Sister Frames 13-year-old Brother for Murder of Husband; Boy Gets Life | Tyler Edmonds

On May 10, 2003, 33-year-old Joey Fulgham was found dead in his bed in Columbus, Mississippi. He’d been shot in the head while he slept. His wife, Kristi Fulgham, claimed she’d just returned from a weekend trip to find him.

At the center of it all was Kristi’s 13-year-old brother, Tyler Edmonds. A boy who loved his sister, trusted her completely, and ended up confessing to helping her pull the trigger. But was it the truth or a story forced out of a terrified child?

This case twists through coerced confessions, junk science, a wrongful conviction, and a terrified teenage boy who was put in a position he should never have been in.

And it all started with a woman who wanted her husband gone.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now part of the dark Cast Network. Welcome to Indie
Podcasts with a Dark Side. On the morning of May tenth,
two thousand and three, a nine to one to one
call came in from Columbus, Mississippi. Inside a home on
Wolf Road, the body of thirty three year old Joey

(00:20):
Fulbom had been found. He had been shot in his
own bed while he slept. Officers were sent out immediately,
unsure of what they were about to walk into. When
investigators stepped through the door of Joey's house, they found
him lying in the bed where he had been attacked.
He was still under the covers, dead with a bullet
wound to his head. His wife, Christye Fulgum reported discovering

(00:43):
her husband's body after returning from a weekend trip in
the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The initial impression was that this
was a personal crime. Whoever pulled the trigger had stood
over Joey while he lay vulnerable in his own home.
Welcome Lamb's Wi. Welcome to Love and Murder, Heartbreak to Homicide.
I'm Kai bringing you another full episode of true crime

(01:07):
cases where relationships, love and betrayal and in murder, And
as always I tell these stories with the victim in mind,
so expect some ranting and raving along the way. Before
we begin, a quick reminder, this podcast is listener funded.
That's why I started the Patreon so I can keep
telling these stories the way that they need to be told.

(01:29):
Patreon dot com forward slash Love and Murder. If I
were to rely on sponsors, they may be able to
tell me, hey, don't tell the story that way. Be
more conscious of the departments that did something wrong instead
of being more conscious of the actual victims who were
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(01:52):
You are a voice of the victims. And I'm not
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(02:14):
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our bonus tears at three dollars a month and above
Patreon dot com Ford slash Love and Murder. Now, grab
your butts, grab your delicious glass of apple juice, and
let's get into this episode of love and murder. Tyler
Edmonds was only thirteen years old in the spring of

(02:36):
two thousand and three. He was a kind of kid
still straddling that line between childhood and adolescence. Awkward, impressionable,
and fiercely loyal to the people he loved. He was
described as a quiet, good natured honor student from a
broken home. He lived with his mother, Sharon Clay, and
his stepfather in the Golden Triangle region of Mississippi. He

(02:58):
so loved his old elder sister, Christy Fulgam, who at
twenty six was more than a decade older than him.
After being estranged from his biological father for years, Christie
re entered his life when he was about ten or eleven,
and they bonded over their share background. In a school essay,
Tyler once wrote, quote, I loved my sister more than

(03:21):
I love myself. He trusted her, implicitly looked up to her,
and would do anything to keep her happy. Christie's life, though,
was unravelin she was married to Joey Fulgam, a steady
and hard working man, but the marriage was fallen apart
a fact that they had publicly aired on The Montell

(03:42):
Williams Show a few years earlier. During the show, Christie
revealed that her youngest child wasn't Joey's, she had ongoing affears,
and was dating another man, Kyle Harvey. At the time
of this case, even friends and family knew that the
relationship was volatile. At times, Christy would accuse Joey of

(04:04):
controlling her, while Joey's relatives would describe Christy as manipulative
and hard to satisfy. By two thousand and three, she
had moved out of the Fulgram home, taking the couple's
children with her, only to come back later on. Money
made things even worse. Christy and Joey were strapped financially,
and Christy had started to see her husband not as

(04:25):
her partner but as an obstacle. Tyler stood in the
middle of this storm. He had no real understanding of
the complicated adult problems swirling around his sister's marriage, but
he knew Christy leaned on him. She confided in him,
fed him stories of Joey's mistreatment, that Joey was abusive,
that he was standing in the way of their happiness,

