Worse Than Murder - Starkville, Mississippi

Summary

Small Town Murder – "Worse Than Murder: Starkville, Mississippi"

Podcast: Small Town Murder
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Episode: "Worse Than Murder – Starkville, Mississippi"
Release Date: February 26, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, James and Jimmie head to Starkville, Mississippi, to dissect a layered, disturbing case involving the murder of Joey Fulghum. What begins as a look through the oddities and social quirks of a Southern college town spirals into the tragic tale of Christy Fulghum, her young half-brother Tyler Edmonds, and a twisted plot of manipulation, abuse, family dysfunction, and a wrongful conviction that exposes deep flaws in the justice system. Through a blend of in-depth research and biting comedy, the hosts unravel how one woman's greed, a traumatized 13-year-old, and a series of investigative blunders led to a near-fatal miscarriage of justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Starkville, Mississippi

[05:32 – 14:32]

• Starkville is introduced as a small, humid college town—nicknamed sarcastically 'Stark Vegas'—mainly known for MSU, slim entertainment options, and checkered history.
• History highlights: antebellum days, lynchings, yellow fever quarantine, segregationist violence.
• Hosts riff on the town’s blandness and superstitious rejection of Vegas-like excitement.
• Real estate: lower than national average, but incomes also dismally low.

Memorable quote – James [07:18]:
"Nothing is Vegas unless your town was literally built for vice. Stop calling it that."

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2. The Dysfunctional Family at the Center

[23:41 – 36:19]

• Christy Fulghum (née Edmonds): Bounced around with abusive, absent parents, sexually abused by her father at 11, her mother remarried serially to alcoholic abusers.
• Tyler Edmonds: Christy's much-younger half-brother, from similar instability, seen as innocent, helpful, oddly close to Christy.
• Joey Fulghum: Dependable, steady man—Christy marries him at 15 (he’s 17) in a classic too-young, trauma-bonded marriage.
• Christy and Joey have 2 sons, 1 daughter (Haley), with paternity issues: Haley is not Joey’s (revealed by Christy on Montel Williams in a wild talk show stunt).

Quote from Christy’s friend [30:41]:
"She was trashy. Just to be honest with you... pure white trash."

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3. Infidelity and Chaos

[36:06 – 54:46]

• Christy habitually cheats; her affairs become a running joke for hosts.
  • Notably, she brings Joey on Montel to disclose their daughter isn’t his —“TV is the best place to do that. Not in a fucking Olive Garden or something.” [38:50]
• By 2003, Christy bounces between Joey and boyfriend Kyle Harvey, manipulating both, seeking financial stability but creating chaos.
• Letter to Kyle: Christy complains about being broke, wanting more, and blaming him for not providing—all while unemployed herself.

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4. Joey Fulghum’s Murder

[54:46 – 65:34]

• In early May 2003, Christy moves back with Joey, supposedly to reconcile.
• Friday, May 9: Joey cashes a $1,020 paycheck and plans to attend an air show Saturday with brother Shannon. That evening, multiple family members come and go from the house.
• By Saturday, May 10, Joey is dead—shot in the back of the head while asleep.
  • His wallet & computer are missing; house is ransacked to look like robbery.
  • Security lightbulbs had been unscrewed; Christy’s prints found on them.
  • The murder weapon, believed to be a .22 caliber bolt-action rifle, is gone.
• Christy takes her kids and Tyler to the Gulf Coast for a weekend with her boyfriend, spending Joey’s cash the next day.

Quote – James [62:58]:
"As soon as we die, it's all falling apart. We're good for about three hours. Then it's garbage."

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5. Investigation and Interrogation Fiasco

[65:34 – 91:17]

• Shannon discovers Joey’s body Sunday, immediately tells police to investigate Christy.
• Christy is brought in:
  • First claims innocence, then blames Tyler, claiming an accidental shooting.
  • Later changes story to say Joey was abusive and Tyler intentionally killed him to protect Christy.
• Tyler, 13, is interrogated without his mother present, after Christy is allowed to talk to him alone in the room—an unprecedented breach.
  • After their private talk (no recording), Tyler confesses to "doing it together" with Christy—with the implication she guided his hand.
  • Handwaving police work ignores recantation and ignores the pressure put on the boy during and after.

Memorable moment – James [75:26]:
"Not only do they put them together, they leave the room. No surveillance. No cameras. No audio. Nothing. They leave the room, talk it out, let her talk to him."

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6. Railroading a Child

[91:17 – 116:10]

• Christy writes a jailhouse letter to Tyler instructing him to stick to the “accident” story for her sake; it’s intercepted.
• Tyler later recants, saying Christy orchestrated the killing, gave him the gun, and told him to get the car ready—he was outside when she did it.
• Despite recanting, only his confession is admitted at trial, not his retraction.
• Dr. Stephen Hayne, state’s star pathologist, claims he can tell “two sets of hands” pulled the trigger based on bullet trajectory—an absurdity debunked years later.
• Tyler is tried as an adult at 14, convicted, and sentenced to life with parole only at 65. He does several years in America’s worst juvenile prison, Walnut Grove, facing rampant abuse, violence, and sexual assaults.

Quote – Tyler (at sentencing) [117:00]:
"The death penalty would be so much better than sitting here 24 hours a day for the rest of my life."

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7. Christy’s Downfall

[136:17 – 150:08]

• Christy is tried later, after failed escape attempts from jail and more manipulation.
• Overwhelming circumstantial and testimonial evidence (her requests for guns, insurance policies, fingerprints, the robbery staging, jailhouse manipulation, and more) lead to a swift capital murder conviction.
• She is sentenced to death by lethal injection (one of only four women on MS death row); later, after a Bible is left in the jury room and for other errors, her sentence is reduced to life without parole plus additional years for escape and contraband.

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8. Exoneration, Aftermath, & Systemic Reflection

[151:25 – 179:18]

• Mississippi Supreme Court overturns Tyler’s conviction, calling Hayne’s “two sets of hands” theory unscientific and seating process flawed. New trial is ordered; he is released on bond.
• Facing a manslaughter plea deal that would mean immediate freedom, Tyler insists on his innocence, risks retrial, and is acquitted.
• Despite exoneration, the state resists compensation, then finally pays out $135,000, which Tyler gives to his mother, who lost everything for his defense.
• Tyler moves, opens a tobacco shop, survives leg cancer, goes into embroidery, and advocates for juvenile justice reform, campaigning for mandatory attorney presence during child interrogations.
• Christy remains incarcerated, and Dr. Hayne is discredited, removed from the state’s pathologist list.

Quote – James on Dr. Hayne [172:56]:
"His testimony about two sets of hands was obviously the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard. That’s my opinion. Sorry. My non-scientific opinion is that’s scientifically a load of shit."

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Notable Quotes & Moments (w/ Timestamps)

| Timestamp | Quote & Context | |-----------|----------------| | 07:18 | James: “Nothing is Vegas unless your town was literally built for vice. Stop calling it that.” | | 30:41 | Christy’s friend: “She was trashy. Just to be honest with you... pure white trash.” | | 38:50 | James: “TV is the best place to do that. Not in a fucking Olive Garden or something.” (On revealing paternity on Montel) | | 62:58 | James: “As soon as we die, it’s all falling apart. We’re good for about three hours. Then it’s garbage.” | | 75:26 | James: “Not only do they put them together, they leave the room. No surveillance. No cameras. No audio. Nothing. They leave the room, talk it out, let her talk to him.” | | 91:17 | Letter from Christy to Tyler: “If you say what they want you to say, then you committed murder. You will go to jail and so will I...I'm all you have.” | | 117:00 | Tyler at sentencing: “The death penalty would be so much better than sitting here 24 hours a day for the rest of my life.” | | 126:29 | Jimmie: “Sometimes high blood pressure isn’t just diet. It’s just environment and how your body’s responding to...” | | 151:43 | Supreme Court: “We find Dr. Hayne’s conclusion that two persons pulled the trigger simultaneously scientifically unfounded and unreliable.” | | 172:56 | James: “His testimony about two sets of hands was obviously the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard. That’s my opinion. Sorry. My non-scientific opinion is that’s scientifically a load of shit.” |

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------|-----------| | Starkville overview, history, and local flavor | 05:32 – 14:32 | | Christy’s background, family dysfunction | 23:41 – 36:19 | | Infidelity, marital chaos, Montel Williams | 36:06 – 54:46 | | Timeline of murder & discovery | 54:46 – 65:34 | | Investigation, polygraph, interrogation of Tyler | 65:34 – 91:17 | | Jailhouse letters, manipulation, recap of events | 91:17 – 116:10 | | Tyler’s faulty trial, Dr. Hayne’s testimony | 116:10 – 151:25 | | Supreme Court overturns, new trial, final outcomes | 151:25 – 179:18 | | Reflections, aftermath, current statuses | 179:18 – End |

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Takeaways

• Family dysfunction and childhood trauma can spawn intergenerational chaos, abuse, and tragedy.
• The justice system can be disturbingly eager to railroad a vulnerable child, depriving him of due process and adult protection, especially when adults manipulate, and "expert" testimony is unscientific.
• Christy Fulghum: Manipulative narcissist who viewed marriage, lovers, and family as tools; her greed set off tragedy, but her intelligence was no match for real investigation.
• Tyler Edmonds: A poster child for the dangers of adolescent false confessions and poor legal safeguards. His exoneration is a rare but hard-won instance of justice prevailing, thanks to relentless legal and familial advocacy.
• Systemic Issues: The episode exposes endemic problems—junk science, police misconduct, exploitative prisons, and harsh, retributive attitudes in criminal justice, especially involving juveniles and the South.

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Tone & Delivery

The episode mixes dark humor, exasperation, and biting critique of small-town mores and the criminal justice system. The hosts’ comedic riffing punctuates moments of real pathos, especially regarding Tyler’s ordeal, Christy’s calculated manipulation, and the indefensible flaws in state forensic testimony.

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Conclusion

"Worse Than Murder – Starkville, Mississippi" is a brutal, complicated story of southern family dysfunction, greedy manipulation, a railroaded child, and an exoneration that took the intervention of the state’s Supreme Court to affirm. James and Jimmie walk the line between comedy and outrage, offering both catharsis and sharp critique of a justice system that came dangerously close to destroying an innocent young life.

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For listeners wanting a blend of jaw-dropping true crime, grim laughs, and incisive social commentary—this episode delivers.

Transcript

[James Pietragallo]

For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small town sheriffs. Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with Prime. Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, but potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. This week in Starkville, Mississippi, when a man is murdered in his own home, nothing is as it seems, including his marriage and the odd relationship between his wife and her young stepbrother. This leads to a twisted plot complete with affairs, lies and cold blooded planning. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Ad Read Announcer]

Yay.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragalo. I'm here with my co host Jimmy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm Jimmy Wisman.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It better be.

[James Pietragallo]

You know they're all crazy by now. Why would we pick it if it wasn't? So it's gonna be wild stuff today. We're gonna go down and get dirty down in the deep Mississippi south there. Dirty South. It's gonna be interesting.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Red Clay.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, you know it, my friend. Before we do that though, definitely head over to shutupandgivemerder.com get your tickets for live shows. And we have March 6th in Durham and March 7th in Atlanta. Get your tickets right now. Also. Still a few tickets left for the March 21 Phoenix, you, stupid opinion show as well. The Small Town Murder show at Standup Live is sold out. So do that. Then there's a whole bunch for the rest of the year. That's what's coming up. So do that. Shut up and give me murder.com after that. You definitely, definitely you should listen to our other shows too. Crime and sports and you'd stupid opinions. Check those out. Get yourself Patreon, everybody. Do yourself a favor. Patreon.com crimeinsports. That's where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get everything. We put out everything. Everything. First of all, immediately upon subscription, hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. And then you get new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder and you get them all this week. Which you're gonna get. For crime and sports, we're gonna do part two of dead cyclists. Cycling being the most dangerous sport that's ever existed. Fighting lions in the Colosseums wasn't as much of a death rate.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Seem to be much more safe.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, cycling. So it's crazy. And then for small town murder, we're gonna look into the death of Kurt Cobain and try to figure out what happened. Did he kill himself? Did somebody murder him? There's a new we're gonna investigate from reading things and then talking about two comedians are gonna dick around. But we'll tell you what our opinions are and find out what yours are. So that'll be a lot of fun. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all that. And in addition you get everything we put out. Crime and sports, your stupid opinions, all the small town murders. All ad free with your Patreon as well. Ad free. Ad free. And on top of all of that, you get a shout out at the end of the show too. Jimmy will mispronounce your name. Screw it all up. Don't you worry about that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Never getting better.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a good time. So that's.

[Jimmy Wisman]

But more importantly, March 6th and 7th at the Carolina Theater and the Tabernacle. Please come to those shows. It's gonna be unbelievable if you've never seen a live podcast before.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, our live podcast.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Bank it on our live podcast because we do much better job than anybody that you've ever seen.

[James Pietragallo]

We're comedians. This isn't a lecture. We're uncomfortable if you're not laughing every little while. So that's it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I assure you it's the most fun you're gonna have seeing a live podcast.

[James Pietragallo]

It's gonna be so much fun. That said, disclaimer time. This is a comedy show, everybody. It is. This is a comedy show. People are also gonna die. That's gonna happen. But we're comedians. So jokes are gonna come out. But there you go. How does that work? Murder and jokes go together well, very easily if you do it the right way. See, we do it nice and tasteful. Like we don't make fun of the victims or the victims families.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why, James?

[James Pietragallo]

Because we're assholes. But. But we're not scumbags. See how that works? It's real easy to figure out. It's not that. It's not that tough. You might think that's what I mean. There's plenty of stuff to make fun of. There's make fun of A small town. We're all from somewhere that deserves to be made fun of. We make fun of murderers because what else can we do but make fun of these people? But if you think true crime and comedy should never ever go together, we might not be for you, but we might be. We might be. I would say give it a shot, but either way, no complaining later. We don't wanna hear it. So that said, I think it's time everybody to sit back. What do you say? It's all clear. The lungs here, arms to the sky and let's all shout. Shut up.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Give me murder.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's do this.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's go on a trip, everybody, shall we?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Let's go.

[James Pietragallo]

We're going to Mississippi this week.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Hope you got on your humidity pants. It's gonna be miss. It's gonna be moist. This is Starkville, Mississippi. It's in kind of northeastern Mississippi, just off a little bit now.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What's up there?

[James Pietragallo]

Nothing is up there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I mean what border is this?

[James Pietragallo]

Alabama.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hey. Goddamn.

[James Pietragallo]

Over there. Yeah, it's about two hours and not a lot. Yeah, it's rough. About two hours and ten minutes to Jackson, Mississippi, which I believe is the capital down there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a song that Johnny Cash Sung.

[James Pietragallo]

About 2 hours and 20 minutes to Birmingham, Alabama, the other way. So it's kind of right in between the two of them. And it's about two and a half hours to our last Mississippi episode, Edwards, Mississippi, which was episode 630. The Down South Death Demon. That. Wow, was that a crazy episode. Mississippi. When you guys decide to kill, you do it all out. Let me tell you something, this is crazy. This is in.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, they do wild shit down there.

[James Pietragallo]

Octabeja county.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Uh huh.

[James Pietragallo]

OK T I B B E H Aktabeah. Yeah, I'm not sure area code 662. It's got two nicknames. And one of them we know why and the other one, no one seems to know why they call it this. Okay, one is bored town. B O A R D Not I'm so bored in this town.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Was that an old norm, Joe?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Yes, that's what it used to be called. So that's why. That's another nickname. But then the other one makes no sense whatsoever because this is a small town where nothing is going on. Quote Stark Vegas. Wow. Stop with anything. Vegas. Nothing is Vegas. Unless your town was.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's one Vegas.

[James Pietragallo]

Unless your town was literally built from the ground for vice. It's not Vegas. So stop calling it that. I don't want to hear Nash, Vegas anymore, none of that shit. It's not that whatsoever.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And Nashville, there is nothing Vegas about it. There's no games being played. No, you're not fucking hookers. There's no drugs. You're not allowed to smoke weed then.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. And there's no multi billion dollar things built for you. It's hick. Built a bar.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And the hick didn't even build it.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A big corporation bought it, built it and put their name on it and merchandises and licenses them money. That's it.

[James Pietragallo]

But you liked one of his songs in 1997, so now it's Nash Vegas. No, that's not how it works. Get your own identity. Everybody. All right, History of this town. 1835, Board Town was established, that's what this was, as the count or the county seat of the Oktabeha County. And it was renamed Starkville in honor of the Revolutionary War hero General John Stark. Which is weird because they called it board town in 1835, 50 years after the Revolutionary War. So that makes no sense. They already knew that guy existed. He was probably dead by then. A log courthouse and a one room jailhouse were constructed in 1835.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We only got room for one criminal.

[James Pietragallo]

Just one? Yeah, that's it. One drunk. We bring them in every night. That just makes me think of like old cowboy movies where they're gonna come and like tie ropes to the. To the bars and pull the whole wall down and free them.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Put the bed sheet on there, piss on it, and rotate it until it bends the bars.

[James Pietragallo]

Either that or throw something to get the key while the dog's sleeping on the floor and the sheriff's got his hat over his face and the keys are hanging there. One of those. The jailhouse had no doors or windows.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You go, okay, well, just a dark room.

[James Pietragallo]

How does that work?

