Tyler Edmonds

Tyler Edmonds
Undated photo of Tyler Edmonds after his release
Born	1989
Citizenship	United States
Education	East Mississippi Community College
Employer	United States Department of Defense
Known for	Wrongfully convicted minor
Mother	Sharon Clay
Website	www.freetyler.org (archived)

Tyler Wayne Edmonds (born in 1989) is a man living in Palm Beach, Florida, previously living in Mississippi when he was a minor. Edmonds was falsely arrested and charged with first-degree murder of his brother-in-law, Joey Fulgman, who was found dead on May 11, 2003, from a gunshot wound to his head. He was arrested at the age of 13 on May 14, 2003, after being coerced into confessing by his stepsister, Kristi Fulgham, who was the actual murderer. Edmonds was tried as an adult and found guilty of the murder in 2004 at the age of 15, he was sentenced to life in prison, becoming the youngest inmate in Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility, a prison where he was incarcerated. His sister was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to the death penalty, her sentence was later overturned and changed to life in prison. Tyler Edmonds would spent around six years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Kristi Fulgham was arrested several days after the murder, Wayne Edmond was brought in for interrogation because Fulgham falsely confessed that she did the murder together with him. Edmond initially denied any involvement in the murders when he was interrogated alongside his mother. When the detective separated him for his mother and brought Kristi Fulgham, she gave him a letter where she pleaded with him to tell the police that he had shot Joey in an accident and if he didn’t, they would give her the death penalty. He listened to her and falsely confessed that he and Fulgham walked into Joey's bedroom while he slept and shot him with a .22 caliber rifle in the back of the head. He also told the police that he held the rifle while his sister put her arms around Joey and that they pulled the trigger simultaneously.

After the interrogation ended, Wayne Edmonds was arrested, charged with first-degree murder and sent to jail. During his incarnation, he changed his story, saying that he was outside of the Joey's house during the incident and that his sister was the sole murderer, despite this, he was held in jail for 14 months without bond and went to trial in 2004. He was initially found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 40 years. His confession was the only evidence against him, as there were no forensic evidence connecting him to the murder.

In 2007 his sentence was thrown out by the court after it determined that medical examiner's testimony in the previous trial was invalid. He was given a new trial in 2008 and was shortly acquitted by the jury, beginning his life as a free man. He would later be given a compensation of $200,000 by the state for wrongful conviction and a settlement of $135,000 in 2017. Edmonds' case received significant amount of media coverage, with his second trial airing in Court TV, the case was also aired on a true crime television series Snapped owned by Oxygen TV.

Background

Tyler Edmonds

In 2003, Tyler Edmonds was a 13-year-old boy raised by his mother and stepfather, who was attending a Fifth Street Junior High School in West Point, Mississippi. He was known to not get in trouble and was a close friend of his 26-year old stepsister, Kristi Fulgham. Every weekend, he visited her at her residence in Longview, Mississippi. Edmonds was known to idealize her, though she made him do chores and homework. He only knew his stepsister since 2002, a year before the murder.

Kristi Fulgham

Kristi Fulgham was a stepsister of Tyler Edmonds who was living in Starkville, Mississippi, she was 26-year old and had a husband, 28-year old Joey Fulgham, with whom she had three children and was in a relationship for 12 years. Kristi also had a boyfriend, Kyle Harley, who was in a relationship with her before she was arrested for murder. Her marriage with Joey Fulgham was described as "volatile", she sometimes told her family that Joey beat her and her three children. Some acquaintances said that she was manipulative and cheating on him with other men. Previously, she moved out of her house but returned, believing that she would benefit from Joey's $300,000 insurance policy. Kristi was a close friend of her brother, Tyler Edmonds, who adored and idolized her. She took advantage of that and used Tyler to run interference on various men in her life. Prior to the murder, she and her husband appeared on The Montel Williams Show, where they discussed her cheating on him and how he would end his marriage with her.