(04:47):
and that the only way forward was to get rid
of him, and in Tyler's young mind, she was the
one person he had to protect. On Friday, May ninth,
two thousand and three, the weekend of the US his
Mother's Day, Christy picked up Tyler for what he thought
was a regular weekend visit. According to Tyler, Christy woke

(05:07):
him up between three thirty and four am on Saturday morning.
They left her home in Europa, Mississippi, and drove to
the Fulgan home where Joey was sleeping. They snuck into
the dark house with a twenty two caliber rifle and
she led him to the bedroom where Joey was sleeping.
Tyler later said that Christy positioned him with her pointing
the gun at the back of Joey's head. She wrapped

(05:30):
her arms around him and helped him pull the trigger
that shot killed him instantly. After the shooting, Christy and
Tyler packed up her three children into the car, along
with a computer and jewelry. They moved a few things
around to make it look like it was a robbery,
and then drove to Jackson to pick up Christie's boyfriend.
From there, the group went to the golf colch for

(05:52):
the weekend, making it look like they were away for
a weekend holiday. Later, Joey's body had been discovered, and
on the drive home, Christie's phone started ringing non stop
with the news Joey had been found dead. During the investigation,
forensic examiners confirmed the trajectory and angle were consistent with

(06:14):
someone shooting at close rage while Joey slept, and that
he had been killed approximately forty eight to seventy two
hours before his body was discovered. Christy quickly became the
prime suspect. She was arrested, and when questioned by the
county Sheriff's office, she painted her thirteen year old brother

(06:34):
as the mastermind, telling officers that he was the one
who pulled the trigger. I cannot believe she did that.
On May twelfth, two thousand and three, Sharon brought him
to the Sheriff's office, believing they just had a few
questions for him. This is where, as Sharon put it quote,

(06:56):
the problems started, and what happened next would later be
described by legal experts as a textbook example of a
coerced confession. She and Tyler signed a miranda waiver, but
then investigators asked her to leave the interrogation room. This
is a legal tactic in Mississippi that officers use for

(07:17):
murder cases, but it's a motive that left a vulnerable
child alone with investigators. Now I have a question here,
isn't that illegal? I'm going to look that up and
by the technology that is edited in this episode, that
only took a few seconds, but in reality it took
a couple minutes. So according to law shawn dot com,

(07:38):
police officers are permitted to approach and question miners about
potential involvement in a crime. However, miners are not required
to answer their questions and can request a lawyer or
parent or guardian be present. The police must inform the
parents if a miner is taken into custody and advise
them of their miranda rights, which includes the right to

(07:59):
remain silent and the right against self incrimination. If a
minor is arrested, they must be brought before a judge
within twenty four hours, who will evaluate whether they understand
their rights. It is important for miners to know their
rights when interacting with law enforcement. To avoid self incrimination.
So I guess investigators were within their rights, but they

(08:20):
also didn't let him know that he can request a
lawyer or guardian. I don't think so. Basically, investigators were
within their rights, but Tyler and Sharon weren't aware of
their rights. So that's kind of a gray area, don't
you think. For hours, Tyler maintained his innocence, claiming he

(08:40):
knew nothing, but then investigators told him that Christy had
already implicated him. When Tyler didn't believe them, they brought
Christy into the room in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.
Quote it scared the shit out of me, Tyler later said, crying,
Christy pleaded with him, quote, oh my god, Tyler, they're

(09:01):
gonna kill me. I'm gonna get the electric chair. You
have to help me. If you tell them it was
an accident, they can't send me to the electric chair.
They can't punish me for an accident. Don't you see that.
I love you so much. Everyone else will say I
planned it because you were there. If you say what
your mom told you, you will go to jail for
fifteen years. But that's not a long time. How manipulative

(09:24):
can you freakin' be he's frickin thirteen.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
She convinced him that if he took the blame, he'd
get a quote slap on the wrist because he was
a minor, but she would be spared to death penalty.
Like who told you you had the death penalty?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Man?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Like who already put you on the stand and told
you you were gonna get the death penalty? Investigators repeated,
and the fact that they were there watching this like ah,
investigators repeated that they already knew what had happened, and
Tyler finally broke. His voice cracked as he admitted to