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a shed.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, well, sheds have doors. How else would you get things out of them?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, it's got a door, right?

[James Pietragallo]

No, it has no doors. How do you get in? You acted like that was fine. And I'm like, no, I don't think you understand the extent of this. No doors or windows. The prisoners had to climb a ladder to the roof and then get let down through a trap door using a rope. That's how they got prison.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, it's one room that they just put everybody one room, gen pop.

[James Pietragallo]

And they're like, climb up, go ahead

[Jimmy Wisman]

and climb it at gunpoint or something.

[James Pietragallo]

Because I'd run eventually. Yeah, it's Wild. I never heard about that. In 1875, a fire destroyed 52 buildings, which is most of the town. That's all of it. The whole business district was completely destroyed.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Gone. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Which is interesting here. A guy named McLaughlin was his last name, served as the local head of the Freedman's Bureau and assisted in the establishment of black Methodist churches and established a cooperative store for black people at his house. This, of course, enraged everyone so much that the Klan attacked his store and tried to burn it down. This town, by the way, we don't have time to go through it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We can't have anything nice.

[James Pietragallo]

It's like every five years there's a lynching and somebody whistled at a white lady. It's ridiculous. All that history of the south that you've ever heard of, that, you know,

[Jimmy Wisman]

all the bad stuff.

[James Pietragallo]

You know, reconstruction, bad shit. It's like this town is littered with it from back then. They love it. A yellow fever epidemic in 1898 resulted in the quarantine of Starkville's railroads by the towns of West Point, Columbus, Artesia and Kosokusko. Kosciusko. So they said, we don't want any of your shit. It's all infected with the yellow peril here. No good. The yellow epidemic. Fever, whatever the fuck it's called. So this resulted in a depletion of medical and other supplies. They had nothing and nobody would give them anything. So then the state had to intervene and I assume drop things from a rope. Because that's just how they do things here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You lower your prisoners. That's how you're getting everything, your IV back.

[James Pietragallo]

We don't know anything about this town. So let's find out a little bit about it with some reviews of this town. Let's see what we got here. Here's five stars. I love it here. I been living in Starkville ever since last year. My kids love it here. But the police is bad here. We'll pull you over for anything, Lord.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Boy, oh, boy. They're really flexing that 47th in education.

[James Pietragallo]

They really are hard.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Boy, oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

So they will pull you over for anything, Lord. And there's no punctuation there. So they'll pull you over for anything, Lord.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Lord. Three stars. Yeah. I love the hometown hospitality. I love how the community welcomes you with open arms.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Except the cops.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, they're welcoming you by introducing themselves by pulling you over. I love how the community welcomes you with open arms. The things I would love to see change would have to be the roads. So Many students and so many potholes. This is on the outskirts of where Mississippi State University is. So a lot of the people that live here are Mississippi State students because it's cheaper to live out here. So that's kind of how it goes. I don't think they're making the potholes, though. I think that's.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I don't think they're just in the road. Right.

[James Pietragallo]

They're just wandering through the roads causing potholes. Here's two stars. There are lots of bad neighborhoods, and there's lots of robberies and some shootings here and there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

We'll tell you what the crime rate is later. Don't you worry, Chief. Two stars. I grew up in Starkville. There are many genuinely nice people in Starkville.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I believe it.

[James Pietragallo]

When it starts out like that, that means there's a but coming. I feel like there's a bad reputation for it. Yeah. And there are a few local restaurants that have delicious food. Other than that, Starkville really doesn't have any entertainment, outdoor or otherwise. Not much shopping opportunities either. The Noxia B refugee Refuge someone else mentioned now charges $5 per person to enter. Sounds like an outdoor.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Next time or the last time. He says the let time. I assume he means last. The last time I was there, the trails were overgrown, so there's no real place to hike or camp. Some people call it Stark Vegas. Why? I have no idea. And he lives there and has no idea, so how are we supposed to know?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Ain't nothing Vegas about it.

[James Pietragallo]

No, he said there is no similarity to Las Vegas at all. All caps. It is a dull, boring little town. Okay.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, there must be. It must be dotted and surrounded by really shit towns. They go here for fun.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. MSU is there. Otherwise, nothing would be here. This is the middle of nowhere, pretty much. Two hours between Jackson and, you know, two and a half hours from Jackson and Birmingham. One star. It's hard to imagine a worse place to live.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I love that.

[James Pietragallo]

I like when you start out hot. That's good. Really? Let us know how you feel. The only good thing about Starkville is msu. And unfortunately, some wretched departments such as Landscape Architecture, manage to mar the town as well. I don't know if the landscape architecture department at the school or in the town. What are we talking about?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Perhaps they planted some trees they don't like.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not sure. Well, people in this town. 24,578.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

A lot of that is because of the college. Yeah. There is more men than women here, which Is odd for a college town.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fella's trying to get smart around here.

[James Pietragallo]

49.7% women. Yeah, they're trying to get smart, but all they have is each other to talk to. If you're looking for a college town, wouldn't you be looking for. If you're a guy, you're looking for a good ratio and that's not it right there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Imagine going to Northern Mississippi for higher education.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. Yeah. MSU is a sports school mainly, right?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is it?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know if they have. I don't know enough to know about it. Maybe they have some department that's renowned. But they also have a basketball team. I think that's the main thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Big engineering program down there. Did they put heaters and toilet seats? I think.

[James Pietragallo]

Did the basketball team make the tournaments? The main concern here, probably not.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Their engineering department is a lot of duct tape.

[James Pietragallo]

Not sure. Median age 27 because of the college, again, family, 37.8% married, again, lower than the national average because of the all of the college kids. But 23% are single with children. So these kids, they're fucking. No choice race in this town, 57.5% are white, 36.1% black. I'm sorry, 3.3% Asian and 1.5% Hispanic. We have 48.8% of the people here are religious, which is actually below the national average. But the highest one, not surprisingly, is Baptist with 27%. As we know, Baptists are the Catholics of the south. As we found out there, 0.0% Jewish. Wow. You got a whole college and not one. Not a single. Not a one, not one Jewish kid walking around. That seems weird. Unemployment.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You'd really miss that matzo ball if you were. You know what I mean? Yeah, you'd miss a lot.

[James Pietragallo]

At least get yourselves a deli, something. This is terrible down there. Unemployment here is about average. Median household income here is because of the college, too. It's lower. $34,391. So about half the national average, essentially. That's not good. And cost of living is a little bit lower. It's only an 81 out of 100, so that's not bad. Median home costs here, $228,100, which still seems high. I don't know. Sounds like it. Well, we'll let you decide here with the Starkville, Mississippi real state report. Average two bedroom rental here goes for $790, which is low. It's about 500 under the national average.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Incredibly inexpensive.

[James Pietragallo]

Good for a college town, I would say. The house is. Here is one. It's the strangest house I've ever seen. It's not like squared off in the front. It's got like a bow, like a. Like a reversed bay window. That's the front door is on this weird thing like that. And there's these two. It's the strangest looking house I've ever seen. It's real weird. Two bedroom, two bath. Technically. T bowl for every B hole. 899 square feet. Small, small lot. Little tiny house. $120,000 for that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

God. Jesus.

[James Pietragallo]

The next one's a three bedroom, three bath. Again, T bowl for each and every v hole here. 1480 square feet. It's a brick house. It looks pretty nice, actually. It's got like the nice brick steps up the front. Nice house inside. Nice hardwood floors. Stuff like that could use some updating. It was built in 2008 and looks like it hasn't been touched since. And I believe there possibly some broken windows on the side, so you might want to watch out for that. 226,900 bucks for that. And then finally, this thing, which looks like a barn from the outside. It looks like old barn wood on it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It might be reclaimed in barndominium.

[James Pietragallo]

It's possible. But it's a three bedroom, three bath, 2328 square foot house.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Good size house.

[James Pietragallo]

That's done. Lovely on the inside too. It's really nice. It's on 25 acres of land. Yeah, it's a whole shitload of land.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Built to look like patina. Like on an old truck?

[James Pietragallo]

No. Yeah, kind of. But it looks. No, it looks like.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is it rustic on purpose?

[James Pietragallo]

You know what it looks like, you know, in like Disneyland when you're going into like by Splash Mountain and shit there had Frontierland before they made it. Whatever the fuck it is now. And that's. Everything looked like that. Like the. The roller coaster in Frontierland. That's what it all looks like, that Thunder Mountain. Thunder Mountain. It looks like Thunder Mountain. Like the.

[Jimmy Wisman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

The. The base of Thunder Mountain.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I guess that's. I guess that's. I mean, that was designed and rustic on purpose, so maybe that's what it is.

[James Pietragallo]

It's definitely on purpose. Yeah. Because it was built in 2023, so it's not.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, Jesus. Yeah, it's reclaimed barnwood.

[James Pietragallo]

I'll tell you. $1,075,000. Listen to this $950,000 price cut they just had.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They took a million dollars off of it.

[James Pietragallo]

This bad boy. Yep. That is. It was 2,025,000 before that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They couldn't get it.

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. Things to do in this town. All right, we have the. There's a festival here. What is this? The. The old main music festival.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's going to be good, isn't it?

[James Pietragallo]

It's at the MSU Amphitheater in Starkville.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's going to be great.

[James Pietragallo]

Free admission. Wow. The Moss Day Glow. The Rumble, featuring Chief Joseph Boudreau Jr. Oh, boy. Harley Hogue. Yeah, I think that's a good country singer. Yeah, it's Harley Hogue. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Obviously country.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's definitely not Harley.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I think I've heard of that one, though.

[James Pietragallo]

Smokies?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Nope.

[James Pietragallo]

Twirt. Chamberlain. Tw U R T Chamberlain.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm interested.

[James Pietragallo]

I want to hear it. Stick House. Arnie Bren. The Sharp Sisters. No. Briston Maroney.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I take it back. I don't know that Hoag person. There's no way I know that.

[James Pietragallo]

No. Briston Maroney. Odie Lee, Mississippi Shakedown, Sonic Voyager. Samuel Young. Crooked Deal, but like somebody's last name with an I and an H. It's pretty funny.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Got a Crooked Deal.

[James Pietragallo]

Got Crooked Deal, the Pink Sheets and Robert Brister.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It feels like they.

[James Pietragallo]

Sounds like Bobby Brister fucked up. Yeah. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They had the opportunity to really have a good show, but it is free. They did not.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's free. I think it's one of those for student type of deals. And there's also the charge.

[Jimmy Wisman]

10 bucks.

[James Pietragallo]

Get good acts. Yeah, I don't know. That would help. This is bad. There's also the Del Fest at Dave's Dar Horse Tavern. Okay. We have the. Jesus. These are hard to read. Flathead Ford Slambo. Okay. What is this? Parallax to Shiva, Too Proud to Beg Hope and the Local Something. I can't even read that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Isn't that a salt and pepper tlc? Who's saying that?

[James Pietragallo]

Too Proud to. Ain't Too Proud to Beg.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's tlc, right, baby?

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's a. It's like the Four Tops or something.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No, I mean, in the 90s, that was ain't Too Proud to Beg. I think it's too bad.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, maybe if they copied it from the Four Tops, that's what it would be. Crime rate in this town, property crime is a little bit high. About 25% over the national average, which is what you get in a college town. Yeah, that's drinking in the street and shit like that. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime. The real problems.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Another thing, some of those are drinking crimes, too.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, eventually they can lead to that. That's about one quarter below the national average, so pretty safe. But maybe don't leave your car window open. Some drunken college kid might piss in it or finger his girlfriend in there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, annoying skirmishes, whatever, you never know.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's see here. That said, let's talk about some murder. What do you say?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Let's do it.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's fucking do it. All right. Let's talk about a lady first. Christy with an I. Christy with a K. Yeah, with a K and an I. Yeah. Christy Lee. L, E, I, G, H. Christy Lee just reminds me of very, very, very Southern. Yeah, Christy Lee's Very Righteous Gemstones. Amy Lee, Judy Lee Fulghum. And that is F, U, L, G, H A M. Now, that'll be her married name, as we'll talk about. I believe her name was Edmonds to begin with. Okay. She's born August 27, 1976. She's from the Starkville area. Her childhood's a fucking mess. It is a mess. Her father, Danny, was gone most of her infancy. Never paid child support.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Attaboy.

[James Pietragallo]

Popped up later on, you know, when she got a little bit older. 8, 9. And was good enough to be around to rape her at age 11 as well, according to her. Very nice. That's when dad just abandons you. It's bad enough, you know what I mean? Or if he just molest you, it's bad enough when he abandons you. Then when you finally get to see him, he molests you. That's probably, I think, the worst possible combination that you could lay down on a kid, right?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Justifying why I didn't want you around in the first place.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's fucking horrific. Well, no, that he, like, just waited till he thought you were attractive to want you around. Like, what the fuck, man? That's what it would seem like here. Her mother, Carol. Carol Morgan, had multiple marriages, multiple divorces. Most involving abusive, alcoholic stepfathers who beat the shit out of everyone in the house.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That poor lady.

[James Pietragallo]

That is not good, man.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What is she saying? God.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, yeah. What's her. Where'd she come from? I'm sure her dad wasn't a real peach if she's marrying all these guys.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Her dad was a real upstanding folks.

[James Pietragallo]

Nightmare. Probably an alcoholic abuser, I would assume. Just tends to land that way, you know? So very. She. Christie's mother. Married Christie's. Or married her first husband at 16 years old. And Then the. Christie's dad was one of the successive guys after that, she got married a lot later on. A social worker would say that Christie lacked parental bonding, grew up around drugs and alcohol and never developed the kind of emotional foundation that produces a fully

[Jimmy Wisman]

healthy and functional, well rounded individual.

[James Pietragallo]

Emotionally. She has, as you can imagine, with all these stepfathers and all this alcoholism, several half siblings, as you can. This is one of those where she probably doesn't even know all of her step brothers and sisters.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Christy's really got it rough.

[James Pietragallo]

She's got it tough. One of her half brothers is Tyler Wayne Edmonds. He's born June 14, 1989. So he's a young guy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

When this is all Edmonds, meaning like the same father, maybe, or maybe they all have their mom's last name.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. No, no, this is her father's kid.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's her half brother, her father's son. Now, he lived with his mother mainly, which is probably for the best. For the best. And a stepfather in the area. We know his parents. There was kind of a acrimonious breakup and shit like that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

It was tough on Tyler. And Tyler's like a little blonde kid, too. He's like one of those little like, he looks like every. Every mom would go, look at how cute that little kid is. He's a little blonde kid, you know, one of those with cheeks and shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

The world ain't easy on us though. When we're poor, we look dirty as fuck. When a blonde white kid. Any little bit of dirt on you, you look a scoundrel.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, you do.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You look disgusting.

[James Pietragallo]

When were you. You were blonde when you were a kid?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, yeah, I was blonde right up until I was like fucking 12. Oh, it started to brown out and

[James Pietragallo]

you started dying tips like a. Yeah,

[Jimmy Wisman]

I tried to maintain just on the end in my 20s.

[James Pietragallo]

Look, I'm still blonde. That's fucking funny.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I waited till I was 21 to really, really get after it, you know, after the trend had set.

[James Pietragallo]

That's when you want to do it, really. Once it's dead and buried, you want to go, okay, I'm gonna bring this shit back. Yeah. So he lived with his mother, Sharon, mainly Sharon Clay and a stepfather. Like I said, he had limited contact with his father Danny's family, which seems like it's probably good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's good. Yeah. Somebody was looking out for him for

[James Pietragallo]

the best until Christy connected with him. Hey, everybody. Just gonna tell you about the safest sponsor that we have to offer here. Simply safe.

[Jimmy Wisman]

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[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wisman]

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[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wisman]

Now back to the show.

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[James Pietragallo]

She was looking for her family and she Connected with him when he was about 10 or 11, about 99, 2000, Christy connected with him and they bonded because they came from the same environment. Broken homes, tough upbringings. And she, I guess, felt bad for him. And it's a little brother and a little brother by a good distance of 12, 13 years. So it's protective, you know what I mean? Her friend said this. This is her friend, quote, her friend Valli said, quote, she was trashy. Just to be honest with you. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I believe she was just pure white trash. That's what her friend said. That's her pal. Imagine if I described you as that. Oh, he's just pure white trash.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You probably should.

[James Pietragallo]

Some people are trash and he's just trash. No, but you, you put. You are like, you're performatively trashy. You're not actually trashy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No, I am 100% from trash.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, so am I. But you're 40 fucking five years old. That doesn't matter now.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm not.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, now I'm white. I'm bread.

[Jimmy Wisman]

White trash with a taste for decent booze.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad at all. I just wanted fucking food, that's all. That's all I'm looking for. Food and health insurance. I was happy to have that. 1991, Christy gets married. Okay, she's 15 at the time. Yeah, let that settle in. Yeah, married at 15. That's.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Can't believe it's legal.

[James Pietragallo]

It's fucking.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That shouldn't be. No, I can't believe it's legal.

[James Pietragallo]

This is wild. She's in the 90s. 1991, that's unbelievable. She's fucking. Arsenio was doing like, whoop, whoop. And she's getting married at 15. Like it's way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Michael Jordan is all the rage.

[James Pietragallo]

He barely won a championship. It just happened. He's just won his first.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's bananas right now, though, for Michael Jordan.

[James Pietragallo]

No Dream Team's about to happen. I mean, this is like.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This is the fucking. They're about to go to Barcelona and blow the lid off this basketball thing.

