuss whether his client showed any remorse. These are important factors in the process of justice.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I would guess its because she doesnt have any, and what the hell kind of motive could POSSIBLY excuse that? Her low iq doesnt even put her into the retarded area, just the lower echelon. He already got DP off the table, maybe he would be sickened to try and make excuses for her.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Hmmm. That would be a refreshing twist on a defense attorney.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Yes, it would A.
I think that as their attorney they are bound by attorney client privlidge, even after they plea and are sentenced, etc. But besides that, any motive she has would be utterly ridiculous in light of her crime.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I cannot imagine what the motive could have been. For a person of low IQ, she sure did a good job of carrying out this crime.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Personally I am glad we cant think of a motive. I would be scared of someone who could fathom a motive for something like that.
The baby stealing is easy, she wanted her boyfriend to marry her I guess. But WTF on going after the kids 3 days later?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Motive aside, why wouldn’t the defense attorney be willing to say that his client was sorry?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Because that is about all they can offer for their clients…an apology.
Don’t you know that some Defense Attorneys must hate having to do Pro Bono work because of clients like this. I mean seriously, I would hate to have to face my family and friends after representing someone like this.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Well, we’ll see if it actually will be LWOP – who knows. She may get out due to overcrowding and someone will see her as less of a threat than say, a marijuana smoker.
This is outrageous. Someone please tell me, what does it take to actually have someone put to death? Anyone? Anyone??
June 12th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Forgiveness IS overrated…but, I can see how, between living with forgiveness and living with hatred, forgiving would be the better choice.
Not sure I could do it, though. If someone even hurt one of my kids, I’d want to rip their head off.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Rae says:
Forgiveness IS overrated…but, I can see how, between living with forgiveness and living with hatred, forgiving would be the better choice.
Very well put.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Although my mind knows that forgiveness is probably the route to go….
I think there are situations that are just such a stretch.
And I think sometimes it’s the PERP that wants the forgiveness… much more that we are willing to give it.
I think if it were more of a PERSONAL case to me… I might reconsider.
I know from experience, that holding grudges and hatreds…. can eat you alive.
I don’t have the answers… wish I did.
I admire people that can forgive.
I can forgive many things.
Some things…. I just wonder if forgiving would really give you any peace anyway. It’s probably a very personal thing… it may help some people heal… others… not so much.
So.. for those of you that in this particular situation think you could forgive, I commend you. But I think it would have to happen to YOU before you can really make that committment. IMHO.
June 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I personally wouldn’t be so forgiving toward someone who committed this type of crime and wiped out a pregnant woman and her children. Tiffany Hall deserves to be punished harshly. She is damn lucky to escape the death penalty. It was bad enough TH butchered a pregnant woman, but then, went out of her way to drown her children.
For someone with a low IQ, she sure carried out her crimes methodically.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I keep trying to think of ANY screwed-up, selfish, immature motive that she could have had and I think I have one. Jealousy. Maybe she couldn’t have kids and was jealous of her friend for having kids and for being pregnant with yet another. Combine that with being a psycho, and there you go. I wish we had more places to send people in this country who are mentally unstable. I wonder what % of people in prison are mentally ill.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am
She HAS kids. It cant be that. She met Jimella in alternative high school where they were both pregnant together. They watched each others kids according to an article I read.
So on top of killing all of her friends kids, and her friend of course, she has left her own kids as orphans.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:51 am
WTF – OK, I can’t think of anything else. I didn’t realize that she had kids. My imagination can’t stretch any further. Maybe one day she will explain why.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:17 am
OK – thought of another one. She stole the baby to pretend it was hers and then had an afterthought about how the kids had no mother and she was afraid she would get stuck with taking care of them, so she killed them. But still, why would she steal a baby if she already had kids? I need to stop trying to figure this out.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Prolly
– I think she was doing the ole Lisa Montgomery. Telling everyone she was pregnant, probably trying to get the Dad to marry her and it all backfired. But c’mon, killing the other kids 3 days later? They obviously had a Dad that was around if she picked them up at his house.