(10:00):
being there with Christie, saying, quote, we both shot him. Later,
Tyler would say, quote, I guess I just wanted to
please everyone there. I don't want anybody to be mad
at me or to be disappointed in me. I guess
the only compromise I could come up with was to
take half the blame. That's when investigators turned on the
camera and recorded his confession. They didn't turn on the

(10:22):
camera before that to show what they were doing to
get that confession, but they turned it on after he confessed.
And they did this without notifying his mother, who was
still trying to get access to her son. So I
don't think this part is legal. I'm not really sure.
So Tyler told them a story that they didn't quite

(10:43):
match Christie's, claiming they had held the twenty two rifle
together and both pulled the trigger. His confession was riddled
with inconsistencies, as he claimed to see blood splatter on
a white pillowcase, but crime scene photos showed Khakis with
no blood in sight. Now correct me if I'm wrong?

(11:05):
Is he not a thirteen year old boy? And as
a thirteen year old boy would in a light colored
pillow case to him be white? Like?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Who cares?

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Pause here editing Jane jumping in for a second. While
Kai was editing this episode, she realized that she didn't
make it clear that the story she retold earlier of
Tyler walking in with Christy and pulling the trigger was
part of his confession. In all actuality, Tyler had said
he'd heard a loud noise coming from the house as

(11:34):
he waited in the car. However, investigators wouldn't believe that story,
which was the truth. When he gave the version of
going into the house with Christy. Officers accepted that although
there were many inconsistencies within this supposed confession. Kai just
wanted to make that absolutely clear. Apologizes to you and

(11:55):
to Tyler, and is happy that she caught that before
this episode went out. Now back to the show.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
I can't believe how this interrogation is going, like, oh
my god. Oh minutes later, Sharon burst into the room
and knelt by his side. When she asked if he
was being coerced, he sobbed and said, quote, I'm telling
the truth that me and Christy did it. Like I mean,
I don't know. Maybe she didn't use the word coerced

(12:23):
because maybe he didn't understand what she was saying, or
his loyalty towards Christy is very very strong. So I'm
really not saying anything bad about Sharon because she's just
trying to help her son. She doesn't know. I am
talking about the cops that were in the room who
should have known.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Though.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Tyler was arrested and placed in jail to await his trial.
Two days later. While still in jail, he repeated the
confession in a phone call to a friend's father, Marcus Sullivan,
who had asked him point blank, quote did you do it?
And Tyler said quote yes, sir. Then, in a twist,

(13:01):
just four days after his initial confession, on May sixteenth,
two thousand and three, Tyler recanted his confession, now saying
that Christy had acted alone and manipulated him into confessing.
It sounds to me like someone in jail is trying
to help him realize what actually happened, something you know

(13:21):
the investigators in that room should have done. So somebody
in the jail cell is actually getting him to realize
what actually happened and how to navigate his verbiage. Despite
his age and his recantation, in July two thousand and four,
Tyler was charged with murder and tried as an adult
in the county Circuit court. Now, I keep skipping over

(13:44):
the name of the county because I don't know how
to pronounce it. But it's okti bb eha, So I'm
not sure how to pronounce it. But that's why I
keep skipping over the name of the county. Anyway, So
he was tried as an adult in that county court.
He was fifteen at the time of the trial. His
confession became the cornerstone of the state's case against him.

(14:07):
The courtroom was packed with people eager to see how
prosecutors would handle a case of a thirteen year old
accused of murder. Now, also, I can't blame the people
who came into the courtroom unless you came in there
for a salaciousness, then you're sick. But the reason I'm
saying I can't blame them is because they didn't see
the coercion happening in the room. So all they know

(14:28):
is what is being fed to them, which is this
kid murdered point blank somebody. The prosecution, led by District
Attorney Forced Allgood's office, built its case around Tyler's videotaped confession.
In his opening statement, the prosecutor told the jury, quote,
you're going to hear how they both put their finger

(14:49):
on the trigger, and you're going to hear how they
both shot and killed Joey Fulgan. The confession was a
powerful piece of evidence, especially the moment he admitted his
guilt to his own mother. The jury watched the tape,
hearing his nervous voice repeat the story investigators had coaxed
out of him. For the prosecution, it was clear that