Murder

On May 9, 2003, Edmonds was picked up by Kristi Fulgham after finishing school, just before Joey Fulgman's stepfather arrived to spend the night with her three children. The three kids went to Subway restaurant for dinner and then came back to her house. In the house, her husband, Joey Fulgham, went to bed while Edmonds fell asleep on the floor as she was working on a computer. On May 10, Fulgham took her jewelry and a CPU from her computer and drove Edmonds to the city of Biloxi for the next weekend. According to Edmonds, while he was waiting in her car, he heard a "pop" but didnt think much of it. While they were driving to the city, Joey Fulgham was dead from a gunshot wound from a .22-caliber rifle to the back of his head. On May 11, Edmonds phoned his mother, Sharon Clay from Biloxi to wish her a good day. When Kristi Fulgham drove Edmonds back to her house, she got a phone call informing her that her brother, Shannon, found Joey Fulgham dead. Joey and Shannon were coworkers at a nearby auto business. After not hearing anything from him since Sunday, he broke a window at his residence and went inside at around 5:30 p.m. After discovering his dead body, he dialed 911.

Investigation

Oktibbeha County Chief Investigator Robert Elmore arrived at the residence after the 911 call. He discovered that Joey's wallet was missing, he found no gun or shell casings but noticed that a CPU from the computer was missing. Police later learned that Kristi Fulgham drove to Biloxi the day after the murder and called her on May 14 to come to the police station for interrogation. She gave a statement at approximately 5 p.m, she said that Tyler Edmonds had shot Joey Fulgham to "protect her from abuse". Prior to the interrogation, she drove Edmonds back to his mother's house and instructed him to confess to the murder if neccesary, as he would face no punishment for the crime because he was a minor.

While Kristi Fulgham was giving her statement, mother of Tyler Edmonds, Sharon Clay, learned that the police was searching for him. She called the police at approximately 5:30 p.m for more information, the police said that they wanted to question him. Unaware that Edmonds was a murder suspect, the mother willingly took him to the police station at around 6 p.m in the evening. When they entered the station, Edmonds was still dressed in his flip-flops, a T-shirt, and flannel pajama bottoms. The interrogators asked Clay to sign a waiver of his Miranda rights at 6:23 p.m., without informing her that they could question her son even if she was not present. With his mother initially present, deputies James Lindsey and Tommy Whitfield began questioning him. Edmonds told the deputies that he had brought a rifle from home the day of the murder "to shoot a dog" and that Joey Fulgham was alive when they left the house, even waving at him. While he was saying this, he did not know that Kristi Fulgham had confessed that Joey was dead when they left the house. Deputy James Linsey started asking him repeatedly, "Are you sure he wasn't dead?", Clay would interrupt the detective, saying that she would have known if her son "been involved in something like this". The detectives then asked Clay if they could talk to her son alone, with her repeatedly saying no. Moments later, Sheriff Dolph Bryan told the detectives to question Edmonds without her present. Detective Whitfield escorted her out and told her that he suspects that Edmonds was not being honest.

After that, the officers took Edmonds to his mother while he brought Kristi Fulgham from another room. Later, Chief Deputy George Carrithers, who was Fulgham's interrogator, took Edmonds to detective Lindsey’s office without telling his mother they intended to interrogate Fulgam and her son together. Then, Kristi Fulgham walked in, sat down, and asked Edmonds to hold her hand. She told him: "You need to tell them what happened. I’ve already told them, and they know what happened, and you need to tell the truth", she gave him a note pleading for him to confess, or she’d be given the death penalty. Officers then escorted Edmonds to a different room to videotape his statements without informing his mother. Officers read Edmonds his miranda rights both on and off tape at about 8:30 p.m. He confessed to the murder at 9:30 p.m, meanwhile, his mother was in the hallway, knocking on the door and screaming for her to be let in. A deputy had pressed his leg against the door to prevent her from entering.