[James Pietragallo]

We have discovered turtles that are actually mutants that can do karate. Do you understand? That's what we've discovered by now. The world is advanced and a 15

[Jimmy Wisman]

year old's getting married.

[James Pietragallo]

Getting married. And she marries a guy who's 17. At least that's not abusive.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I can see it.

[James Pietragallo]

At least it's a normal high school relationship. Just, hey, maybe wait, I don't know, 10 years or so it's a precarious

[Jimmy Wisman]

spot to be in law. To be like, you can't marry a. But you're both minors.

[James Pietragallo]

They're both children.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Neither of you should be able to get married.

[James Pietragallo]

No, that's the point. This is Joseph Thomas Fulghum. Joey. He goes by. Born in 74, so two years older. He's got a brother named Shannon who he's close with. They work together and they served in the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Armored Brigade together. Sure. Shannon says about Joey, Joey's a great guy. He never had any enemies, so that's good. By the time he becomes an adult, Joey, he's working at a local car dealership with his brother Shannon. So he's always with his brother Shannon.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Good thing she found him. Seems to be a good dude.

[James Pietragallo]

He seems like a very solid guy. Everybody said the one thing that people said about him, and this is what's odd, that she would be attracted to him. Because usually without. This is like after 10 years of therapy, you'd be attracted to the opposite. But at 15, you'd want to marry the guy who's got a flask in his pocket and is going to backhand you if you say anything wrong in the front seat of the car. That sort of shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So you tend to gravitate to what you've seen.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So he was. People described him as steady. Everybody said he's not flashy. Just very reliable. Very steady guy. Joey. Which he's gonna be. You think she might get bored with that? Okay.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I mean, it's not gonna be exciting.

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. Shannon, by the way, has a wife named Kim. Just because she'll come up later. So people. One person who knew both Joey and Christy said when Joey met Christy, he was really, really committed. He fell head over heels in love with her. She was a charming person. She was pretty, and she knew how to work her charms. Work her charms. I like that. That's interesting.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What does that mean?

[James Pietragallo]

I knew how to put it out there. Make people attracted to her. Work her charms. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Her personality. She knows what's attractive about her.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Or at least knows how to attract others. You know what I mean? How to reel them in. Yeah, probably. And the sad part is, a lot of times, too, especially little girls who have been sexually abused when they're younger, they're tapped into that part very early. And so they seem like they're more mature and more alluring than the younger girls or the other girls that are around there. But in reality, they've been Abused. And that's why they're tapped into that at 15.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I suppose there's two different ways those girls go too, because a lot of them. Or the other way go back the entire opposite where they are just so reclusive.

[James Pietragallo]

And so it's like if you're a pastor's daughter. It's the same thing one way or the other. It's either environment. Any extremes in raising your life. Isn't that fascinating?

[Jimmy Wisman]

You go extreme one side or the other. You don't just run it right up the middle.

[James Pietragallo]

You should just be like.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Cause you're not healthy anymore.

[James Pietragallo]

Like you should just be normal or something. And just like not abuse your kids. And also not stuff a bunch of fairy tales up their ass either. And you know, and make that to where they think they're going to hell if they make one false step. Because that's. That's not healthy either. Now Christy and Joey are gonna have some kids. Of course they have two kids here. Well, three kids actually, but we'll talk about this. Tyler and Darian are their sons. And then there's a daughter named Haley as well. And we'll talk about this.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How big are the gaps?

[James Pietragallo]

We don't know exact gaps here, but that's less relevant than something else about the kids that were the baby is Haley. Not sure. Now, Christy is not faithful at all to Joey. Really? Not even a little bit? You surprised?

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're telling me you get together. There's no sanctity to marriage.

[James Pietragallo]

Weird also that you get together at 15 and then go, that's it. Forever. I'm good. That's it. I'm good at 15.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tell me that.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. Imagine, okay, Think of the girl if you had a girlfriend when you were 15, or the girl you liked when you were 15. Imagine you're married to her. Still no. Fuck no. I can think about a girl I went out with in 10th grade and go, yeah, I married that girl. That would be crazy. I haven't talked to that girl in 30 years. Fuck no. How crazy would that be?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Also, it's not everybody think about that right now. It's not far beyond the stretch of reality either that the importance of sex with just one person is torn away after you've been raped by your fucking father. You know what I mean?

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sex means nothing anymore.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, it's a tool sometimes too. Or it's a just. I mean, that's, you know, that is just how it works. That's something of psychology, you know. So anyway, year 2000 comes around. Okay, this is when things get out of fucking control. We've only had.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're married eight years. They got three kids.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Rockiest shit the whole time.

[James Pietragallo]

Rockiest shit. And it's gonna get even rockier because. Wow. And she's only like 23 at this point, too. That's the crazy part. We've only had this happen, like, twice in the history of our show where the couple involved in our story went on a goddamn talk show to talk about it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Where'd they go?

[James Pietragallo]

Montel Williams. They go on fucking Montel Williams. Which was like Jerry Springer light, basically.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. You know, Montel would make people fight. Great. Yeah. He'd come in and be like, ho, ho, now, Come on now. And he'd have this whole thing, whereas Jerry would just shrug and go, I don't know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sort it out right now, I guess.

[James Pietragallo]

Throw a chair at him. I don't know what to tell you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Ah, people are crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, they're crazy. And then Jenny Jones would just have you kill the person. See how that works? Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jenny would throw him a knife.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Here you go. So they cut away.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You look under your chair. Each of you has a knife.

[James Pietragallo]

Whatever happens, happens. I mean, I don't know. By the way, that thing that you're really scared of, he wants to do that to you, huh?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Don't cut away.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus Christ. So on this episode, Christy reveals. This brought Joey on Montel Williams to reveal a secret to him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, no.

[James Pietragallo]

The secret that this fucking woman brings him on national television to reveal is that Haley is not his child.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, you asshole.

[James Pietragallo]

His daughter that he's been raising for years is not his. TV is the best place to do that. Not in a fucking Olive Garden or something.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Your whole family to see.

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus. I get publicly, so we don't make a scene. But go to a Denny's. Don't do this. This is crazy. Go to a Waffle House. They're used to that shit. I believe there's a section for that at the Waffle House. Right.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Does she know. Does she know whose it is?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. Don't they have a reveal your gender

[Jimmy Wisman]

reveal, Reveal to your spouse. Paternal reveal.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, paternity reveal.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Do you like paternal reveal or smoking?

[James Pietragallo]

We only have those. By the way, you can smoke in paternal reveal, too. We just don't know if you want that section. So anyway, yeah, she got pregnant. She does know the guy she got pregnant by. One of. This is the wild part. Wasn't even her boyfriend who she got pregnant by. It was her boyfriend's best friend. So she's got a husband and she's got a boyfriend, and she's also banging the boyfriend's best friend.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She got two boyfriends?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She's cheating on the guy she's cheating with.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's cheating on the guy she's cheating on with the guy that she's cheating on.

[James Pietragallo]

It's confusing. It's a vortex of cheating. A vortex of dishonesty is what this is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Sex means nothing to Christy.

[James Pietragallo]

No. So Montel said your husband agreed to go ahead and what, be the father of this baby. And Christy said. He said that it didn't matter who she belonged to, that he was going to be her daddy. So then Joey finds out that he had a baby. She had a baby with, by the way, the guy that she had a baby with, the guy who she was cheating with. Joey knew that guy. I don't know if he knew the friend who fathered this baby, but either way, it's gross. Joey said, doesn't matter. She's mine. I mean, not legally, but Montel said that. Didn't tell you. Maybe it was time to get a divorce. And Joey said, I did, but I love her. This poor Joey. Joey is hung up, man.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He loves Christie and Daily.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, he said a divorce, so, I mean, I assume he was referencing Christie at that point. So 2002, during this time, she's dating a guy named Kyle Harvey. Okay, now, not only is she dating Kyle Harvey, she's also dating Kyle Harvey's friend Chris Kelly. At the same time, she's dating everybody. So, yeah, when she finds someone to cheat with, she's got to find her. Vetting process includes do they have a cute best friend, which is pretty weird. So March 2002, Christy moves out of Joey's house, or her house with Joey, the marital home. Here, she and her three children begin living with Kyle Harvey in Jackson.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay, then November 2002, I guess this is discovered way later, but Christie wrote a letter addressed to Kyle Harvey, and it was written in November of 2002. And here is part of the letter. Okay, Kyle, I guess you could tell I was annoyed. You need to get more friends that are more attractive and have bigger penises, because that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No, the selection around here is getting thin.

[James Pietragallo]

It's getting rough around here. I'm sick of being broke. And we are over $600 in the hole. Now, if you're Kylie, you'd go, I don't know, maybe talk to your husband. Yeah, I'm not married to you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, she lives there with $600 is where we're negative at the moment and it's ruining us.

[James Pietragallo]

We're upside down. 600 in the red. So not good. She said, I personally don't like to struggle. Oh, don't you?

[Jimmy Wisman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

Who does? I would do anything to ensure that I don't ever have to struggle. I don't have any money for Christmas and that pisses me off. You make no sense to me. You say you're sick and can't work, but I deal with being sick. I deal with it all the time. She doesn't have a job, by the way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's sick too.

[James Pietragallo]

She doesn't have a job either, so she's not going to work. If you were that sick, too sick to go to work, you should have gotten up early and gone to see the doctor. Well, then you'd be even further in the hole.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, we're already six under.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So at this point, she is upset that she's moved out, moved in with this guy and they don't have. He's not supporting them well enough, apparently. So late 2002 is when. Remember Tyler Edmonds, her half brother? That's when he starts hanging out all the time with Christie.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's 20 something now.

[James Pietragallo]

No, he's 13.

[Jimmy Wisman]

13 in 2002.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he was born in 89. He's in the eighth grade. So he would. This is when. Because she went back and forth between Kyle and Joey for a while. So when she was over with Joey, that's where he lives in that area. Tyler would stay with them, I guess every other weekend or so. Just all the time. Be over there now. Tyler, from what everybody says, is a sweet kid. All of his teachers, the neighbors all say, oh, no, he's a sweet kid. No trouble out of that one. He's an angel.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They say, how fucked is this story that I thought you were about to say he has all of his teeth.

[James Pietragallo]

At 13, he said all of his teeth.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And I was like, oh, does he?

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, wow, that's so nice of that. Good for him at 13. So he was from West Point, Mississippi, and even teachers described him as very polite and one of those kids that's more comfortable around adults than kids his own age. So an old soul type kind of kid here. He's got no. Like, he never got in trouble at school for anything, never got written up, never got a referral, never got in a fight, never got sent to the principal's office, nothing. He fucking loves Christy, as you do kind of worship an older sibling who is that much older than you you just think they're so fucking cool. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Pretty amazing.

[James Pietragallo]

And also, she's like this connection through his family, his dad, that he doesn't see that much. So there's something there. He wrote in a school essay, I love my sister more than I love myself. That's sweet. That's how he feels about Christy. Christie is his only connection to his father's side of the family.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. His mother did not want him seeing his father, which, by the fact that Christy says Danny molested her, you can understand why.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, for sure.

[James Pietragallo]

Christy would arrange visits behind Sharon's back, though. Not cool with dad. With dad, yeah. I'll pick you up and I'll act like I'm taking you out for fucking cold stone. And then we'll go see dad.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So she's got Danny in her life somehow. That's fucking crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

She. Absolutely. I can't imagine. That's what I mean, her. She needs like a lot of therapy. Chaos, turmoil, like years of it. I mean, it's a lot. Yeah. Chaos is her friend.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Chaos is her jam. Yeah. And how is

[James Pietragallo]

Ty?

[Jimmy Wisman]

How does he. How does he fall in love with her?

[James Pietragallo]

It's a sister. It's his older sister.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, but you got to see her. Life's a fucking disaster, Right?

[James Pietragallo]

Not to a 13 year old, I guess. Not a 13 year old. If you have a car. Yeah, they're doing it. And a key that goes in a lock. You're an adult. That's doing great. You don't know that. She's 600 in the hole and all that or whatever. She has no idea.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. He's not looking at the fucking checkbook and seeing if it balances or not.

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. He's just thinking, wow, she's super cool. She seems to have her life together and she's nice to me and has time for me, even though she has three kids. So she took him to the beach. She would let him stay up late when they were there because he's a child. I mean, he's 12, 13 years old. He craved her approval, essentially. A friend of Tyler's later said, I can't think of the word people use. Groomed. I feel like she was kind of grooming Tyler to be her little puppet. I can't think of that word. Hold on, wait. Got it. Groomed. Hold on, let me

[Jimmy Wisman]

nail. Right on the nose.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. The grossest word ever. I can't think of it. Oh, there it is. Found it right here in my pocket. Wow. So by early 2003, Christy isn't doing much. She has no job, no income. She's dicking off. She moved out.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I was impressed.

[James Pietragallo]

She's moved out and moved in with Kyle and then moved back with Joey several times by now. Wow. Yeah. She's trying at this point to move back in with Joey and reconcile. So she told Kyle during this time, even though she's still banging Kyle on the side, she's not ending her affair. She's just trying to make the marriage work on the side here. She's got a side gig with this marriage thing that she's got going on. She told Kyle she's about to inherit $300,000 from her grandmother.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Her family's got that kind of cash.

[James Pietragallo]

Apparently Grandma saved up some cash and she's not doing well. She's about to kick off and Christie's rubbing her hands together, going, hand it right to Kumsti. That's right. Divorce papers were filed between her and Joey at some point, but nothing was followed through on. Christy was living part time with Kyle and Jackson part time in Longview, which is an area right outside of Starkville with Joey. She was looking at houses near Jackson, too, and telling Kyle that she'd pay for a house with her grandmother's inheritance. So she has some plates spinning, like, boy, oh, boy. Yeah. One on her foot and one on her, like, nipples.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's got a story about the plan, though.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, she does. Shannon, who is Joey's brother, he really summed it up, I think, perfectly. He said, quote, he loved her for some crazy reason, just kept coming with it. Yep. She cheated on him, lied to him, humiliated him, made a jackass out of him in front of Montel Williams.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's. I mean, you come back and file then, right?

[James Pietragallo]

As soon as they say cut, we're filing. Yeah, we're done at that point.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't even know that I'm sitting through this segment.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the other thing. He sat there the whole time and was like, I just want to make it work. And it's like, what are you talking about, dude? Like a nice guy, obviously, but too nice for his own good. I mean, you gotta have some.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If a woman broke to me that my child ain't my child, it's over.

[James Pietragallo]

It's over.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Regardless of the venue from which she passes that information.

[James Pietragallo]

It doesn't matter. No, I'm not sticking around Denny's or Geraldo. It's still happening the same. Couldn't give a fuck, don't give a shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sounds like Jesse eating my ass. I'm leaving that's it.

[James Pietragallo]

So March 2003, Christy is spending even more time with Tyler. Tyler's hanging around more. And they're getting pretty close here during the same time, too. It looks like Joey's mom got married. I found an announcement in the paper, and it says, yeah, Ruth, Cash, and okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, Joey and Shannon, the brothers gave their mother away. It has to be them. Has to be them. And she looks like she got married to a guy that is maybe half her age. Possibly, but from the picture, really, it looks like. I'm not sure. The guy in the picture looks like he could be her son.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Maybe just does a lot of indoor work.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not sure. He looks pretty goddamn young. It's weird. Okay, so also now, In April of 2003, Christie calls Joey's job to ask about his life insurance. Oh, yeah? How much? And who's the beneficiary of this life insurance now? The person who took the call told her that Joey had signed a privacy statement and they weren't allowed to discuss it with anyone but him unless he gave written permission.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's the way that we keep people from getting murdered.

[James Pietragallo]

That's kind of our murder. We call it a murder block. It's just a little piece you can do.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's claws in our contracts that keep

[James Pietragallo]

our clients safe, keep us from having to pay out constantly, if you know what I mean. It's really for our own good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Don't want anybody to know how valuable they are.

[James Pietragallo]

Dad, no. May of 2003, Christie and the kids moved back in to Joey's. And this is supposed to be permanent. She says they're gonna try to make it work. It's gonna happen. This is the first week of May in 2003. Okay, Friday, May 9, 2003. Shannon, Joey's brother, they said he worked with Joey at the car dealership, and they were paid every Friday around lunchtime. That's when they got their check. So they said that day, May 9, it was a Friday, and Joey cashed his paycheck for about $1,020 and had put his money in his wallet. So he's a week. I don't have any idea if that's a week or a month. So no way of knowing that $1020 he's got, and he puts it in his wallet. He and Joey had planned to attend an air show on May 10. The next day, Saturday. Now, while that's going on here, Kyle. Remember Kyle, Christie's boyfriend? He's saying that he and Christy had planned a trip to the Mississippi Gulf coast for Mother's Day weekend. That weekend, it's Mother's Day, and she's gonna spend it with her boyfriend and the kids on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's a mom. Nothing says mom like put the bottoms of your ass cheeks in everybody's face,

[James Pietragallo]

in everybody's face and head down with your boyfriend to the Gulf. Yeah, I don't care. You could be a mom and hang your ass out all you want, but if you're doing it with your boyfriend, that's the issue, not your husband.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You're trying to live. You're trying to start anew with your husband.

[James Pietragallo]

Right? Yeah, that's how it looked like. Now, she said, don't worry about it, I'll pay for the trip. Oh, because he said, I can't afford that. Remember, you were just complaining that we don't have any money.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Six on do underwater.

