Woman Faces Two Death Penalty Trials

(Belleville, Illinois) A 25-year-old East St. Louis woman, Tiffany Hall, has been indicted in two cases for first-degree murder for the deaths of a mother, an unborn fetus, and three children. Yesterday, Hall was informed that prosecutors will seek the death penalty in both cases.

Just moments before walking into a St. Clair County courtroom, she was told by her attorneys the state would seek the death penalty in the killings of the children. She is accused of drugging them with cough syrup, drowning them and stuffing them into a clothes washer and dryer.

Robert Haida, the St. Clair County state's attorney, was already seeking the death penalty for the killing of the children's mother, Jimella Tunstall, and her unborn fetus. The two cases, for the moment, are being tried separately -- although they could be consolidated before trial, which is expected next year.

Hall, 25, wearing a mustard yellow jumpsuit, spoke in a soft voice when Circuit Judge Milton Wharton asked if she understood the state's intent to seek death.

"Yes," she said. Her face was expressionless; her body did not move.

Sick, absolutely sick.

Chances are that her two trials will be combined, my guess, wherein she'll be sentenced to life in prison because she's a woman, probably with emotional problems from a tragic childhood. I also predict that she's paroled after serving no more than 15 years. I want to be wrong in my predictions. Unfortunately, my guesses are often quite close.


[Update 6/09/08]

Hall sentenced to life w/o parole, a gift.