(15:10):
even if Christy had planned the murder, Tyler had willingly
joined her in carrying it out. The prosecution used this
along with the testimony of doctor Stephen Haine, Mississippi's chief
pathologist at the time, who claimed that the bullet wound
was quote consistent with two people holding the gun at
the same time, prosecutors leaned heavily on doctor Haynes's reputation

(15:33):
as an expert, and his testimony left an impression with
the jury. Tyler's defense attorney Jim Wade, argued that the
confession was false, coerced from a naive and emotionally immature
boy who was manipulated by his sister and the police.
A thirteen year old terrified and desperate to please his sister,

(15:55):
had given police exactly what they wanted to hear. The
defense tried to introduce us several key pieces of evidence
that were ultimately excluded by the trial judge. For instance,
the court had excluded critical evidence about Christie's manipulations and
Tyler's vulnerability, limiting how much they could show the jury

(16:15):
about the dynamic between the siblings. Why would you limit
that if he was guilty, why would you limit that?
The defense sought to have doctor Allison Redlick, an expert
on false confessions, testify that Tyler exhibited many of the
classic signs of a false confessor. He was a minor,
he was easily suggestible, He was coerced by a family

(16:38):
member and separated from his parent during interrogation. The judge
held a day long Daubert herring and ruled her testimony
was not scientifically reliable and therefore inadmissible. Okay hers wasn't,
but doctor Haynes was okay. The defense was also barred
from presenting testimony from Danny s that Christy had asked

(17:01):
him for a gun to kill Joey. Why would you
leave this out? The judge also excluded the videotape of
Christy and Joey's appearance on the Montell Williams Show. Again,
why would you leave this out? All of this is relevant?
They said. They left it out because its probative values
was outweighed by the potential for prejudice. I'm just hanging

(17:24):
my head. I have no words.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
I just hung my head.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
They also pointed out that there was no physical evidence
tie on Tyler to the crime, no fingerprints on the rifle,
no gunshot residue, nothing but his coerced words. But the
judge was having none of it. He would not bring
any of this in for the jury to hear. So
with the powerful confession video and doctor haynes seemingly scientific

(17:49):
testimony backing it up, and the lack of anything from
the defensive side, and Christie's silence because she didn't testify,
the jury had little reason to die Tyler's guilt. In
July two thousand and four, after less than a day
of deliberation, the jury found Tyler guilty of capital murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility

(18:13):
of parole until he was sixty five years old. Remember
he's fifteen years old right now. His mother cried in
the courtroom, and Tyler sat motionless as reality sank in.
I'm sorry, that just broke my heart. Quote. My mom
literally gave up everything that she had. Tyler said this

(18:34):
because his mother faced a huge financial hardship trying to
fund his legal defense. She had liquidated her home and
four oh one k went into deep debt borrowed from
her family, and her marriage had ended under the strain.
Sharon said that she would quote be in debt for

(18:54):
the rest of my life and that the financial cost
was necessary because it was quote all about saving my
child's life. This is an example of what good mothers
do for their children. And I'm sorry it gave me
goosebumps just reading that. Money is just money, but saving
your child's life is priceless. Do not ever take this

(19:17):
kind of parent for granted. Everybody out there with this
kind of parent, I know, you only know what you know,
so you know all my mom's there, She'll always be there,
and you take your parents for granted. Do not, if
you have a parent that would do this for you,
go into debt to save your life because they believed

(19:39):
you over everybody else. Pause this episode, like, I'm serious,
Pause this episode right now and call your parents and
say I love you and I appreciate everything you've done
and everything you even haven't done for me. Like, pause
right now and give your parents a call. I'm serious,

(20:00):
take this kind of parent for granted, and then come back,
of course, come back to the episode after you called
your parents. At just fifteen years old, Tyler became the
youngest inmate at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, a notoriously brutal,
privately run prison that has since been shut down. Did

(20:22):
you hear what I just told you? A notoriously brutal,
privately run prison that has been shut down. This is
where they sent a fifteen year old. Then Christy went
to trial for capital murder. Prosecutors told the court that