[James Pietragallo]

She said, I'll pay for it. Even though she is completely unemployed, has no job. We don't know where. He's like, I don't know where she's getting money. But fine, of course it is. So I guess Christy picked up her brother Tyler, 13 years old, on Friday night. And she had later called Tyler at 6am the next morning, 6:30am to say she was on the way. Now, here's what happened the night before Friday night. Joey's stepfather, who. He's like a real dad to him type of thing. His name is David Noll. Apparently the two boys, Darian and Tyler, routinely spend Friday nights with him over at his house. That's a normal thing. So David Knowles said he picked up Tyler and Darion. Not Tyler Edmonds, the brother, Tyler, the son. It's confusing. Sorry. Everybody in Mississippi names their kid fucking Tyler.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tyler's a very popular name.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. He picked them up between 4 and 4:30pm on Friday, May 9. He said that Christie and the three kids and Tyler Edmonds, not Tyler's son, were at home at the time. So he went to pick them up. She was home with the kids and her brother. Christy said that she's going to pick up Tyler and Darien early the next morning because she's taking them on a trip that weekend to the coast.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right. Coast.

[James Pietragallo]

So that night we got Joey and brother Tyler and Christie all in the house together. That's who's left. They get Subway about a munch. Yeah, gotta have some Subway 2003.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That was a big, big time for them.

[James Pietragallo]

Eat fresh, motherfucker. Five dollar footlong.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Let's do it crushing. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So they get Subway. Joey ends up going to bed. At some point, Christie's up on the computer dicking off. At some point in the evening, she tells Joey to go sleep in the kid's bedroom, which is the master bedroom. They give the master to the kids. I guess they share it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's the biggest.

[James Pietragallo]

Everybody stays there. So. Okay. The next morning, David, Joey's stepfather with the kids there, says that Christy called him between 4:30 and 5 in the morning. So why even have the kids over? Like, what's the point?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, she's getting up early for this run.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's it makes no sense. You think she'd say, you know what? Next weekend? Yeah, because we're gonna leave at 4:30 in the morning. So why don't I just keep the kids? This is stupid to send them there for an hour.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Wanna wake up at 4:35 in the morning?

[James Pietragallo]

Fine. Get them ready. So Saturday morning comes and she arrived a little after 5pm to pick up the Darien and Tyler. Wow. Son Tyler.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Christie then calls Kyle, the boyfriend, on Saturday morning and informed him that she was on her way to Jackson, which we know is about two hours away. She, her two children and Tyler, the brother. So three kids, Tyler, Darien, Haley and brother Tyler and Christy were all waiting at Kyle's apartment when he got home from work on Saturday morning at 10:30 or 11:00am that's either the worst shift in the world or he works part time. I'm not sure. Either that or he worked from 2:30 in the morning on Friday night, which would be weird. Kyle says then they went down to the coast. He said that Christie had a large amount of cash on her. She was paying for everything with cash and having a good old time down there. Great. Having a blast. Saturday, May 10, 2003, at 11am Shannon, Joey's brother, calls Joey up because they're going to the air show. What are we doing? What's the plan? Joey didn't answer the phone calls. Shannon called around 11, 11:30. So then Shannon said he went by the house about noon to say, what the fuck? We're supposed to go to this air show. He knocks on the door. Joey doesn't fucking answer. He's like, what an asshole. Yeah. Jesus Christ. I got tickets to this air show. This is crazy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Go see the Blue Angels.

[James Pietragallo]

What are we doing? So Christy, what she's doing Saturday, she's hanging out with Kyle and the kids at the beach. They're having a good old time. Kyle says that Christie's paying cash for everything. Food, their hotel room souvenirs. And she's not like being cheap either. The kids say, mommy, she buys it. I mean, it's easy. So there they are, Christy and Kyle and everybody and the kids. And they spend Saturday night on the coast and return to Jackson Sunday evening. That's the plan. Okay? Now, Sunday comes around. May 11, 2003. Shannon still can't get a hold of Joey, which is not like Joey, you know, he always talks to Shannon.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So he skipped the air show altogether.

[James Pietragallo]

He skipped it. No call, no show. Just no call, no air show, nothing. So he ends up breaking into the house to see if Joey's in there, which is wild. He cuts the screen on Joey's living room window and I was like, holy shit, that is crazy. What are you, some kind of cat burglar? At night, in addition to selling cars? What's going on here?

[Jimmy Wisman]

I've broken into my family's houses before, but never destroyed the fucking house.

[James Pietragallo]

On the way in, you find an open window, you know, do this shit. So he gets in at 5:30pm and he finds Joey lying face down in a bed and sees blood. So he just calls 911. He doesn't even look into it. He calls 911 right away, as you should do. He calls 911 on the call. He's very under control and very matter of fact. He's trying to hear him breathing and being like, I'm going to be a calm person that gives the facts that are necessary and not a hysterical 911 person. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Also, I've just broken into a home where there's now a dead body.

[James Pietragallo]

Where there's a dead body.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I look real guilty.

[James Pietragallo]

I mean, it is his brother, so it looks less guilty. So the sheriff said just matter of fact is the way he sounded, that something happened to his brother and he felt like he knew who did it. He's on 911 saying, not only I think my brother's dead, but I think I know who killed him as well.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I already cracked the case, guys.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, and she said you need to look into his wife Christy right away.

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[James Pietragallo]

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[James Pietragallo]

get to the scene. This is the crime scene here. And the chief investigator for the county sheriff's department, you know, received a call ahead there, homicide. So he found Joey lying face down with a gunshot wound to the head. Now, he searched the home for evidence, but found no shell casings anywhere. So that's a good fact. At least you know what kind of gun it was or you know what kind of gun it isn't. Anyway, right away. Or the person cleaned up the crime scene, you know, they're a pro, either one. Right, Right. He also said he couldn't find Joey's wallet anywhere.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay, so robbery could be a motive here.

[James Pietragallo]

And he said the carpet in the living room had the faint outline of a computer sitting there, was still a monitor and a keyboard, but no actual tower. And there's an outline on the carpet of where a tower was.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's been there a while.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. And the house is ransacked besides that, drawers are open, shit's knocked over, looks like a robbery. So Joey's body here that we found, this is tough. It's an entrance wound located at the back of his head. And they extract a small caliber bullet, about a.22. They're pretty positive that it is here. They say that his death occurred approximately 36 to 48 hours before he was found. So that would put him Friday night at some point a little while ago, I would imagine after the subway sandwiches. And we knew he was alive at a certain point, you know what I mean? And then we know he's not. So they determined through autopsy that it was about 36 to 48 hours.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Still got that sweet onion chicken teriyaki in there.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. You could definitely check his belly for toppings on this one. He ran it right through the garden. He got the full veggie. So he describes also that he was in a pretty advanced state of rigor. And there was a very foul odor caused by decomposition. Because it's been a couple of days and it's May in Mississippi.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's crazy how fast it happens, man.

[James Pietragallo]

We are not long for this world.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, we are.

[James Pietragallo]

As soon as we die, it's all falling apart.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We're melting tomato. As soon as it turns.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not even a tomato like a banana.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

We're good for about three hours. And then it's garbage.

[Jimmy Wisman]

As soon as you see some color on it, it's about to be real bad.

[James Pietragallo]

It's bad. Speaking of bad, this is pretty bad. Discoloration of Joey's skin and tissue around his face and chest. And separation of the skin from the under tissue. So got the sloughing happening. Oh, no, we're talking 48 hours of decomp. Just. It's bad. The entrance wound of the bullet, the location where the bullet fragment had lodged just behind and to the left of his left eye. And the pool of blood that had since separated into serum and clotted blood cells under Joey's head as well. Okay. They said the bullet entered the back of his head and moved slightly downward toward the left eye, traveling the forward full length of the cerebral hemisphere. So as bad as it could be,

[Jimmy Wisman]

like a stab wound to your brain

[James Pietragallo]

all the way through, run through like an ice pick. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He said the wound was a.22. And they discovered a.22 caliber short round that he said that could have been shot. That the shot could have been fired as close to 24 to 20 or 2012 to 24 inches away. So 1 to 2ft away.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, 22 mags.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Which is crazy. So shot in the back of the head. They were looking at everything they were unable to find. Like I say, the wallet. No shell casings. Yeah. Anything Pack Presario. But they said the house appeared to be ransacked by home invaders. They even took the Dell.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Christ. He said they fucking cow spots. They took away our gateway. Yeah, with the cow spots. He said it actually. This is the lead investigator. It actually looked like someone had come in and shot Joey in the back of the head. Then robbed the house of certain items.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

So here's what we know. Here's the breakdown of facts from everything here. Sometime between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. The medical examiner said it couldn't have been too late Saturday. Had to be pretty early in the morning. Joey was shot once in the back of the head, they believe, with a.22 caliber bolt action. That's what they believe. Oh, so the shot is fired at close range. They said he never moved. He was sleeping, laying down.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And that's crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

They said, quote, didn't look like he ever moved when he got shot. In my opinion, that's what they say. The lead investigator, they say also the bolt. Right. A bolt action rifle is a single shot weapon that doesn't eject shell casings. Unless you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Unless you put a new one in.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. And there's no casing or rifle on the scene either. His wallet is missing, and they know he cashed his $1,020 paycheck earlier that Friday. And it looks like the computer's been taken as well. Now they go around and they really, honestly, for a rural Mississippi murder in 2003, they do a really thorough crime scene.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not bad, huh?

[James Pietragallo]

Really good. Yeah. The county officials must know what they're doing. They said that the security lights around the house, they have security lights around the perimeter, but that four of the bulbs were unscrewed on their perimeter.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, I guess a few things which

[James Pietragallo]

prevented them from automatically turning on. So we'll find out later if there's any way to find out who did that, because there is. And it's interesting. Now, where is Christy while all this is going on the Gulf Coast? Well, she's on her way back. Yeah. Her phone rings and Tyler remembers. Brother Tyler, not son. Tyler says, quote, heading back. Christy's phone rang and people were calling her left and right. She just got this look on her face. She said they found Joey dead. That's what he said later. So detectives need to talk to Christy. Number one, because it is her husband, and number two, because. And the victim's brother on the 911 call said, you need to talk to his wife first.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Call Christy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, call Christy or somebody she's fucking. Or somebody like that. So they locate Christy at her mother's house in Little Rock, Mississippi, which There's a Little Rock, Mississippi, apparently. I don't know why. It's right there. Right there. So the sheriff said, we started looking for Christy and we found her. We found her in Little Rock, Mississippi, at her mother's house. I sent men to Little Rock, Mississippi and talked to her that night. So. Okay. But before they actually go There to talk to her. She shows up voluntarily at the sheriff's office here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, so she beat him to the office.

[James Pietragallo]

She's gonna take a polygraph. She's very cooperative. She's crying, my poor Joey. Oh, my God. We've been married since I was 15. We met in fucking biology class, for Christ's sake.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm still drunk. I've been listening to Toby Keith all weekend.

[James Pietragallo]

God. Jesus Christ.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm so sad about this now.

[James Pietragallo]

No more salt. I'm not looking for that lost shaker of salt anymore. It's gone. I don't care. Hungover.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Still got mud caked in my thighs.

[James Pietragallo]

So then this is the whole thing. She's like, I don't know what happened. Jesus is so terrible.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And then about an hour into questioning, it goes from, oh, this is terrible. I don't know what happened to. Let me tell you what happened to him. Okay?

[Jimmy Wisman]

She knows.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She says Tyler did it. Not son Tyler. Brother Tyler. Okay. So, yeah, she said, this is terrible. I want to protect him because he's my little brother and he's been through a lot, you know, and he's only 13. But he killed Joey unintentionally. It was an accident.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Pietragallo]

He said he was playing with the rifle and he accidentally shot it. And he didn't mean to. Yeah, you know, he said.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Took it with him.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he said. So me wanting to protect him, you know, I'm his older sister.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sure.

[James Pietragallo]

I tried to make it look like a robbery so maybe people wouldn't look at poor Tyler, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, she is not doing good.

[James Pietragallo]

And they said, well, where's the murder weapon? And shit like that. And she said, oh, on the way down to the coast, we disposed of it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We threw it in the bayou.

[James Pietragallo]

We just threw. Yeah, it's in with the gators now. Good luck getting it. But, yeah, it's in a swamp. She said she threw the gun in a ditch along the highway.

[Jimmy Wisman]

God. Jesus.

[James Pietragallo]

It was never found.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So, okay, so she went from, oh, my gosh, what happened?

[James Pietragallo]

My poor Joey.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You guys aren't piecing this together fast enough. So I'll fix it for you.

[James Pietragallo]

Let me get your shit. I wanted you to go ahead and blame Tyler, and you didn't. So anyway, Tyler did it. She said he was holding it up, the gun, pretending like he was gonna shoot Joey. You know, like you do for fun.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

You know, like you do for fun when you always point your guns at me and pretend you're gonna shoot me. And then I laugh and Then we have a good time, smoke a joint. You know how that happens all the

[Jimmy Wisman]

time, right in your eye?

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's fun. It cracks me up every time.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's hilarious.

[James Pietragallo]

I go do that thing and then you do it and we laugh and laugh. So fun. So acting like she was going to shoot Joey or he was going to shoot Joey and the gun just accidentally went off.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No, it didn't. He pulled the trigger. That's what happened.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what happened. Then she says, okay, tell you what, later on she goes, it actually wasn't that news story. Yeah. She said again, she goes, and I wanted to protect his memory too, but Joey was abusing me and the kids something terrible.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Which has never been brought up. Never said. No one ever thought it. Not at all. She said, yeah. And so I had told Tyler that. And Tyler waited till Joey went to sleep and then Tyler crept into the bedroom and picked up now it's an assassination. And shot him. Because she had told Tyler that she had her father's 22. And she said, you know. And then Tyler just took that and ran with it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Crept and slept.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. So she signs a two page statement and that's that. It's not recorded, this statement, by the way, not video or audio recorded.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How long was it?

[James Pietragallo]

Not sure. But it took an hour for her to get to the story and she told another story and then she told another story. So three, four hours, I'm thinking here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Now in another room they have Tyler. He's 13. And when I say 13, he's a young 13. You know, there's. Think about junior high, okay? Middle school. There are kids who shave every day.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And there are kids who don't have a single hair in their armpit at 13. They're the same fucking grade, same age, same everything. It's just 13 is some people.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And he's a shelter. Thirteen.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. And some people have gone through puberty and some haven't. And he looks like. There is not a pube on this kid. If you fucking went over him with a jeweler's loop, there is not a fucking pube anywhere to be found. He looks very blonde and very young and very. He looks like he's 10, for Christ's sake. Real young. So it's interesting. So he's sitting in there now. The investigators had contacted his mother, Sharon, to ask her to bring Tyler in because he can't go there himself. He's fucking 13. He can't get there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Load the kid up.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So Sharon later Said I told them they could talk to Tyler as long as I was present. Only because he was a minor.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, good answer.

[James Pietragallo]

But that's not what happens, though.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

After a while, no. Sharon and Tyler arrive at the sheriff's office. Here, Sharon is present for a while. Tyler is denying any knowledge of any murder. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know. I didn't do anything. He says, I spent the weekend at the beach with my sister. I don't know what happened to Joey. What do you want from me? So it's at this point they ask to take mom outside and talk to her for a second. Okay, so take Sharon outside. And they go, listen, we need to speak with Tyler, not in your presence. Because what he's telling us doesn't match up to what Christy told us. Now, rather than saying maybe Christy's a liar, they're like, we want them to both have the same story, essentially.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. And maybe he's.

[James Pietragallo]

Maybe he.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Maybe he'll divulge a little more if mom's not there because he doesn't want to.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what it is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You don't want to rat yourself out in front of your mom.

[James Pietragallo]

And that's what it really is. Because if you see interrogations all the time, that happens a lot where they'll tell kids that they'll tell the adults, like, listen, he's not going to talk in front of you. So that's what they do, basically. But they tell her that we just want to make sure the stories match and whatever. So she stays out. And then another deputy leads Tyler into the interrogation room alone at this point. So now it's a 13 year old with experienced homicide detectives.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How many deputies?

[James Pietragallo]

There's at least two guys in the room, and any more than one is overwhelming to a 13 year old. Remember when, like, the vice principal would talk to you as a 13 year old? Even that was like, whoa, this is heavy, man. Like, these guys are homicide detectives.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And then you're gonna talk to the principal and the vice principal when you're really in trouble.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Wow, this room, I hate it here.

[James Pietragallo]

So here's the interrogation. So they're telling him Christy said that you did this, that you did it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So Tyler said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That didn't happen.

[James Pietragallo]

And the deputy gets down in his face and Tyler says, he said, are you calling me a liar, boy? In a real Mississippi way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I hate that so much.

[James Pietragallo]

I know. And he said, I'm not calling you a liar, but I don't think my sister would say that. Okay, so they say, you want us to prove what she said? Because she said you did it. And he said, okay. And they said, all right, fine. And they bring Christie into the room. They bring Christie into the room. What? This is not being recorded, mind you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I've never heard of this before.

[James Pietragallo]

Has anyone ever heard of this before? No one's ever heard. We'll bring in the other. Usually they're in the other room singing. You don't put them together. Not only do they put them together, they leave the room with no surveillance whatsoever on them. No cameras, no audio recorder, nothing. They leave the room, talk it out and let her talk to him. What the fuck, dude?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Never heard of that before?