She is just an evil evil person. I dont think we could ever figure out the reason why. And I dont think she is sorry. Obv, if she was remorseful AT ALL, her lawyer would have mentioned it.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:34 am
True – and I’m surprised that her lawyer didn’t just lie and say she was sorry. I just read that Tiffany Hall had miscarried shortly before this happened. So, maybe she was jealous that her friend was going to have a baby and she wasn’t, or maybe she didn’t tell her bf that she had miscarried and took her friend’s baby to make it look like she had carried the baby to term and delivered it. I’m assuming that she didn’t kill the baby on purpose, but it died because she didn’t know WTF she was doing AND removed the baby with scissors. Evil, selish, heartless bitch.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I didnt know that was established or a lie. I think they were going on the post partum defense but nobody could actually confirm she was ever pregnant.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:48 am
If it had been recent enough then her hormone levels could have been tested. I suppose she wasn’t getting prenatal care then.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
They were saying that WAY in the beginning. There is nothing recent about her pregnancy, that would have at least given her motive (obv not justifiable, but motive nonetheless). I think they probably found out she was lying about the pregnancy from the beginning. Especially since the prosecutor had said that she had been planning this for quite some time.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
She was probably such a disgusting skank to begin with that the only reason the bf was still with her was because she was pregers. She killed her friend to take the baby, ala Lisa Montgomery – she probably heard about the case – but totally f’d up and not only killed her friend she killed the baby. She didn’t dump the baby because she probably figured she could use it to gain pitty/sympathy/affection from the bf. She decided to kill her friend’s kids because in actuality she probably places no value on having a father in a child’s life, so since she didn’t want them to live without their mother she killed them, too. She probably never once considered how anything she was doing would affect her own children because all that ever mattered was her.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
LMAO @ disgusting skank… That’s perfect.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
MG are you kidding?? Why are you calling the dead GF a skank??
June 13th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Sophie, I think she meant Tiffany, who I THINK was pretending to be preggers. (ala Lisa Montgomery) In fact I am pretty sure thats what she meant lol.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Yep – Tiffany is the disgusting Skank Sophie. I think you may need some EPO.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Evening primrose oil?
You’re weird, T-etta.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Well, I got [and still am] confused about the “boyfriend still with her”??? Was that Tiffany’s BF?? I don’t know but I thought he was the father of J’s kids?? Thanks for the clarification.
Hhmmm A….you know about EPO??? Yes, T-etta is a little strange!
June 13th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
EPO is for women’s health and provides GLA, which is not found much in foods. I like T-etta! I’m going to go do flips in the front yard.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Jimella’s boyfriend wasnt with her anymore obviously since Tiffany went to his house to pick up her kids. (jimella’s and her ex’s not tiffany’s) (and killed them at her place) Tiffany had a BF who thought she was preggers and lost the kid from a rape (she changed her story a few times). He was the one who turned her in though, because she told him what she did at the funeral for the so called still born when the questions got too tough for her.
Its confusing because we are talking about people who have multi baby daddy’s, and its so fucked up.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Oh, and J’s kids did not have the same fathers of T’s kids. T&J were best friends (who knows, but I dont think they shared boyfriends).
Also, as a side note. T’s kids were taken away from her in 1999 for abuse but given back to her in 2001. Now THEY are back in the system obviously.
June 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
ROFLMAO Melissa @ multi baby daddy’s. Confused the hell out of me. I didn’t realize Tiff even had a BF. Thanks for the clarification.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Sophie Says:
MG are you kidding?? Why are you calling the dead GF a skank??
I wasn’t talking about the victim I was talking about the worthless woman who murdered her.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Tiffany is getting all that she deserves.She chose to throw in the towel to save her own life but didn’t give a d%#@ about those helpless children and Jimella.She’s finally left the county jail;now,maybe she’ll get a little bit of that torture back where she is now.Before we all leave this world,we will REAP WHAT WE SOW.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I think it’s pretty funny her attorney didn’t even try to give a motive or say she was sorry. Uou don’t see integrity like that much in the legal profession.
Society scares me with what it creates. There are more Tiffany Halls out there.
September 13th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Society does not create Tiffay Halls. Plenty of people exist in the milleu from which she came and do not become killers. Unless there are (yet unpsroven) genetic or brain chemestry causes Tiffany created the person Tiffany became through personal choices and decisions. Blaming society evades responsibility and ultimately excuses all actions. Conversely one can adapt a Marxist-Leninist program to eliminate certain classes because their place in society will ultimately create counter revolutionary forces. Don’t beleive leftist crap about socio-economic determinism. Dont vomit back socialist propaganda. Think for yourself. Tiffany did.