(20:44):
Christy was burdened by debt and resentment in her fail
in marriage and had plotted to kill Joey for insurance money.
Of course, it was insurance money. She wanted control of
the household and a chance to live freely without her
husband standing in the middle of her way. Investigators had
discovered that Christy had taken out multiple life insurance policies

(21:05):
on Joey, totaling around one one hundred thousand dollars. I'm sorry,
one hundred thousand dollars. Do you know how quickly that'll go?
Then she thought that Joey had a life insurance policy
worth several hundred thousand dollars, with some sources citing a
three hundred and fifty thousand dollar policy and another mentioning
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar policy from the

(21:28):
National Guard. She thought that she was the beneficiary and
would receive the money upon his death. But again, one
hundred thousand dollars and let's say the three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. So you have four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars almost half a million dollars. Do you know
how fast that would go? Like that's nothing, and you
kill your husband for damn near half a million dollars.

(21:51):
You know people have done stuff for ten dollars, So
why am I surprised? A few months before the murder,
Christy had contacted the National Guarded Minute Strative Office where
Joey was stationed, to ask about the amount of his
life insurance policy. The only problem with her plan she
wasn't aware that Joey had changed the beneficiary from her

(22:12):
to his mother, because Joey was nobody's full Christy was
convicted of capital murder for the death of her husband
on December ninth, two thousand and six. She was sentenced
to death now after his conviction, Tyler's defense team immediately
started working on an appeal. They argued that the trial

(22:34):
had been riddled with errors, that the jury had been
given junk science, and denied evidence that could have shown
Tyler's vulnerability and Christie's manipulation. The Mississippi Supreme Court took
the case. At the heart of it was doctor Stephen
Haines's testimony and his claim that the gunshot wound was
consistent with two people holding a weapon and was shredded

(22:58):
h by the justices. They said that his statement quote
is not scientifically supportable. There was no reliable forensic method
to tell whether one person or two had pulled the trigger,
Like seriously, who could have told that? Who? Blood splatter

(23:18):
would tell you how many people pull the trigger? Like
where did they get this from? And the justices said
that doctor Haynes's testimony had given the jury a false
sense of certainty. Quote You cannot look at a bullet
wound and tell whether it was made by a bullet
fired by one person pulling the trigger or by two
persons pulling the trigger simultaneously. The court also looked at

(23:41):
the way the trial court had handled evidence. Tyler's defense
had wanted to introduce proof of Christie's influence over her
younger brother, how she had lied to him, pressured him,
and pulled her into his scheme. That evidence was excluded,
leaving juris with only the state's narrative will in thirteen
year old accomplice. The justices ruled that this was a

(24:04):
serious error. They also found the trial court had erred
by excluded evidence of Christie's motive to kill Joey. Psychology
professor Saul Caison analyzed Tyler's confession and found that Tyler
had clearly been influenced by Christy. Professor Cayson said that
because Tyler was so young, authorities should have scrutinized his

(24:28):
involvement more carefully. Quote, they should have known better, which
is what I was saying. The Mississippi Supreme Court concluded
that Tyler Edmund's confession quote was based on unreliable evidence
an improper exclusion of testimony critical to the defense. In
May two thousand and seven, the ruling overturned the conviction

(24:50):
and sent the case back for a new trial. For
the first time. Tyler's family believed the court had finally
acknowledged what they all knew all along, that the boy's
confession was coursed, and that the states so called science
was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The state offered

(25:10):
Tyler a plea deal for manslaughter, which would have guaranteed
his release in a few months, but Tyler, now eighteen, refused.
You know what, they knew. They were wrong, They knew it,
and they wanted to say, okay, well, you know we're
going to do you a favor and we're going to
grant you manslaughter and you'll get out in a few

(25:31):
months instead of life in prison because they didn't want
the Supreme Court to come down on them. Oh diabolical.
So eighteen year old Tyler said no, he was innocent
and he was willing to risk another life sentence to
prove it. When Tyler went back to court for his
retrial in two thousand and eight, the case looked very

(25:51):
different from the one that had convicted him just three
years earlier. The Mississippi Supreme Court had already thrown out
the junk science that had once propped up the state's case,
and this time the defense was allowed to present the
evidence that they had been blocked from introducing before. One
of the most important voices came from Tyler's own family.