[James Pietragallo]

Unprecedented. This is wild we've done. This is episode 677. Never heard of this once.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why would you do that?

[James Pietragallo]

Ever?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Look, y' all two stories aren't jiving. Y' all sit and think it over till it does. We'll be back.

[James Pietragallo]

Y' all come up with a story, and then y' all tell us what it is and we'll just charge you. You both is how it works.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Go ahead and knock on the door and we'll figure out who's culpable.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. So she talks to them and then knocks on the door. They let her out. Then the detectives re enter and turn the cameras on.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They had cameras?

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, they have cameras. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, why didn't.

[James Pietragallo]

Because that's for a statement, not the shit leading up to it, you know? That's why. Now, most jurisdictions, when you watch an interrogation, the camera's on before they walk in the room. They turn it on from the outside. And when they walk in, even that's on film. Them sitting there waiting for the cops is on film drinking a bottle of water for 45 minutes. That's all a part of it now,

[Jimmy Wisman]

to make sure the environment doesn't film the table read. So you gotta get the story straight. And then fucking lights, camera, action.

[James Pietragallo]

That's right. They don't wanna waste film here, too. We're talking about tapes back then. The county has a limited budget, if you understand. We got a limited budget down here. On tapes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tape over it.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So they said. Or he. This is what he says. Tyler. Tyler. We went. I came home because I didn't go to school Friday. Christy was in Jackson and she was supposed to pick me up. She'd been talking about doing it for a while because of the way. And then they cut him off and said, doing what? Yeah, talking about doing What? He said, killing Joey.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Pietragallo]

Because. Well, she kept talking about it. I didn't actually think she was serious. She came and picked me up and I took that old gun. We went over to her house. We waited for Joey to get home. She was happy. They went and took a bath together.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

That is sick.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's been plotting this for a long time. And she wanted to.

[James Pietragallo]

And also gave him a back rub. So she wanted to get him nice and relaxed. So we go to sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How about I fuck you in the tub and rub your back? You're going to feel great.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, me and Christy went and got Subway. After we ate, she got on the computer. I fell asleep on the floor. She woke me up and told me to get in Tyler's bed. Imagine being woken up to that. You'd be like, I am Tyler. What are you talking about? It'd be so confusing. She had set the alarm clock, woke me up. We went into his room. Okay. He says, I didn't seriously think it would work. And she was behind me, and she put her hand on the trigger and put my hand on the trigger, and she kind of squeezed my hand because we didn't think it would work.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We did it together.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what he said, together. Okay. Yeah. Okay. He said, I had the gun like this. She had her hand on my stomach. I just closed my eyes and did it and it went off.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, I looked at him and saw that it actually hit him. Then I just ran out of the room. So they were asking him a few more questions, and they said, what about the items that were taken? And he said, she took the computer and some stuff to make it look like a robbery.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

So this is when his mom comes back in. Okay. And his mom says, tyler, when she comes in, because this is still on film. And the officer says, do you want him to stop talking to us? She said, I want to be here with him. This is my child now. She had told them, I don't want you questioning him without me. But then they kind of got her out of the room for a minute, and then they went ahead and did something she didn't know they were going to do.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And not just did something. They didn't brought Christy in.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. And this kid is not. Can't overemphasize or underemphasize this enough, how underdeveloped he is. Yeah. 13 is not 16. 13 is not 17. 13 is not 15. 13 is fucking A child, man. That is a small. That's 8th grade. 13 is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

13 is so different for so many. There's a lot of boys that have sex at 13 because it's like they're 16. There's boys that thinking about sex at 13 is crazy because they're like fucking nine.

[James Pietragallo]

No, they're playing with Legos and action figures and shit. That's the thing that 13 is. I'm telling you, 13. You can be a 16. 13, or you could be a 10. 13. He's a 10. 13 is what it looks like. So the mother then says, tyler, do you know what you're. I mean, you're telling them the truth, right? Yeah. And he nods his head and they said, they're not making you say stuff that you don't want to say. And he shakes his head no. Then the mother says, look at me. What's wrong?

[Jimmy Wisman]

What do you mean, what's wrong?

[James Pietragallo]

She has no idea what's happened in here, by the way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She doesn't know what he said?

[James Pietragallo]

No, she has no idea. So she said, what's wrong? And he said, I'm telling the truth. And she said, okay, what's the truth? Again? She doesn't know. And he says that me and Christie did it. So then she says, tyler, y' all killed him. Uh huh. And he starts crying at that point, sobbing. And she says, this is the most mother thing. Whether you forgot to take the garbage out or murdered your stepsister's husband, either way, this is the mother. Yes. Go ahead. What is she going to say?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hell's wrong with you?

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. Tyler. Tyler Wayne. She brought his middle name into it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Tyler Wayne.

[James Pietragallo]

Tyler Wayne. The hell's wrong with you, boy? She said, did you for real do it or you just telling them that?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Uh huh.

[James Pietragallo]

And he said, we done this.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, God.

[James Pietragallo]

She said, are you sure you did this?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, God. Jesus, Ma.

[James Pietragallo]

And he said, the most Southern boy response ever. Yes, ma'. Am.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes, ma'. Am. And mother said, tyler, what is going on? You're a fucking child. What is. I was. I was cleaning up your Spider man underoos off the floor fucking two days ago. What's going on? Now this is happening. What's going on?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why'd you do it?

[James Pietragallo]

He said, she made me do it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Uh huh.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay, so Tyler and Christy are charged with capital murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Tyler's being charged as an adult at 13.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That story ain't adult murder.

[James Pietragallo]

No. And your brain isn't developed enough at 13 to do anything adult. That's why no matter how smart you are at 13, you're not allowed to drive, drink, join the military, vote, buy a lottery ticket because you're not developed enough to make a decision that can affect you for more than five minutes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

But you can get married in Mississippi.

[James Pietragallo]

But you can get married in Mississippi or be charged with capital murder. Mississippi should just let all the kids drive when they're 10. Might as well.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What the fuck? Give him three years of fun before he goes to prison for the rest of the world.

[James Pietragallo]

Might as well, yeah. I mean, at 13, they're up for fucking capital murder. So here are some evidence, by the way, that definitely ties Christy to this whole thing. One is they did print examinations on the light bulbs that were unscrewed outside the house. And Christie's print was on one of the light bulbs.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, on the floodlights.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, on the floodlights. Now, the person at the lab, at the police lab said that they would not expect to find a well developed print on a light bulb that had been on for an extended period of time. It'll evaporate, right? The heat will burn it off, he said. So that shows me that these were recently unscrewed, like very recently, and haven't been on.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They haven't turned back on since, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. Then they found out that the guy who dealt with the life insurance for the National Guard unit, he testifies later on. And we'll talk to the cops now and says that Joey had two life insurance policies. Oh, two. First one was worth $55,000 and Christie is the beneficiary for that. The second policy is worth $255,000, around 300 grand. And Christy was originally the beneficiary, but in the last couple months, Joey had changed the beneficiary to his mother. I love when people are like, you know what? Just in case nothing feels better. That is fucking great, because we see this all the time. Imagine killing someone, expecting to get insurance, and not only did the whole plot go awry and you're sitting in a jail cell, but on top of that, they tell you you weren't even the fucking beneficiary, stupid. And you broke and you broke even. If you got away with it, you weren't getting dick out of this. Yeah. That's amazing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Lori Vallow, you dumb bitch.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, exactly. Same exact thing. Yeah, she thought she was the beneficiary. So also they find Tyler's cousin, okay? His first cousin, Randy Simpson. Now, old Randy said that he went to Tyler's house just about every day. Yeah. And that two.22 calibers had been in Tyler's house prior to Joey's death, but that the older.22 was currently missing two guns. Two guns. He said that the.22 was a single shot bolt action and that Tyler wasn't strong enough to pull back the firing mechanisms. That's how small teen he was. He is not strong enough to shoot this gun.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A bolt action rifle, that's like the easiest thing to do, but he can't. And he's not strong enough, not strong

[James Pietragallo]

enough to do it. So that tells you exactly what kind of kid Tyler is. Not a big one.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And that tells you why they didn't rack it either, because it's a one. Once you fire it, it's done. Unless you're putting another one in, you're not going to pull that action.

[James Pietragallo]

Totally. Especially if you run out of the room.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So it's at this point that, remember Kyle Harvey, Christie's boyfriend? He starts finding things out that he didn't know about. Now, he was sold a bill of goods by Christie like everybody else. She told him that she was not only in the middle of a divorce, they were going to be together and she was going to pay for stuff, but also she had claimed that she had a miscarriage of their baby after telling him that her tubes had been tied after her third child.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, what?

[James Pietragallo]

So that's something. Now Kyle had broke off his friendship with Chris Kelly, his best friend, who was also fucking Christy, after he discovered that Christy and Chris were sleeping together. And that's just terrible because you can't be a couple if your names are Kristi and Chris. That's ridiculous. That's not. You meet someone. Oh, you're Chris. We can't fuck. No, I don't find you attractive at all. Then they talk to her dad, remember? Remember old Danny Edmonds? That is Christie and Tyler's dad, the man accused of molesting her when she was younger. We don't know if it's true, but that's what she said her whole life and makes sense for who her mother attracts now. So Danny said this, quote, she asked me for a gun. She wanted to kill Joey. Yeah. Yeah. I asked her why and she just said he was mean to her and the kids. I told her, just leave him. Logical. And she said, no, he's got a life insurance policy. Jesus fucking Christ. Then Christy said, seriously, let me get your gun and I'm going to do something for you. So they said, well, what was she going to do for you?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And he said, quote, she was gonna buy me a new Cadillac. A new Cadillac? That'll do it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Give me a gun and I'll give you a Cadillac. That's a pretty good trade.

[James Pietragallo]

She said to him, quote, I want him dead, and that he's got a life insurance policy and the kids would get 300 grand and that I would get 200 grand. Meaning Christie said that Christie would get 200 grand. And she said, and if you'll keep your mouth shut, you'll get a Cadillac.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's an expensive car for 2003.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. So Danny said he never believed her, that any of this was real. He thought she was just yapping. And so he didn't report it to anybody. But when Joey turned up dead, he called his brother, who's a police officer. As soon as he found out was like, Christy tried to get a gun and said he was going to. So dad spilled it long before anything. As soon as it became public, Joey was dead. And dad heard it. He told a cop, and the cops were already looking at her. Wow. So that was her dad and the brother saying Christy before his, you know, anyone. He'd even had an autopsy. They were already a lot of people saying her. So Tyler and Christie are both in jail at this point?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay. May 14, 2003. There is a jailer. So this is just a few days later. A jailer in the sheriff's department here said that both Tyler and Christie, they were arrested and that she had a conversation with Christy at the jail. She said, christy knocked on the window and asked if I would give Tyler a letter that she had written to him. That's not how that works, by the way. That's not how the jail kite system works, is through the fucking. Through the jail, through the wardens. That's not how it works. That's a whole prisoner system that you can do, but you gotta have some respect, I guess. And maybe she doesn't have that yet. So I said I couldn't, but she said it was really important. I took the note from her, but I never gave it to Tyler.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Who'd she give it to?

[James Pietragallo]

I took it away. She said, I took it and read the contents of the letter with a fellow deputy. That's evidence, stupid. Don't be. Jesus Christ. I understand you just work in the jail, but come on, man, have some common fucking stuff.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We had a good laugh about it and we threw it away.

[James Pietragallo]

I just tossed it the garbage. Actually, I burned it because I figured, you know, I don't want to make no more recyclables. So anyway, here's Some excerpts from the letter. Quote, tyler, I know you're scared, but you can't say what they're telling you to say. It's a trick. We have to make them understand it was an accident. She's saying they're trying to trick you. Yeah. We can both get out of this if we can make them understand it was an accident.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

You know we didn't plan it. You know it was an accident. We didn't mean to kill Joey. Please read. That's why she gave it to the co. Was so they would see that. She said, if you tell them it was an accident, they can't send me to the electric chair. So save me.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're not allowed.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. She said they can't punish me for an accident. Don't you see that? No. I'm 13. I don't know the law.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Why'd you bring me in on this?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Jesus Christ, I barely fucking read Romeo and Juliet last year in school. I don't know any of that. I just still don't understand it. She said, if you say what they want you to say, then you committed murder. You will go to jail and so will I. Think not only about your life, but about mine as well. Oh, I'm all you have.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, here we go.

[James Pietragallo]

Don't listen to what? Your father. Don't listen to your father. He doesn't love you. I love you. Uh. Oh, this is manipulative.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Very manipulative. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Fuck. She said, listen to me. This will work out for the best. 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 15 years. But that's a long time. You will be here a long time if you tell them it was intentional. So Tyler then changes his story. Yeah, he asks investigators. He wants to talk to investigators. And he's got a different story now. They note that he's changing his story in the notes and he's got a new story. He said when they brought her in to talk to him, when he was in the interrogation room, he said, my sister was in an orange jumpsuit and shackles and handcuffs. And to be quite frank, it scared the shit out of me. He said, she was just sniffling and crying. She said, oh, my God, Tyler, they're going to kill me. I'm going to get the electric chair. You have to help me. And I'm like, I don't. I can't help. What am I supposed to do? And she said. He goes on to say. Then she promised me, because I'm a minor, nothing will happen to me and I'll get a slap on the wrist and then she won't get the death penalty. But if he doesn't do this, then they'll kill her and she'll never be able to see her kids again, and then they won't have a mother or a father.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right. So I decided right there to do exactly what she told me to do.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, this is a person that I'm the closest to in the world and that loves me the most and wants to help me. And so I begging to save my life.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That story also lends to doing what she told is the whole reason that you're here.

[James Pietragallo]

That's another thing. Now, according to Tyler, this is what happened. They headed back to the house. Christy had woke him up early, told him to gather a child and put them in the car and start the engine. She also told him to put the home computer, not the monitor or keyboard, just the computer in the trunk. He said he sat in the car messing with the radio, waiting for Christy. While he waited, he heard a pop from inside the house. He said he didn't think anything of it because the cat, Christy has a cat that knocks things over. What the hell did he knock over? It exploded. But Christie comes out, closes the trunk, hands Tyler a wallet and tells him to put it in the glove box. And he does. That's it. Now, the cops don't make a video or any recording of this at all.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That story is he's free, right?

[James Pietragallo]

He goes home, waiting in the car, and she came out, here's the money. And he said, all right. And they went down to the Gulf. That's that story. They basically say, well, we don't believe any of that. Back to your cell.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, that's not fair.

[James Pietragallo]

So then they didn't even record it. Like I said, they didn't even. They just. They noted on the report that he changed his story. They didn't even note the details. They just said, bullshit's full of shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So there's another thing now, prosecutors. This is way out there. And we don't know if this is true. But the prosecutors were pushing this angle even in court, that there may have been a sexual relationship between Christie and Tyler, that Christie may have 13 year old Tyler tried to ply him with her wares, basically.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So he is gonna be tried as an adult. Like we said, Mississippi law mandates that anyone over 13 charged with a crime carrying a life sentence must be tried in circuit court, not family court. As an adult. So will they give Tyler bail? Where is he gonna go?

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's gonna pay it. Where's he gonna go?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, even if he can pay it, though. Yeah. If you don't, it's not like he's gonna run to South America. He's 13 years old. He's from here. His whole family's from here. They have no money and nowhere to go. So what? You know what I mean, it's not like they're. He's not what we would call a flight risk. A normal. Like a, you know, regular old flight risk here. But he. They refuse any bond for him.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's a danger to society. James.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, his attorney said that. Was trying to convince the judge. Said Christie used her influence over him and coerced him to falsely confess. Jesus Christ. You know what the fuck? The defense attorney believes that he should be allowed to post a bond because the boy doesn't have a police record. He won't run away before his trial because his mother still lives in West Point. Where's he gonna go? They said that his case. A bully. Yeah. The case has been subject of numerous local media reports. Everyone knows who he is. It's not like he can run away. Hey, everybody. Just going to tell you about the safest sponsor that we have to offer here. SimpliSafe.

[Jimmy Wisman]

SimpliSafe.com, s I, M, P L I, Safe.com.

[James Pietragallo]

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[Jimmy Wisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

But the circuit judge denies bail for him, which is insane.

[Jimmy Wisman]

13 year old bad boy James.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. And his aunt and uncle. They're kind of, they call themselves, I guess, aunt and uncle, Uncle. These neighbors said they would take him in. This is ridiculous. This is Anita Higginbotham.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is that the second one we've had?

[James Pietragallo]

We just had a Higinbotham. Yes, we just had one. So that's her and her husband Larry. Say they can't understand why they won't set bail for an eighth grader. This is ridiculous. That's their neighbor. She said I would let him back in our house. He's trustful, he'll show up to court. And she said that he spent so much time in her home. We've treated him like family. He would help around the house. He's a lovable person. Her husband Larry said that he promised Tyler that they would get whatever the boy wants if he gets out of jail. He says, quote, we'll go to Pizza Hut and do whatever else you want. That's the Holy Grail. We'll go to Pizza Hut.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, stuff crust your ass off, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

You could probably still get the buffet back then.

