BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Tiffany Hall admitted drowning her longtime friend's three young children in a bathtub where she'd already cut a fetus from their mother's womb, authorities say.
Now prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty if the East St. Louis woman is convicted of first-degree murder in the children's slayings.
Hall, 24, already faced a possible death sentence if convicted of killing the children's mother, Jimella Tunstall. Prosecutors filed their intent to seek the death penalty in the children's deaths in St. Clair County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
One of Hall's attorneys, James Gomric, declined to comment Wednesday night.
Hall is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the September deaths of Tunstall, 23, and her children: DeMond Tunstall, 7, Ivan Tunstall-Collins, 2, and Jinela Tunstall, 1. She also is charged with intentional homicide of Tunstall's 7-month-old fetus, which Hall for a time claimed was hers.
Hall has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Police have testified that Hall admitted repeatedly clubbing Tunstall on the head with a table leg Sept. 15, then cutting out the fetus in the bathtub where she drowned Tunstall's three other children days later.
Police say they found the children in a washing machine and dryer in Tunstall's East St. Louis apartment after Hall directed them there. Tunstall's body was found among high weeds in a nearby park.
During the baby's funeral days after the murders, Hall confessed to her boyfriend that the baby wasn't his and that she had killed the mother to get it, police have testified. The boyfriend notified police.
Hall is next scheduled to be in court Dec. 20 for a case management hearing.
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