(26:11):
His and Christie's father, Danny Edmonds, took the stand and
testified about the boy's character and his relationship with Christy.
Danny explained that Tyler was a follower, a child who
would do almost anything to please his older sister. He
told jurors that Christy was the manipulator in this story.
Not the thirteen year old. Sitting at the defense table,

(26:33):
He told the jury that Christy had come to his
house and quote asked me for a gun, that she
wanted to kill Joey. She said that he's got a
life insurance policy. The defense called a new quarter pointed pathologist,
who testified that a small twenty two caliber wound would
not have produced the blood splatter Tyler described in his confession.

(26:53):
Attorney Wade showed the jury crime scene photos confirming the
absence of blood Toorny. Wade called Christy to the stand,
hoping that she would tell the truth since she quote
had nothing to lose, but she invoked the Fifth Amendment
and refused to answer questions. So basically she came to
the stand, but every time they asked her a question,

(27:14):
she pledged to fifth like that's what she was doing.
And to that, I say, selfish, this is a next
level that I shouldn't be shocked about.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
But I am.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Tyler himself testified at this retrial, given the jury a
chance to hear directly from him instead of only through
a taped confession. He told them that he hadn't pulled
the trigger that killed Joey, and that he had been
pressured into saying otherwise by investigators who scared him and
by his sister, who had spun lives that trapped him.

(27:47):
He said that he lied in his confession quote to
protect my sister. The prosecutor attacked his credibility, arguing, quote, folks,
somebody who will lie to protect his sister will to
protect himself. Are you serious right now? I'm not saying
that line is right. I'm just saying, are you serious

(28:08):
right now? When he was telling the truth, you wanted
to spin your own story. Now that he's saying why
he lied when he supposedly confessed based on the adults
in the room pressure in him, and y'all are still
trying to push your narrative. Really, Without doctor Hayes' so
called forensic analysis, without Christie's testimony, and with the defense

(28:29):
finally able to show a full picture of how a
vulnerable boy could be coerced, the state's case unraveled. After
four hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict
not guilty. After nearly six years of legal battles and
spending his entire teenage life behind bars, Tyler Edmunds was

(28:51):
finally free. Quote I'm just glad that I can move
on with my life. The retrial ended with his acquittal,
clearing him of the murder charge that had hung over
him since the age of thirteen. Life after prison, though,
was not simple. Tyler had lost critical years of his
adolescence to wrongful imprisonment. He struggled to rebuild his life

(29:16):
while living under the shadow of being accused of murder
at just thirteen years old. He had to figure out
life in a way most teenagers never do. Suddenly he
was the one responsible for everything, working, paying bills, balancing
a check book, learning to drive, trying to make friends
and get in use to coming and going without permission.
Crowded places made him anxious, and he struggled to trust strangers.

(29:40):
Remember what kind of prison he's coming from, so imagined
coming from a prison that was so horrible they had
to close it and out into the real world. I
know we can't imagine that, but try your best. Back home,
plenty of people supported him, but he could still feel
the weight of suspicion from others who quiet wondered if

(30:01):
he was really innocent. He spends some time in Arizona working,
but health problems brought him back with help from friends
who believed in him, he tried his hand at running
a business, first a bar, then a tobacco shop. He
found that being his own boss gave him a sense
of control and confidence that he hadn't had before. Every

(30:22):
decision he made from those businesses was proof that he
could stand on his own. By twenty fourteen, Tyler had
moved to Florida, where he now runs a commercial embroidery
business out of his home that he shares with his
longtime supporter. He still misses Mississippi and goes back often,
but he knows he's better off away from the place

(30:42):
where his childhood ended. Quote. The great thing here is
people know me for who I am. My friends know
me as Tyler, not the thirteen year old who went
to prison. And that's for me an emotional freedom that
I don't think I'll ever be allowed to feel in Mississippi. Now,
I know what everybody's saying right now, Sue them, sue, sue, sue,
I know. Tyler did try to get compensation from the

(31:05):
state of Mississippi, arguing that he deserved justice for the
years that were taken from him. In two thousand and nine,
after Mississippi passed its compensation law. Tyler filed a lawsuit
asking for one hundred fifty eight thousand, three hundred thirty
three dollars. A judge denied the request, ruling that because