[Jimmy Wisman]

So you have no clue that sauce was fire, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Their breadsticks, I will say Pizza Hut is garbage, but their breadsticks are fucking good. They're so cheesy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know what those. Yeah, I don't know what that chemical is, but it's good, it's tons of

[James Pietragallo]

fake cheese, that's what it is and it's goddamn good. He said Pizza Hut and do whatever else you want. Then this person goes on to say he said he wants to go to Walmart. That's how limited, that's how limited this boy is in experience as he says, we're not going out of jail boy. Someday I'm going to head me to Walmart, boy. I'm going to look all through the sections, man. You don't even know. I'm going to get me some oil, some 10w30 well new shirt and a fishing pole. It's all going to happen.

[Jimmy Wisman]

My brother was from Arkansas and the little town he stayed in in Arkansas the boys would ditch school to go to Walmart.

[James Pietragallo]

James. Yeah, well Arkansas is where it's from, right? Yeah, it's from, it's from. I think that counts as, I think that counts as credit actually in schools in Arkansas.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's just local pride, yo. It's just supporting small business.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what it is. They look at that as, that's a positive, they'll give you credit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

But they go to Walmart to play the new video games. They just sit there for hours in the video game department playing the new video games.

[James Pietragallo]

Jim, he said Earthworm Jim came out,

[Jimmy Wisman]

sit here and beat this motherfucker.

[James Pietragallo]

We never leaving this Walmart. He said, he said he wants, he said he wants to go to Walmart. He liked to go there and look.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, that's what that is, going there

[James Pietragallo]

to look, going shopping, just perusing, dreaming.

[Jimmy Wisman]

One day I'm going to have some nice shit from Walmart.

[James Pietragallo]

Give me some Wranglers. So those closest to Tyler say they can't believe he would kill anyone. They said he's a well mannered teenager who enjoys being, helping people and going to Walmart. That's what his one people that know him said. He just wants to help people and go to Walmart. Leave the kid alone, let's go to

[Jimmy Wisman]

Walmart and have some breadsticks.

[James Pietragallo]

The reverend of the Bible Baptist Church in West Point, I'm sure they're very forgiving of minor infractions. He said he has never given us any trouble. And this reverend said he baptized Edmunds and he's been going there his whole life and he often visits him at the jail. He said he's just holding out hope that he'll get out. There's nobody in jail as young as he is. No. So basically his lawyers are trying to get a federal judge to Decide whether a bond should be set for him rather than this local guy here. A circuit court. So Christie was also held without bail since her arrest. Obviously here. And Christie doesn't like jail. No. No. Isn't that weird?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Very few guys in here to fuck. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Remember she said, I don't like to struggle?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. I don't like to struggle. And there's lack of dicks in here. It's really not fun.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not allowed to leave for the Gulf coast for the weekend. No.

[James Pietragallo]

So in 2004, she tries to escape. What? She tries to fucking escape the county jail. She absolutely does.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hasn't even gone to trial yet.

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. She's arrested for that. And two other men have been charged with aiding her in her escape attempt. So she manipulated two other guys into trying to help her escape fucking jail.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Unbelievable.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. That is amazing. So she's caught, obviously. She's also found with contraband cell phone as well. Sure.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So she's pretty fucked here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's how she planned it. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. How else is she gonna plan it? Now, Tyler's mom, Sharon Clay, this woman just wants to. I feel bad for her because, A, she was in a relationship with the father, from what we understand, or what's been told allegedly about him. But she is a single mom at this point who's working hard to support her kids. She liquidates her 401, sells her house, ends up getting divorced from her husband, who's mad at her for all this, and basically goes into debt for the rest of her life to pay for his legal defense to defend Tyler everything she can. 401k gone. Credit cards, maxed out, anything. She sold her house, worked her whole

[Jimmy Wisman]

life to be in this position. And she gave it all away for

[James Pietragallo]

defense of this to try to help her son. Which is what? A good mom.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Very admirable. Yeah. But holy shit.

[James Pietragallo]

So during Tyler's trial, his attorney is a guy named Jim Wade, W, A I D, E, who is referred to as a legendary North Mississippi criminal defense lawyer. Yeah. A friend of Tyler's family said he has the reputation for being a bear, just going after it. I knew that if anybody in North Mississippi was going to give Tyler his best chance, it would be Jim Wade.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. I do love the south when they say shit like that. Reputation of being a bear.

[James Pietragallo]

For being a bear, for being a hairy, hairy gay man. A big hairy man who has some jizz in his fur.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He gets after it.

[James Pietragallo]

He gets after it, boy. I'll tell you what. Saturday night, uh huh. Tyler's best chance for Sex with a hairy man is Jim Wade, we found out. So the prosecution, their main thing is, look, we have a videotape confession and they on purpose didn't videotape him recanting it because then that could have been brought in for the test that was passed.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So all they have for a videotape is him saying, I did it, and nothing else that they can see. And also they have some scientific evidence that they're gonna present. Yeah. Okay. So they bring up Deputy James Lindsay. He described removing Sharon, his mother, from the room at the sheriff's direction, and telling Tyler that Christie had blamed him. Then bringing Christie in for what he called a 22nd private talk with Tyler. Tyler, this deputy testified that Tyler then waived his rights again on video and said he wanted to tell the truth. Wow. Also, the deputy, Tommy Whitfield, he testifies that this is crazy. Sharon, Tyler's mother, quote, continuously interfered with the interrogation.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's 13 present.

[James Pietragallo]

She should be in the. Never mind knocking on the door, what's going on? She should be in the room saying, don't fucking answer that. That's what she should do. She's essentially his attorney at that point. That's crazy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

13 year old just sit there and tell you things.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. And that he and Lindsay separated her because Tyler's initial story that Joey waved goodbye didn't match Christie's account that Joey was already dead when they went to the car. So that's why. That's why that he shouldn't have his rights because they don't believe him. Yeah, we don't believe you. You have the right to all these rights unless we don't believe you. And then it's all out the window and it's dirty pool till the end. Wow. Then they bring in Dr. Stephen Hayne. Now, I'm gonna be careful about what I say and I'm gonna go by things because there's been lawsuits about this guy, okay? Oh, he was, at the time, Mississippi's most prolific forensic pathologist. He was the guy. He was the expert in the state. He performed about 1500 autopsies a year in a state that had about 1500 cases needing autopsy. He's the guy, okay? He's always the guy. Testifying always for the prosecution and never, never helps the defense. What he says, never, never. In Tyler's trial, he testified that based on his analysis of the bullet's trajectory and the wound in Joey's head, he could determine that. This is fucking insane. Two sets of hands had been on the gun when it was fired. What? He said he could determine by the trajectory of the bullet that two people pulled the trigger simultaneously.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How? Show me the. What? Show me the information. Does he say what information led him to that?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't. Dude, this is like. This was like. I guess maybe if jurors. Like, this was like, when CSI was new, so, like, oh, they do magical shit. They know everything. You know what I mean? Maybe that's what it was or whatever. But two people pulled the trigger. He said it's just a trajectory. From calculating the trajectory, I know that two fingers pulled the trigger.

[Jimmy Wisman]

One finger's force is not strong enough to activate the primer that sends that bullet on its way.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, if it did, it would have been an inch to the left. Goes this way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It would have.

[James Pietragallo]

You can tell the wiggle.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a technical term.

[James Pietragallo]

I call it. I call it the dual finger wiggle. That. It does wiggle, waggle. It gives a little. One of these, and it's just kind of off.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This one just went. Therefore. I know two fingers pulled.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a double finger thing. See, now there was too much force for that bullet to go any other way. See, now that's right. What the.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How would he justify saying something as dumb as that?

[James Pietragallo]

The trajectory. Now, on cross examination, I know, I'm like, what the fuck?

[Jimmy Wisman]

How do you. I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, dude, I'm with you. So on cross examination, the defense attorney must have been, like, salivating to get at this guy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What school did you go to that taught you that?

[James Pietragallo]

Jesus. He said, well, I could not exclude one person completely, but however, quote, I would favor that a second party would be involved in that. The positioning of the weapon, it would be consistent with two people involved. I can't exclude one, but I think it would be less likely. I cannot imagine. Again, we've done this 676 times, and for every case we do, I read 40 cases, so I've read thousands and thousands. I've never ever, ever, ever heard of anybody saying this is a scientific thing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a crazy thing to say out loud, right? It seems based on trajectory, meaning the aiming of the weapon had to be two people. But if.

[James Pietragallo]

If the way they're saying it was

[Jimmy Wisman]

held, one guy can aim that gun any fucking. He could hold it above his fucking head, anything.

[James Pietragallo]

Put it between his legs, hey, fire went off there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hold it with his butt cheeks for Christ.

[James Pietragallo]

Fucking great. The whole thing's crazy. Crazy. It's insanity.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Silly thing to say behind the back,

[James Pietragallo]

you know, hey, look at me. I'm Fancy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I didn't go to college. Maybe he's got some more information that he needs to tell us.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not a scientist. No, but that's his explanation. There's no, like. Well, based on this. Like a chart with numbers on it where you can calculate. None of that. He just goes trajectory. It's two people.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's obvious.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay, so they bring in Marcus Sullivan, who's a father of Tyler's friend. And he said that a phone call came on May 14, 2003. Now, that's the same day. They were already in jail and all that. That's when Tyler recanted his story. So he said Tyler called the house, asked had I heard about Joey, and I said I had. There was a pause, and I asked him, did you do it? And he said, yes, sir.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Again, he's so polite. I'll say.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what you're supposed to do.

[James Pietragallo]

The defense presents their case and Tyler testifies. He's gotta.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Gotta.

[James Pietragallo]

He's gotta. Because they have. Everything is going against him, and they need to put his. Before he gets too old to look this cute. They need to put his ass up there before he starts growing a goatee and tell them how innocent he is

[Jimmy Wisman]

or gets a prison tattoo to fit in.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So Tyler's gonna testify like we said, because, honestly, he has to. So he's up on the stand and he is recanting his confession, obviously saying none of that's true. And he gave the story we gave before. I was outside and she came out, told me to put a wallet in there. So on cross examination, when asked by the prosecutor if he lied in his videotape statement. Yeah. He said, yes, sir, I did. And they said, and how did you lie? And he said, by saying I had something to do with the murder of Joey Fulghum. And they said, why did you lie? And he said, to protect my sister. Okay, there you go. So they questioned him then about the letters he and his sister tried to illegally pass back and forth at the jail, and if she had tricked him to lie to protect her. And he said, this is Tyler. Just because someone you care about does something to hurt you, that's no reason to love them any less. So they're like, well, why were you exchanging notes with her and shit after she forced you to confess to a murder you didn't commit? Yeah, what up with that? And that's his answer was, listen, I still love her.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's still my sister of white trash. We stick together, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, I guess so. Yeah. Or they hold grudges for no reason for 40 years. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If you kill my hog, I'll fucking slaughter your whole family.

[James Pietragallo]

If your grandfather killed my grandfather's hog, that's not even you. He said that Christy had admitted to him that she shot Joey, promised nothing would happen to him because he was only 13, begged him to take or share the blame so she could avoid the death penalty and maybe raise her children. He said he was outside. He heard the pop and only learned later what happened, though. So this is all kind of up in the air now. Closing arguments. The da, Patricia Favor. She tells the jury that Tyler was fully aware of and in control of the decisions he made. Fully aware. She said. He knows right from wrong. What he did was wrong. That's all there is to it. Okay. The defense here, they argue the confession is false. It's a product of fear and manipulation by not only the police, but Christie also. And that the trial judge refused to admit Tyler's recantation, his later when he came in.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

They only let in the first one. They didn't let that in as evidence, which is kind of ridiculous, I think. Why is that more true than this? It's still him talking, so.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Because it makes our case better.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. That's why the judge is not supposed. The judge is supposed to be neutral.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So the jury only heard the confession. They never heard Tyler say he lied. Now, the defense in their closing, said there's no fingerprint evidence linking Tyler to anything. They did not do any gunshot residue testing. There's no blood evidence linking Tyler to the scene. He said the entire case was a videotape and this pathologist's opinion about two people shooting someone based on a trajectory. So he said, that's really what you got? Some wild, wild statement, Some wild scientific fucking hypothesizing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And a videotape made by a pressured 13 year old by both the cops and his sister. Okay. The jury deliberates for six hours.

[Jimmy Wisman]

None of them remember being 13.

[James Pietragallo]

No. So they're talking about it. Six hours is a long time. Now, when the judge opened the verdict, the defense attorney, Jim Wade, said he saw something he'd never forgot. After watching that, he said, when the jury verdict was returned, I saw a smile on the judge's face when he looked at the verdict. It had been clear to me throughout the trial that he believed that Tyler was guilty and wanted him convicted.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I've never seen a judge smile.

[James Pietragallo]

No. No matter what. Even if they're even in the Sarah fucking Boone case, the Judge kept his his mouth and you know.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, they poker faced the shit out of that.

[James Pietragallo]

Even Lori Vallow, who broke this judge's balls non stop for a whole fucking trial and insisted on representing herself, didn't know the law even. He didn't fucking give a shit away. This guy smiled and he is found guilty of capital murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A 13 year old.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is about to face the worst part of prison.

[James Pietragallo]

And so now they can't send him to the death penalty. No death penalty because he's so young. But the judge says to him here in sentencing, you eighth grader, youngster, you, kid who's late for math class may fuck off. Life with parole. He'll be eligible for parole at age 65. What? Yes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

42 years, 50, dude. Holy shit, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he's 14 years old at this point. This is insanity. That's crazy.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's certainly the one that did all this.

[James Pietragallo]

It's all him, man. Holy. This is Tyler on going to jail. He's a child. I mean, he's a fucking child. He says, quote, they pushed my mom out and they put me in handcuffs in a padded cell. There's no toilet, no bed, just a little hunch of concrete on the floor. The death penalty would be so much better than sitting here 24 hours a day for the rest of my life.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A 14 year old said that?

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. Now his mom Sharon on her first visit said, quote, I'll never forget, he was crying when I went to leave. He was screaming, mama, please don't leave me here. It was horrible. Yeah. Imagine having to leave your kid there

[Jimmy Wisman]

like you're dropping off a fucking kindergartner

[James Pietragallo]

to pre up at 2.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Don't leave me here. I don't know these people.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know these people. Oh, and there's people trying to stab me also. That's also bad.

[Jimmy Wisman]

There's no fruit cups. We've all got shivs.

[James Pietragallo]

It's so bad. Tyler is sent to Walnut Grove, which sounds pleasant, it doesn't sound bad, sounds great. But it's actually America's worst juvenile prison.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is that right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. From what I understand, this is a for profit facility.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

I've read books about people going undercover as guards in for profit facilities based. And I've also read books where they're not. Where they're state run, not for profit. And the difference is remarkable in this. And the state pays the same amount of money. That's the fucked up part. They pretty much pay the same amount of money. It's just the. Everybody gets way less Everything. Services, medical care.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. And the state washes their hands of liability of everything. That's all.

[James Pietragallo]

And. Yeah, and they don't ever have any liability either. Well, they end up. Because they end up fucking up so much that they end up getting constant lawsuits against them because they put untrained guards that make barely any money in with these people. The one I read about in Louisiana, the guy was saying how people that were guards there were just waiting for a spot at Walmart to open up so they could quit. We've talked about this before.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm telling you that Walmart is such a fun place.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a magnet, man. You gotta go there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Employment and video games. Come on, man.

[James Pietragallo]

That's all there is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a great day.

[James Pietragallo]

This is where they send him. It's the largest juvenile prison in the United States. A for profit facility that houses kids as young as age 13 alongside inmates up to age 22.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Nice.

[James Pietragallo]

Which is. Yeah, you don't want those people in the same fucking place. The guard to inmate ratio is one to 60. 60 inmates for every one guard. The recommended ratio is 10 to one. 10 guards or 10 inmates to one.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Makes sense.

[James Pietragallo]

To 60. This is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You don't even have that in high school, man. It's 30 to 1.

[James Pietragallo]

And everyone's complaining about that because it's not good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And most of those kids don't fucking break the law.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they're not. Haven't been sentenced as fucking felons. So here's some specific areas of criticism from lawsuits, audits, court records and Department of Justice investigations. Staff sexual misconduct and failure to protect. The DOJ called it, quote, among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation with respect to misconducts occurring at least monthly. Female staff nurses and officers engaged in intercourse, oral sex, exposure and inappropriate touching. Molesting kids is what that is. Fucking examples include a nurse continuing sex in a restroom while yelling at an interrupting officer, hey, get out. I'm getting railed in here. Fuck off. I'm trying to commit crimes in this room with children.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Where's that news story? Why isn't that fucking front page?

[James Pietragallo]

You don't hear about this.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's crazy.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm telling you. Also a staff providing cell phones, money and contraband to the inmates, which is how everything gets into every fucking jail. I think it gets in. No effective prevention, training or reporting, despite felony laws for minors or victim support staff also failed to report allegations to supervisors or authorities. If they walked and saw a nurse fucking a kid, they'd just go oh, my bad. I'll come back later.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sorry to interrupt.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. An excessive. Excessive use of force by staff. They said a clear pattern of using force as a first resort rather than a last resort. Violating constitutional standards. And like I said, these are all allegations. Some of them proven, some not. This included beatings, kicks, stomps, chokes, drags and slamming. Handcuffed or defenseless youth. Excessive pepper spray. Entire cans emptied into cells for minor issues like bucking the food flap or slow compliance like slamming it. I guess whatever you're doing to a food flap isn't worthy of being fucking. You know a whole food flap?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Generally on the outside anyway.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, it's gotta open. Yeah, I guess so. I guess it would.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You know what I mean?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. They don't give it inside that way. You could probably cut your wrist on it. If it open inside.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I guess you hammer it back at them. I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. Maybe popping it open to talk to people.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, that's probably what bucking it is.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Probably flipping it for making noise about something.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. Reporting and investigations were inadequate or falsified. Meaning boilerplate language. No injury photos, no medical record reviews. You could be. Dude, you could have. The amount that has to be wrong with you for you to get medical care in a for profit prison is. They have to find you, they gotta find you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Unresponsive.