In the confession, Edmonds told the detectives that during the night of May 9, Kristi Fulgham woke him up to move him from the floor to one of her children's beds. Between 3:30 and 4 a.m., an alarm clock went off. He got woken up and went together with her to the Joey's bedroom where he slept. Edmonds said that they both held the rifle and squeezed the trigger simultaneously, killing him. He also included details that contradicted the evidence from the crime scene, he said that he saw blood sprinkling on the victim's white pillow after pulling the trigger; photos from the crime scene contradicted this statement, the pillows on Joey's bed were not white nor they were splattered with blood. The weapon was also never recovered by police. At the end of the confession, Clay was able to enter the room and speak with him as he was sobbing being unable stand. She asked him if he was okay, and if he killed Joey, at which point he said: “I’m telling the truth, that me and Kristi did it”. With his confession recorded, the deputies charged Edmonds with one count of first-degree murder, handcuffed him and pulled him away from his mother. As they were taking him out, he screamed: "Mama, dont leave me here".

Incarceration and trials

Tyler Edmonds was transported to a country jail and put in a cell made for drunk inmates. After 3–4 days of being incartirated, he changed his story and retracted his confession after speaking with his mother and other siblings. He told the police that only Krsti killed Joey, and that he didnt know about his death until she told him to protect her from going to prison. Despite this, he would be denied bond and the police would start building a case to convict him. The sheriff's office would later announce filing murder charges against both Edmonds and Fulgham. He would be incarcerated in jail for 14 months before he went to trial in 2004. While he was in jail, he took college classes, finished school and received a high school diploma. According to a reporter from Starkville Daily News, Kristi Fulgham wrote him letters during his time in jail, begging him to take full responsibility for the crime and to tell police that the shooting was an accident. The letters were later used as evidence by the prosecution in her own murder trial.

First trial

In 2004, Edmonds was tried as an adult in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. There was no forensic evidence connecting Edmonds to the crime. The prosecution's strongest evidence was his retracted confession and a testimony from Steven Hayne, a medical examiner, who was accused by some people of faking his testimonies and medical practices. Hayne said that based on an autopsy and the entry of the bullet, it was more likely that two people pulled the trigger on the rifle instead of one, and therefore, the confession of Tyler Edmonds was real. In his defense, Tyler Edmonds said that Kristi Fulgham told him that she had shot and killed her husband and that if she was caught, she would get the death penalty. He also said that Kristi told him that if he were to confess that he murdered him alone, nothing would happen to him as he was 13 years old minor. The lawyer of Edmonds objected the testimony of Steven Haynes, saying that it is impossible for a medical examiner to determine how many people pulled the trigger. The judge refused to hold a hearing on that matter. Later, the lawyer of Edmonds planned to question Allison Redlich, an experimental psychologist, who specialized in researching false confessions among children. He was preparing to testify that Edmonds was an ideal candidate for false confession because he was pressured by his sister and separated from his mother. A court-ordered psychological evaluation also found that Edmonds was psychologically and emotionally immature for his age. The state and the court would later reject his testimony. On July 24, 2004 Edmonds was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole in 40 years.

After the sentence, he was transposed to Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility that has since been closed. He became the youngest inmate in the prison. According to him, he was traumatized by the violence from inmates and the guards. He said that he stayed sane by reading books and letters from his supporters, writing poetry and filing appeals.

Second trial

On May 2007, after serving 3 years in prison and turning 17 years old, Tyler Edmonds' murder covincition would be overturned and a new trial by Mississippi Supreme Court would be ordered. He was also released from the incartiration on a $75,000 bond. The new trial was ordered after the court found that the judge made significant amount of errors in 2004. It also found that his Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by the Sheriff's office for illegally coercing a confession. On Friday of 2008, the deliberations for his new trial began. A team of lawyers for Edmonds, Jim Waide, Victor Fleitas, and Barry Snyder, wanted to prove to the court that he was manipulated by his sister into falsely confessing. Edmonds also testified in his own defense to say that he confessed to the murder to protect his sister. In October hearing, one of Kristi's boyfriends, Kyle Harvey, was called to the trial as witness. He testified that she spent her last free weekend with him before she was arrested for murder. 3 other witnesses were also called, they said that Kristi Fulgham was manipulative, cheated and treated her husband badly. Later, the court threw out the expert testimony of Steven Hayne by a vote of 8 to 1, making it the first testimony of Hayne to be thrown out in 20 years of his career. He was still allowed to testify in the trial but was not permitted to say that two people pulled the trigger. On November 1, 2008, a jury of Oktibbeha County Circuit Court found Tyler Edmonds innocent and acquitted him from all charges.