(31:26):
Tyler had given a false confession in order to protect Christy,
it violated the law's prohibition against payouts to people who
quote fabricate evidence to bring about their conviction. I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. What you oh? I literally have no words.
They just keep screwing him with no vasilian. I'm sorry

(31:47):
I had to put it that way. I'm sorry that
was so vulgar, but this is really some bs. Tyler
appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, seeking about one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. Attorney Wade argue that the law
was meant to apply only to people who lied with
the specific goal of being convicted, not kids like Tyler,

(32:08):
who had been manipulated by his half sister and by
investigators into saying things to protect someone they loved. This
is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Quote.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
He wasn't intending to go to jail for life. That
wasn't why he gave the false confession. The state, unfortunately disagreed.
Lawyers argued that Tyler's intent didn't matter, that the law
was written exactly for this type of situation, which I
call BS because I agree with Attorney Wade. Special Assistant
Attorney General Wilson Minor told the court, quote, you can't

(32:39):
blame the state for using the same evidence you created
to convict you. That's some diabolical wow. For Tyler, the
fight for compensation was never just about the money. It
was about thanking his mother, who gave up her financial
future and her marriage to make sure he had the

(32:59):
best defense possible. It was also about finally standing up
to the system that has stolen years of his life. Quote,
this is the only opportunity I have to stand up
for myself, you know, truly stand up for myself and
say you are wrong. This is what you did to me.
This is not okay, and that means a lot to me.

(33:21):
The fight dragged on, complicated by the same system that
had failed him at the start. Over time, Tyler began
to speak publicly about his case. During one of his
trips home, Tyler stopped in Biloxi to speak at a
conference for the Mississippi Public Defenders Association. It was the
first time he had ever addressed a live audience. When

(33:43):
he finished, the lawyers gave him a standing ovation. He
talked about what it was like to be a child
questioned without proper protection, about how police pressure and his
devotion to his sister had pushed him into a false confession.
He became a larger convent around juvenile justice and the
dangers of statements from children, and his case became a

(34:06):
reference point for how flawed investigations can trap vulnerable kids.
Even though his mother was already in debt due to
his legal fees, Tyler had also incurred costs for therapy
over a decade since his release, which he said is
not cheap. So his mother is still going into debt
for her child, and still she does not care. She

(34:28):
is still trying to help her child. And now we
don't really think about what happens when people get out
of jail, especially if they were in their young and
if they were in their innocent You don't know what
terrible things might have happened to Tyler in prison. Although
money might be tight, therapy is a necessity for Tyler.
It's not even a want.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Now.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I'm not saying going to debt if you can't pay it.
Of course, you want to try everything you can to
pay it off, even if you're buying it from family friends,
and you know, they may say that you don't have
to pay them back. So I'm not saying that at all.
But his mother is also trying to get him help,
you know, and she's trying to do what's best for
her son. And I guess that's why Tyler was looking

(35:12):
for a very specific sum, because I was like three
hundred and thirty three dollars at the end, you know.
I was like, that's really specific. But maybe he had
calculated all of his mom's debt and that's exactly all
he wanted to pay her back for. He wasn't asking
for any extra money. He was just like, I need
to get my mom out of debt. Tyler says he
no longer carries this shame that once weighed him down. Quote,

(35:34):
I'm an adult now and I can look back and say,
you were a kid. You did what probably nine out
of ten kids would have done at the time, and
I can't go and change anything that happened. So no,
I'm not ashamed of it. And the only regret I
have is I wish that I would have been as
brave then as I am now. As for Christy, for years,

(35:55):
she sat on Mississippi's death row as appeals wound through
the courts. Eventually, her death sentence was revisited. On appeal.
It was determined that her penalty phase had been flawed,
and she went to a retrial in twenty ten. An
extensive investigation during her retrial proved that she had planned
for the murder for over three years, which coincided with

(36:19):
the time that she began asking about insurance money, so
revisiting her case made it worse for her. On October
twenty eighth, twenty ten, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld her
murder conviction, but overturned the death sentence, ordering a new sentence.
In hearing, the court ruled that the original trial had