[James Pietragallo]

Pretty much. That's it. Yeah. You're not getting anything otherwise. Videos and youth interviews confirmed routine overuse of force. Only minimal discipline occurred despite 160 logged incidents with many unreported. That was from December 2009 to November 2010. They had 160 logged incidents of.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's where this kid is spending 50 years.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. Oh, failure.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. 52 until he's 22 and then they send him somewhere else. Right.

[James Pietragallo]

To a worse place. Probably a place with more dangerous people who are more experienced criminals.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Failure to protect from youth on youth violence and sexual assaults. Deliberate indifference to serious risks with inadequate supervision. Poor classification and proliferation of weapons, shanks from light fixtures, etc. Frequent stabbings, beatings and gang related assaults. 91 emergency transports for violence in one year.

[Jimmy Wisman]

One year. 90 people.

[James Pietragallo]

91. Including brain damaging incidents, sexual assaults. At least six were criminally referred. Involving four days. Yep. Involving shanks to the throat during rapes. Knife point fucking kid on kid rape here. Staff sometime enabled the attacks, unlocking cells for gang hits. That's an allegation, obviously. Or ignored them due to low oversight. Gang activity was rampant.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Child oz.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Good lord.

[James Pietragallo]

Inadequate Mental health care and suicide prevention. Deliberate indifference to serious needs with grossly insufficient staffing, which is basically. Wow. 0.08 psychiatrists and 1.25 psychologists for 1200 kids. Wow. Yeah. No help. No help.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's just a quagmire of misbehavior that's not gonna ever get fixed.

[James Pietragallo]

It's just a big. A big fucking cesspool. They throw the kids in and collect their fucking dirty profits. That's all it is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And let it get worse. We don't care.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's my opinion anyway, on for profit prisons because that's ugly. Can't make a blanket statement like that without saying opinion. And allegedly. But this is. It's fucking gross. Let's just put it that way.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If these are the allegations and these are the reports coming out of these places, you gotta. You gotta fix that.

[James Pietragallo]

You gotta fix that. No crisis or intervention therapy, chronic care or proper suicide protocols. Erratic medication, long delays in evaluation meaning months poor monitoring and misuse of isolation. Multiple suicides attempts. One youth was found cold to the touch with rigor after a delayed response. Cold to the touch. You know how long that takes?

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know. I'm tough on crime.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. Yeah, and you could. That's the fucked up part. A politician could put a fucking commercial on going, when I put them away, they kill themselves. We don't even find them till they're cold.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And they're cold to the touch.

[James Pietragallo]

He'll get voted in for that check. That's insane. Staff lacked training. Self harm was under tracked. Inadequate medical care. Deliberate indifference to serious needs. Intake exams were incomplete. No proper equipment. Youth standing in bare rooms. No full checks. Sick call access delayed or blocked by staff. Chronic conditions, for example. High blood pressure, untreated. Jesus Christ, Mississippi. You got to watch what you're eating down there. You got teenagers with high blood pressure, for Christ's sake. Wow.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sometimes high blood pressure isn't just diet. It's just environment and how you're fucking your body's responding to.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, but also the life expectancy is like 18 years lower than the rest of the country there because they eat fried shit 24 hours a day and

[Jimmy Wisman]

pour gravy on it.

[James Pietragallo]

And pour gravy on fried shit. Yeah, well, they fry the gravy too. You gotta fry. It's fried gravy right there. You know what that is?

[Jimmy Wisman]

It has a nice crust and then it oozes out. It's like a gravy ball. It pops.

[James Pietragallo]

It sounds great. I'd love a gravy Popper. Don't think I wouldn't, you know. Yeah. If I was 16.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm 45 and a mess.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, I'm not eating that now. Jesus Christ. I'll stay up all night fucking counting my heartbeats if I ate that now, like I'm too stoned going, yeah, except it might. It's not just your mind playing tricks on you. It might actually be, I might die. I might die. Untreated medication errors and missed doses. No quality assurance or pediatric expertise. Grievances universally cited. Access failures, emergency spikes that went unanalyzed. Also inadequate training and staffing and supervision. A 2005 state audit found a 60 to 1 guard to inmate ratio or inmate to guard ratio. Not the recommended 12 or 10 to 12 to 1. Worsening with population growth and geo takeover. I think that's the company officers supervised 128 to 256 youth at once. Panic buttons failed, keys were missing and areas like education and showers went unmonitored. So they don't have the people for this, the staff for this. You can't run a prison if you don't have enough fucking people or room for these shit. For this shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

What is happening?

[Jimmy Wisman]

If you don't have the personnel, you don't have a prison.

[James Pietragallo]

They don't have.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's just the way it goes. I went to Jersey Mike's the other day, James, they didn't have bread. I said, you don't have a sandwich

[James Pietragallo]

shop, you don't have a place.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's what it is. If you don't have the ingredients, you don't have the building.

[James Pietragallo]

You go to McDonald's and they say, we're at a beef. You go, all right, well, see you later.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You don't have a hamburger stand. What are you talking about?

[James Pietragallo]

You don't have shit. Okay. They said that the offense, all that panic buttons failed, everything like that. Inadequate training on force, misconduct, mental health or juvenile needs, life safety systems sabotaged or broken. Also gang affiliations among staff.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Gangsters running the place.

[James Pietragallo]

Yup. Deliberate indifference to staff. Gang ties, for example. Unit managers affiliated with gangs, which leads to favoritism, weapon provision, targeted assaults on non affiliated youth and conflicts of interest. Yeah, that's why they're saying they're letting people do things. They're opening doors for gang hits. They said. They said the ethical failures and broader operational failures are. They have for profit incentives, basically. Operators, they're allegedly cutting corners on staff training and services to maximize profits from per diem payments, which are 14 plus million dollars a year from the state. Also underreporting and cover ups. They said a lot of shit is covered up. Corruption ties, the FBI in their operation. Mississippi Hustle exposed kickbacks in the mdoc. Private prison contracts. Mississippi Department of Corrections private prison contracts, including Commissioner Chris Epps and others. Though this post dated peak juvenile critiques. Yeah. Also high rate of injury fights, assaults on staff, attempted suicides. Many nonviolent offenders exposed to adult like brutality. This is ridiculous. In 2010, a Department of justice investigation found systematic, egregious and dangerous practices finding that staff had sex with incarcerated youth. Guards brutally beat inmates and used excessive pepper spraying as a first response. All the gang stuff.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Terribly, terribly mismanaged.

[James Pietragallo]

A federal judge called it, quote, a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts. I think that sums it up in fucking six words. No.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What do you do in that situation? How does a federal judge allow this shit to keep going?

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. That company should be stripped of their. If this is true and that's what they find, then a company that has that found about them should have their ability to be a company that does this stripped away. They would close it used to exist again. They would close your Jersey mics. If it was in this bad shape, they would fucking shut it down. If you walked in and there were stabbings by the bathroom and the meat had bugs crawling all over it and the staff was raping you, they'd probably shut the doors, right.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If you walk in and the sandwich guy says, what up, blood? Yeah, they're probably not gonna let them.

[James Pietragallo]

What up, blood? Get them pants off and then put a shank to your neck. I think they would close the fucking place down.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What sets you claim that's not? Welcome to Jersey mice.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's not. Can I get you one of our world famous subs? Wow. Tyler said there are things that I saw and experience that I don't think any child should ever have to experience. Yeah. Yeah. His mom and his lawyer are not giving up though.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's good.

[James Pietragallo]

This is when she sells her house.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Sharon's just going to go bankrupt. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She says she'll stay. She went into debt and she'll carry it for the rest of her life. And she doesn't care. She said Tyler's defense was pretty expensive, but I had liquidated everything I had and I'll be in debt for the rest of my life. It's about saving my child's life. And when you go to save your child's life, what's your child's life Worth. What's your child's life worth?

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a good question.

[James Pietragallo]

I guess your house, I guess everything. And his lawyer, because he keeps getting paid, never stops fighting. Motions for a new trial are denied by the circuit court and the state court Court of appeals. Tyler's case became the subject of a lot of public debate. And also a lot of state lawmakers were talking about new laws because they felt the sentence was too harsh for a 13 year old. Now, 2006, Christie is going to be sentenced for her escape attempt. Remember that? This isn't even sentenced her for trial yet. Wow. No, for the escape attempt, you, ma', am, may fuck off. Four years extra years in prison, consecutive, onto whatever she gets. And then possessing contraband in prison, she gets eight years for that. Dang longer than trying to escape, which seems insane, right? I think that's backwards. So that's consecutive also. So that's 12 years. And that'll be run consecutive to anything else that she gets.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I guess it makes sense because without the contraband, the escape doesn't exist, I suppose.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, you could try to escape with it. People escape before cell phones all the time. That.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That particular contraband.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Facilitates this.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know if I'm just sitting in my cell with a cell phone, that's eight years. That seems.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's the thing. If. If it doesn't. If it doesn't couple up with an escape, then it shouldn't be more. But I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

And this isn't like an extra charge of contraband used in the furtherance, it's just possessing contraband. So they just gave her the max, I feel like, is what it was probably. I assume not everybody gets that for having a cell phone. It was a long time, Christy. For her trial, the judge removes himself from presiding over the trial because he was the guy who did the Tyler case and said some really heavy duty things, apparently, at the end of the trial.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, really?

[James Pietragallo]

About what a piece of shit he was and how Christie was also. Basically, they were just a cabal of shit. And so they were like, you can't have that guy oversee her trial. He already decided she's a piece of shit. Like, we can't do that. So he recused himself, which is good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. He already judicially called her a piece of shit.

[James Pietragallo]

Let's move on. You've been adjudicated a shit pile. What do you expect? So the Kerr trial's gonna be moved out of this county. A judge rules because of all the publicity from Tyler's Trial. The judge granted the change of venue after prosecutors didn't object either. They said that there would have been impossible to get a jury, so the prosecutors knew it, too. There's a list of four proposed counties that they can go to. Whatever. Now, during her trial. Here we go. Here is the evidence against her. Okay. Fingerprint on a recently unscrewed security bulb. That's bad. Missing wallet with $1,000 cash. And the missing computer supporting the robbery element of capital murder.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And the $1,000, she blew it down there on the Gulf Coast. That's fucked up.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. Blew her dead husband's money. Allegedly. All paycheck, all of it. Pissed it away on her boyfriend, insurance policies and her inquiries therein. Her father's testimony about a gun request and a Cadillac bribe. Her boyfriend Kyle's testimony about her having tons of cash while she's unemployed when they're on the Gulf. Her family testimony. Or his family. Joey's meeting Shannon about the paycheck. Danny on the gun request. Her own statements blaming Tyler for this murder, which he wouldn't have done that unless she put him up to it. And letters and circumstantial evidence tying her to the planning and cleanup. That one from Kyle about she's getting a bunch of money. And also the letter she wrote to Tyler in jail. So they have a lot on her side. She's gonna plead.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, by the way, death penalty on the table. No, no, we're going to trial. Going to trial. Death penalty.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She may be a gal, but she got a hell of a set of balls.

[James Pietragallo]

She got a set of fucking clowns on this one. Wow. Cousin Randy takes the stand. This is Tyler's cousin Randy. Remember the kid who said that there was guns and Tyler couldn't pull it back? And he told about the two caliber rifles, that there was only one after that. And he said the one, the older model, came up missing just about the time that Joey was killed. That gun was never found, is what Randy says. So I think we know what the murder weapon was. Now the trial court permits the state to present evidence of a possible romantic relationship between Kristi and Tyler. Yeah, we don't have proof of this or anything. I don't think Tyler said it happened. I don't know rumors and any words. I mean, she fucks everybody. So, you know. Is that the thing? I mean, she fucks everybody else. She knows that's not evidence. She failed to object. Her side failed to object to that at the time, by the way, also, which is interesting, they object later when they Have a witness named Vanessa Davis come up and answer the state's questions regarding the relationship with her brother, an alleged romantic relationship. Vanessa Davis said that Christie had come to her about a gun as well. She said that Christie wanted to shoot a stray dog and asked her and request a gun for her to do it. Why does she want to shoot a stray dog?

[Jimmy Wisman]

She's diabolical. And that proves it then. I mean, you're just going to shoot a random ass dog that walks by?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't even know this dog.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She'll kill anything.

[James Pietragallo]

Dude, I want to shoot this stray dog. Wow. So over a hearsay. Objection. Davis testified that about a month prior to Joey's death, Christy had complained about a stray dog and asked Davis for her grandmother's gun to shoot it. So they further objected later on when the state asked Davis how many times she had requested the gun. It's overruled. Davis responds, three times. That dog is causing some trouble. Christie argues that the statements constituted inadmissible hearsay, and if inadmissible, that their probative value was outweighed, or if admissible, the probative value was outweighed by the prejudicial effect. But they testified that this. Davis testified that Christy and Joey, quote, were supposed to be getting back together and working things out. And then the state asked, okay, but what did Christy tell you? And she said that, you know, she was. It wasn't going to work out, basically. So she said it wasn't going to work out. Can I get your gun? To shoot a stray dog?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Well, what about your relationship? Ah, fuck it. This dog's gotta die.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. He's gotta go now. During the closing arguments, the prosecution here says, talking about the light bulb, fingerprints says, quote, nothing I have heard has led me to believe that she was the kind of person who would expend the time or the effort it took to replace one of these security lights. The testimony I've heard over the past two days suggests that she would have waited for someone else, like Joey or her brother to do it for her. So she wasn't just out changing light bulbs. They never would touch them. Yeah, she wouldn't do that. Yeah, she would tell someone else to do it. Then he says a quote from Christie, quote, this is from that letter. I personally don't like to struggle. I would do anything to ensure that I don't ever have to struggle. He said, those are Christy Fulghum's words, not mine. I told you yesterday that it was all about the money. And I think you can see that's what I meant. Then he goes on to quote her more. And it's in her handwriting. As I type, it's in her handwriting. To struggle may be an inconvenience, but it's something that we all have to do. The prosecutor said Christie Fulghum had to have someone provide for her, to take care of her. She would run off to see other men, live with them, and live it up. And then when she had spent all of the money, all of their money, she would come back. She always came back to Joe. She's like Sharon Stone in casino. Essentially. She's up getting some old guy to do coke all weekend, and then she goes back home with Bobby D. God damn it. So Clark reiterated a point that he had made earlier in the trial, that in order for Christie to live off of her estranged husband, she had to live with him. He said to this defendant, Joey Fulghum's life was worth $305,000 of life insurance, plus $1,000 cash. Then he goes back through the evidence that they had and been admitted and the testimony and everything else, and he said the crime must be considered a capital murder because Christie killed Joey while in the act of robbing him in his wallet of $1,000 in cash. The defense attorney states in his closing that. The closing. The prosecution's arguments, they're trying to confuse the jury by claiming that Christie was trying to steal Joey's wallet when he was killed. That was the whole crux of the this. I'm gonna steal your wallet. And he said, no. So she shot him. He said that Mr. Clark mentioned repeatedly, this case is all about money. Okay, let's go with that. What money? The money in the wallet. And then he said, why would Christy kill Joey over $1,000 in cash if she was already receiving cash payments from him and Ray woods, her daughter Hallie's father, for child support. Because she wants more.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's why it's not enough, because more money's more money.

[James Pietragallo]

He said that even if Christy Fulghum had killed her husband for his insurance money, that still wouldn't constitute capital murder. But the lesser charge of murder, okay,

[Jimmy Wisman]

sure, but she took 1000 and the computer.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And it was premeditated. She'd been doing this for a while.

[James Pietragallo]

She'd been asking to borrow. And he goes on to say, if someone was planning a murder, do they go around saying, hey, can I borrow your gun? Hey, can I borrow your gun? That's the prosecution stance. Well, no one said she was good at planning murder. They just said she's doing it. People are terrible at murder. That's why we have 677 episodes of this. Cuz they're not good at it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Just because she's dumb as shit doesn't mean she's innocent.

[James Pietragallo]

It's fucking stupid. So the final statements by the prosecution now they say greed. That's what this case is all about. It wasn't just about the insurance money. She didn't have to steal the wallet and the thousand dollars, but she just couldn't help herself. Her greed is why you are here. She couldn't leave without the thousand dollars. She can sit there and cry all she wants. And this is a Southern woman saying too, she can sit here and cry all she wants. You know, that's how it sounds. But the bottom line is she killed her husband in his own bed, in his own house, while he slept. And then she went and spent every dime of his money. Yeah, whole paycheck, everything. She spent all that money and all along her husband and the father of her kids. Two of them anyway, that's my thing. There was laying dead in a pool of his own blood. She may have killed him for the insurance money, but. She may have killed him for the insurance money, but she killed him for the money in his wallet as well. And that's why she's guilty of capital fucking murder. I added the fucking two. Okay, verdict comes in here. 45 minutes of deliberation for those.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, that's fast.