The trial was featured in Court TV. It was, along with Fulghams' trial, also featured in the 16 season, Episode 6 of the true crime television series Snapped owned by Oxygen TV.

Kristi Fulgham's trials

His stepsister, Kristi Fulgham was given a trial in 2006 and convicted in late 2007. During the trial, the prosecution said that she killed her husband to steal money from him, possibly to cash in his life insurance policy with another man. Her lawyers argued that her husband was abusing her. She was later sentenced to death penalty and transposed to the prison in Rankin County to await her execution. The letters which she wrote to Tyler Edmonds while he was in jail were used by the prosecution to prove that she was a mastermind behind the crime. It only took the jurors 45 minutes to find her guilty.

Later, Mississippi Supreme Court announced that they will hear arguments of her lawyers to appeal the death sentence on May 24, 2010. Fulghams's lawyers argued that there were 38 potential errors in her 2006 trial. On November 23, 2010 Kristi was resentenced to life in prison without parole in a new trial. Her death penalty was overturned by Mississippi Supreme Court after it discovered that a testimony from social worker in the 2006 trial to mitigate the evidence was rejected.

Life after prison

After being released from prison, Tyler Edmonds moved to Columbus, Mississippi in 2009 where he was studying to become emergency medical technician. He said that being EMT is fun and "keeps him in toes". He would later graduate as an EMT from East Mississippi Community College in Mayhew and move to Yuma, Arizona, where he accepted a job from United States Department of Defense. He would receive a payment of $200,000 with a pay rate of $50,000 a year from the state as a victim of wrongfull incarceration. He said that he will use the money to pay for his legal bills which accumulated for four years before he was acquitted.

He would later get diagnosed with leg cancer and move to Columbus, Mississippi to be closer with his family. He would later cure his cancer and become an owner of Simply Tobacco shop in the Littlewoods shopping center. Carl Hogan was the co-owner of the shop and a friend of Edmonds and his family. Edmonds would then move to Palm Beach, Florida, where according to him, he enjoys not being regularly associated with the murder as he was in his home state of Mississippi. Edmonds said that his mother "lost everything" and will be in debt until she dies. In an interview with CNN, Edmonds said that Steven Hayne, a medical examiner who helped the court to convict him, is a "scum of the earth" and "dirt of the earth" and that he should be jailed for this.

Tyler Edmonds would be featured nationally in Dr. Phil Show. In 2010, news magazine 20/20 by ABC News said that its considering doing an "in-depth piece on Edmonds", Edmonds said that he will participate in the piece only if ABC News writes the story "because he wants to shine a light on law enforcement practices with regard to juveniles". He said that his public recognition was mostly positive, with many people congratulating him and encouraging him to move on with his new life.

Lawsuits

Edmonds would file a lawsuit suit against the county in 2009 to receive a compensation but it would be dismissed on November 30, 2010 by the Oktibbeha Circuit Court. He would file the $158,333 compensation request again but it would be denied by the court in 2015. The judge said that the state can't pay compensation to people who "fabricate evidence to bring about their conviction", he said that Edmonds' false murder confession amounted to fabrication of evidence. On Thursday of 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court released a 5-4 decision in favor of Edmonds, who turned 28, to reverse and remand the decision of the previous judge to deny the compensation. The request was sent back to a lower court for a jury trial. In an interview with NBC News, he said he hopes he will receive $158,333 from the settlement to help his mother and that the lawsuit is the only opportunity for him to stand up for himself. He would later be subsequently awarded $135,000 from the lawsuit.

External links

• Official website (defunct, archived on May 16, 2006)