(36:40):
aired by disallowing the testimony of a social worker during
the sentence in phase. So less than a month after
the Supreme Court's decision, on November twenty third, twenty ten,
a County Circuit Court judge re sentenced Christy to life
in prison without the possibility of parole. I mean, I
guess she got off a death rowe and now she's

(37:02):
just in prison for the rest of her life. So
when the state had pursued this sentence at the request
of Joey's family and in exchange for Christy forfeit in
her rights to post conviction remedies. Now, post conviction remedies
is a process that lets someone challenge their conviction. This
is usually a tool in overturning wrongful convictions or mitigating

(37:24):
overly harsh sentences. So they said, stop doing that and
we'll ask them to just give you life in prison.
She will spend the rest of her life behind bars
at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Now research has shown
that children are particularly susceptible to false confessions. In an
analysis of one hundred and twenty five proven false confessions,

(37:48):
a disproportionately high percentage thirty three percent came from juveniles,
most fifteen year olds or younger. Researchers also found false
confession in forty two percent of juvenile exonerations, compared to
just fifteen percent of all exonerations. Professor Casin categorizes false

(38:11):
confessions into three types, with Tyler fallen into the voluntary category,
often given by children who are more open to manipulation
and less likely to consider long term consequences, so children quote.
Kids in particular, the reason they give voluntary false confession
is to protect someone else. In one study, adolescents who

(38:33):
witnessed somebody they cared about get caught cheating were more
likely to falsely confess to protect that person than college students,
and the ratio was fifty nine percent to thirty nine percent,
indicating younger people's heightened vulnerability to manipulation. Since the early
nineteen hundreds, as exonerations have grown, more states have passed

(38:55):
laws to compensate people who were imprisoned for crimes they
didn't commit. Today, thirty two states, along with Washington, d C,
and the federal government have statues that order some sort
of reparation, but those laws do come with strings attached.
Six states refuse to pay applicants who are said to
have quote contributed to their own conviction, fabricated evidence, or

(39:19):
committed perjury. All of those clauses can be used against
someone who has given a false confession. Three other states
bar compensation for people who pled guilty, and eleven states
don't even allow prisoners who confessed or pled guilty to
seek DNA testing that could prove their innocence. Legal challenges
to these rules have usually focused on cases where investigators

(39:43):
coerced or outright manipulated false confession, but Tyler's case is different.
In the state's view, Tyler, just thirteen at a time,
was partially responsible for his own or wrongful conviction. In
their eyes, that means freedom is all he deserves. No acknowledgment,
no compensation for Tyler, Mississippi is twisting its own law

(40:07):
and ignoring the very reason false confessions happen in the
first place. Advocates for the wrongfully convicted admit that his
confession doesn't make him the easiest candidate for compensation, but
they also point out that the state can't wash his
hands of this responsibility either. Quote. The Tyler Edmonds case

(40:27):
is interesting because it's gray. Tyler has tried to move forward.
He has reflected on what happened, sharing that his biggest
regret was believing his sister and trusting the wrong people.
His story is often cited by advocates who warned that
children are uniquely vulnerable in the interrogation room and that
safeguards must be in place to protect them. Tyler Edmunds

(40:51):
case stands as both a tragedy and a lesson. A
thirteen year old manipulated into confessing a crime he didn't commit,
nearly condemned to spend the rest of his life in prison,
only to be freed after years of appeals. It shows
how quickly justice can go wrong and how difficult it
is to set it right. So what did you think

(41:12):
of this case? Let me know your comments below or
over into Patreon. You already heard all of my thoughts,
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(41:34):
can join for free and get some perks or unlock
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always end each full episode, I want to remind you
that it's say it with me now, all love and
no murder.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Y'all.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Thanks for listening all the way to the end, and
thanks for supporting the show. I'll see you in the
next case.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Bye.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Hello, I'm Coni. Gallagher and I'm Ethan Flick. We're the
husband and wife team behind the true Crime podcast And
Then They Were Gone.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
We're a weekly show that covers unsolved missing persons cases.
These are cases that you, the listener, can have an
impact on.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Some of the people you may have heard of, like
Kristen Smart or Braceless Pisa, but we also bring you
missing people of color and other cases that haven't gotten
the mainstream attention that they deserve. You can find us
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Good Pods, or your favorite podcast app.