East St. Louis, Ill. – A judge on Monday ordered a psychological examination for a woman accused of killing a pregnant acquaintance and cutting her fetus from her womb.
Tiffany Hall, 24, looked sullen as she appeared at an arraignment hearing via video conference from the St. Clair County Jail, where she is being held in lieu of $5 million bail.
Prosecutors say she killed Jimella Tunstall, 23, who was about seven months pregnant, and her fetus.
St. Clair County Associate Judge Heinz Rudolf entered not-guilty pleas on Hall’s behalf on charges of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. Each charge carries a penalty of 20 to 60 years or life in prison, prosecutors said. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.
According to authorities, Hall told police she also drowned Tunstall’s three children – ages 7, 2 and 1 – and stuffed them into a washer and dryer at the apartment they shared with their mother. Hall has not been charged in the children’s deaths. St. Clair County State’s Attorney Robert Haida declined to discuss a possible motive in the slayings, saying that doing so would involve airing facts of the case.
