Draft:Tyler Edmonds

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 9, 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 incartirated. His sister was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death penalty, her sentence was later overturned and changed to life.

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 him to tell the police that he had shot Joey in an accident and 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. 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.

Life before the murder

In 2003, Tyler Edmonds was a 13-year-old boy 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 her stepsister since 2002, a year before the murder.

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, with whom she was in a relationship for 12 years, Joey Fulgham, went to bed while Edmonds fell asleep on the floor. 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. 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. 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 had instructed Edmonds to confess for 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 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”.