[James Pietragallo]

That is how long it takes to fill the forms out.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They hate or love her.

[James Pietragallo]

Hate her or love her. She is found guilty of capital murder, obviously. Now sentencing comes around death penalty. Sitting there like a big fat meatball. Oh boy. Waiting. Okay, she calls four mitigation witnesses. A psychiatrist named Marc Webb. Her mom, Carol. Her longtime friend, Sarah Ferguson. Yeah, we both went. Isn't that somebody? That's the duchess in the Epstein files. Oh, that's Prince Andrew's ex wife. That's Prince Andrew's ex wife.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She sucks.

[James Pietragallo]

Remember when we were kids, the only thing we knew about her was they would always show on the National Enquirer or whatever, the tabloids. There'd be black bar pictures of her topless on a French beach. And they're like, I don't want to see her.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We should have known, right?

[James Pietragallo]

What are we doing?

[Jimmy Wisman]

They were redacting her titties for years.

[James Pietragallo]

Titties redacted. Not for legal reasons. They just weren't very good.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They're just British.

[James Pietragallo]

They're Just British.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Just British royalty. Titties.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. No good. No good. Covered in freckles. So they also a licensed social worker, Adrian Dorsey Kidd. Okay. Now, Webb testified, he's the psychiatrist. That he performed a psychiatric assessment of her inside the county jail. Okay. He said that Christy suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder with dependent personality traits. Okay. He said that he based his opinion on information from her, namely that she was raped by her biological father when she was 11. One of her stepfathers was an alcoholic who abused her mother, and that one of her mother's boyfriends had neglected her. Okay. Mom. Testified Carol Morgan. She said that Christie's biological father was absent during her infancy and that he never paid child support. And testified about their frequent moves. And that she was married and divorced several times. In addition to having various male friends whom she and Christie had lived with throughout her formative years. And that two of her husbands were abusive alcoholics.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Rotating door of bad men.

[James Pietragallo]

Just bad people. Her friend Sarah Ferguson testifies that Christie often came over to her house as a teenager because Christie's stepfather was, quote, scary and mean.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Pietragallo]

She also introduced various pictures of Christie's children and testified that Christie was a good mother and her children were important to her. Finally, the social worker. The state objected to her testimony, saying she's a licensed social worker. She's not a psychiatrist, not a psychologist, and I don't believe. And everything she would be testifying to would be hearsay. And I'd like to object to any testimony that she has of this time. So they're saying she's just going to say what Kristi told her, and she's not a psychiatrist or psychologist to do that. So that would be just any other normal person doing hearsay at that point, Just another friend. The court overrules the objection. Okay. So they called her and questioned her in regards to her qualifications as a licensed social worker. When Christy said that, when they tried to have her be an expert in the field of social work, the state asked the court whether she was being accepted strictly in the area of social work and not psychiatry or psychology. And the court said yes. And the state said, okay, no objection to social work. And she was accepted as an expert in the field of social work. All right. She said she'd been hired to complete an intensive social history of Christie, which had involved reviewing documents, interviewing numerous people, and having three meetings with Christie. Sure. The state then objected when the social worker was asked, Ms. Kidd, did you reach any conclusions or make any observations in completing your intensive social history? The state Argued that she is not authorized to give opinions in the areas set forth in her report. She's a social worker, not a psychiatrist. Sure, sure. The court sustained the objection and allowed Christie to make an offer of proof outside the presence of the jury. So this turned into a get the jury out so sidebar. In her proffer, she testified this social worker to four observations that she made, which was the lack of parental bonding, substance abuse by her mom and her stepfathers, lack of a biological father's input. Did you need to put it like that?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jesus Christ.

[James Pietragallo]

Does that. Why? Why every time do they say the worst word? Why? Why every time we do this, do they say the worst after a woman's been raped?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, I mean, allegedly, yeah. We don't have any evidence of it. We just have her claims. But still, those claims had already been laid out and made.

[James Pietragallo]

Father's input is what we're doing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Can't say that.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. And then, of course, the love for her children. The court ruled that her testimony was not such a high degree of expertise and skill that it was outside the knowledge of a layperson, and that the jury could arrive at these conclusions based on evidence already admitted. So they allowed her to. That was all outside the jury. So they allowed this social worker to introduce into evidence drawings, cards, and letters made by Christie's children. That's pretty much what she testified to. So this goes to the jury. In Mississippi, the jury is the only people that can pronounce a death sentence. So it goes to the jury. They deliberate for 58 minutes. Okay. It's not very long.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Are they deciding how they want to do?

[James Pietragallo]

Takes longer to figure out what you're having for dinner most nights. This is wild. And they say, you, ma', am, I'll get the gavel. You, ma' am may fuck off. Death by lethal injection.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

She got the death penalty, and they

[Jimmy Wisman]

don't want to do it. Like, that's too easy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they're like lethal injection. She will be only one of four women on Mississippi's death row, by the way. Wow. So that's a nice little environment. They can do each other's hair. It'd be very nice. It could be good. It could be, you know, like a slumber party almost.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They'd rather tie her down and let ole Miss trample her as marching band

[James Pietragallo]

like Naked Gun and shit.

[Jimmy Wisman]

We only get to do that's not fair. From the blind side to stomp on her.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what we need. How about that? Get Sandra Bullock, too. Fuck it. 2007, Tyler appeals okay. Now, in letters to the court, his parents, or I'm sorry, Joey's parents, expressed how the dead man, obviously how their death has affected them. And they said, my hope is that God will keep Christie and Tyler in jail until they die of natural causes.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Jesus Christ. He's a baby.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what Joey's mom wrote. Ann Cash. I think she's the one who married the young guy. Okay. Or young looking guy. Defense attorney Jim Wade said several issues would be attacked on appeal, including that experts on false confessions were not allowed to testify. They excluded them. And that Tyler's mother was not present when he gave his confession and that certain evidence was excluded during the trial. Okay. Now, the court's Mississippi Supreme Court said, quote, no physical evidence linked Edmonds to the crime.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

Then said, we find Dr. Haynes. He's the guy who said, trajectory means double rifle guy. We find Dr. Haynes. Conclusion that two persons pulled the trigger simultaneously scientifically unfounded and unreliable.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Unbelievably ridiculous.

[James Pietragallo]

The court also ruled that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence of Christie's motives, her abuse allegations, her life insurance inquiry, her attempt to get a gun, and her statements about wanting Joey dead. None of those came in.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay, so they overturn his conviction. Yeah, they overturn it and they order a new trial.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh.

[James Pietragallo]

Problem is, the court did not throw out his confession. That is still allowed to be brought into a second trial. Sure. They said. Which is really the only evidence is what the defense attorney said, and he will urge his client to do whatever. So the Supreme Court also cited discrepancies in testimony and throughout the conviction because they say Edmonds didn't get a fair trial. Yeah, yeah. They say the state's theory of the two guns, that was. They said, quote, they put on this doctor and let him say that from looking at the bullet hole, he could see that a likelihood that two people were holding the gun, which is totally ridiculous.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This is one of those two people. One trigger. Gunshots.

[James Pietragallo]

Dude, it could have been set up on a trip wire holding the fucking trigger, and you wouldn't know it. You would have no idea based on trajectory whatsoever.

[Jimmy Wisman]

A hole's a hole, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. The presiding judge writing for the Supreme Court said that the only evidence that was involved in the murder was Christie's allegations and a disputed confession. This judge said Tyler had absolutely no motive to kill Joey other than to please Christy. Tyler had no expectation of financial gain from Joey's death. Christie, on the other hand, had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to kill Joey. He also Said the trial judge aired by excluding the testimony of Danny Edmonds, Christie's father, who told law enforcement that she asked him for a pistol because she wanted Joey dead. That wasn't allowed in his trial. That was only allowed in Christie's trial, which is silly. So they did not address the confession though, other than to note that it was disputed. Judge Oliver Diaz wrote separately in the ruling that Circuit Court Judge James Kitchens Jr. Erred when he allowed the confession. He said the sheriff acted improperly and violated the state's Youth Court act when he barred Edmund's mother from the room before a three hour interrogation. He writes on the videotape, just as he finishes confessing, one can see Tyler's mother force herself into the interrogation room because she just popped in. They didn't even get her. She just said, how long are they going to keep my kid in there? To find that her son had confessed to murder. In a heart wrenching scene, Tyler tells his mother that he and Christie did it all while sobbing, head in hands, unable to stand. And he says, unfortunately, this case provides a disheartening example of the double standard applied to expert testimony in criminal cases. Meaning they took the prosecution's expert seriously, but not the defense.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How did that defense attorney with how much fucking everything of Sharon's life that she gave him? How did he not say there's zero evidence that he did it. All you got is a stupid confession and they allowed her to come in this room and talk to him before he said that?

[James Pietragallo]

No, they did. They did. That was their whole. That was the whole defense.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He was like, yeah, fucking put him away.

[James Pietragallo]

The jury watched the video of him saying he did it. That's it. That's what they based it on. Well, that day when he came in, he said he did it. And then when he found out he's in trouble now, all of a sudden he didn't do it. That's how they look at it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

After a criminal came in, an adult criminal came in and told him what to say.

[James Pietragallo]

Fucking cuffs and shackles went to talk to him, told him what to say. Talk to a code of crazy. Now they say Tyler has a big decision to make. Yeah, they said they could plea. Well, they're saying that he could. He's still not even 18 yet at this point. Yeah, so they're saying that he's sitting down with his defense attorney in the coming weeks to prepare for a new trial. They said that the most difficult choice will be likely to be whether to accept a possible plea deal or take his chances. In court, what do you do? He's 17. He's been in the worst prison for three fucking years. And he faces another decade now. He's got decades now.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's got tattoos and shit to try to not get stabbed.

[James Pietragallo]

So the lawyer said there will be enormous pressure on Tyler to engage in some type of plea bargain as to avoid that life sentence, that mandatory life sentence.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No, don't do it, Tyler.

[James Pietragallo]

He worries about the ramifications of a teenager making such important decisions. 17, you're gonna. That's a poof.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a bummer, too, because at 17 you look more menacing. Especially 17, that's been in prison for four years.

[James Pietragallo]

You've been through puberty now. That's all.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And he spent shame a fourth of his life in prison. Probably looks like dog shit. Probably has bad skin. He's going through puberty too.

[James Pietragallo]

He's probably got acne.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Ah, jail. Jail acne.

[James Pietragallo]

That's gotta be way worse than school acne. There's no Clearasil in jail. Neutrogena ain't helping his ass out. So the defense attorney said, it's putting me in a very interesting dilemma. I do not believe at age 13 that Tyler was capable of making decisions like that. Didn't have the capacity to. But at the same time, there's no clear state law that says he doesn't make those decisions. So it's been a really interesting pickle. Now what they do, though, is they free him on $75,000 bond coming up for the trial since his shit was overturned and he's a fucking child. So they said, let's let him out. And he has nowhere to go. He's not a flight risk. They measure flight risk on. All it is, is. Do you think that'll show up again? Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And a bill gets to leave.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. Capital murder. It's different. But it's also different because you have more motivation to run. But if you're 13 and you have nowhere to go, you're not going anywhere. So reaction from the Fulghum family. Joey's parents or Joey's brother said, we're living it all over again. Of course, I'll have to retestify to finding my brother dead in bed. We don't want to relive this year after year. They also believe that Tyler's confession recorded on videotape proves his guilt. They want him just to stay there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They hate him.

[James Pietragallo]

They say he offers details that only the killer could know and that the attempt to throw out the confession will only lengthen Their pain and suffering. Shannon's wife Kim said, you put your faith in the justice system and then it's all blown away. So will the defense go to the Supreme Court court to get the confession thrown out? The lawyer said that the U.S. supreme Court rarely intervenes in such issues. He said he's handled four cases where the Supreme Court has stepped in to decide questionable circumstances. He says this case has far stronger grounds for the court accepting than any of those other four that I've had accepted. So I do think there's a substantial chance they will hear it. They don't hear it. They reject the fact that they reject hearing it. Basically, yeah. So the confession stays. Okay. Okay, here are some of the people in the community here. Piping up here is Katie Porter of California of Loxley, Alabama.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

She says an injustice needs to be corrected and this child needs to go home to his mother.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Now here's a whiteboard and let me show you a math equation that proves

[James Pietragallo]

that she's an administrator for kidsincourt.net which was calling for an end to prosecuting minors as adults. And Tyler's great uncle, Kenneth Higginbotham of West Point. See, I knew the Higginbothams were related to him in some way. Says he thinks if his nephew had been an adult, he would have been treated differently. He said Tyler was just a scared 13 year old kid. Why hold on to the confession of a scared 13 year old? Now Tyler is offered a deal.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh boy. What's the deal?

[James Pietragallo]

Plead guilty to manslaughter and he could walk free in less than a year. He'll be out in less than a year if he pleads guilty to manslaughter.

[Jimmy Wisman]

What does that tell you though? That tells you the prosecutor knows he's got fucking nothing.

[James Pietragallo]

No. And this is the West Memphis Three. This is all those where they make you do an Alford plea so you can get out, so they can say some face and you can't file a lawsuit against him. Fuck him. That's why it's mainly what it is. So the defense attorney says if he'd taken the manslaughter plea, he would have been out of jail in just a few months. Whereas if he goes to trial and is convicted, he gets life in prison. So Tyler said, fuck you, take me to trial.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Atta boy.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm innocent and I'm going to prove it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He says, oh, I'm so scared.

[James Pietragallo]

I know in Mississippi J, Jesus Christ,

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'm terrified for this boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Bend over, take in the ass and walk out the door in a couple months, man. Because this is fucking Mississippi. I mean, good Lord. 2008. Tyler's second trial. Wade calls Christie to the stand. Now, this is strategic because they know she's gonna take the Fifth, but they wanna parade her in her prison. Her death row prison, garbage, shackles. Look at her. Look how much older she is. Look at her go up there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Look at the bad woman pleading the Fifth.

[James Pietragallo]

They have to give the jury someone to blame. And if she's not in the courtroom, then it's only on Tyler.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Give them their boogeyman.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. She takes the oath, then declares the Fifth and says she'll take the Fifth to every question. So even on death row, she won't say shit. But the jury gets to see her. Then they play the Montel video. Oh, that gets let in for the first time.

[Jimmy Wisman]

She looks like an asshole there. Look how much of an asshole she was before she murdered anybody.

[James Pietragallo]

Even not murdering, you still want to put her in jail, don't you? They said it was just evidence of who Christie was and the level of manipulation she was able to create, basically. And the affairs and the brazenness with which she just fucks over her husband and doesn't care. They call Danny dad, who testifies about the gun request and the Cadillac bribe. He wasn't allowed to testify in Tyler's trial either. Then they call a pathologist, a new pathologist, who says that there is no scientific way to determine how many people pulled a trigger from a bullet wound. Which everybody sitting out there right now. You knew that, right? I mean, honestly, anyone that's ever fired

[Jimmy Wisman]

a gun knows that.

[James Pietragallo]

If you're listening or watching a true crime podcast, you've. This is outside of the bounds of anything you've ever heard before, I'm sure. Correct. Tyler then testifies again. Okay, okay. They say, tyler, you were present in the courtroom when a statement you gave the police was shown to the jury. That's the confession? He says, yes, sir. They said, did you lie when you gave that statement? Yes, sir, I did. This sounded a lot like the first trial.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

They said, and how did you lie? And he said, by saying I had something to do with the murder. Why did you lie? To protect my sister. Now, this time, rather than that being on cross, that was on direct, his lawyer asked him that shit, get that shit out of the open so it doesn't look like the defense or the prosecution is pulling it out of him. Then on cross, they said, there's only one person in this courtroom who's an admitted liar. And that's the person sitting over there between his two lawyers. Later on said his whole defense is, I'm a liar. That's his defense, I'm a liar.

[Jimmy Wisman]

My confession was a 13 year old liar.

[James Pietragallo]

Weird, right? Ask a 13 year old how many times you jerked off this week, they'll lie to you.

[Jimmy Wisman]

If he says zero, lock him up.

[James Pietragallo]

He's lying. Lock him right up. He said, folks, someone who will lie to protect his sister will lie to protect himself. Okay. The defense closing said, is there any physical evidence? Is there anything other than this child's words? No, there isn't. Just this child's words. Think about that. This is a 13 year old child. The prosecutor made a very emotional argument, like he knows what happened. Well, he wasn't there and he doesn't know what happened. But I know this. He said, one day we're all going to stand there before God and we're going to give an account. If I were sitting on this jury, I'd a lot rather be up there telling God I voted that child not guilty than tell him I bore false witness against my neighbor about the Bible. Usually it's the prosecution that does that and it gets like brought up in appeal. I've never heard of the defense doing it before. That's a new one. But hey, you know what? Throw some shit at the wall. His whole strategy seemed to be flip the script.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Do what they were gonna do and use it. Yeah. Fucking B rabbit. Eight miled him.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. So verdict here.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Four hours of deliberation. Oh, that's a long time. And it comes in, judge reads it, found him not guilty.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, he did it.

[James Pietragallo]

He's found not guilty. He got guilty.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Beat Mississippi.

[James Pietragallo]

He beat Mississippi. Wow. Wow. Tyler later says, I can still hear the court clerk's voice in my head as clear as day. When she read the verdict and said, not guilty. I remember hearing that and then just wanting to get out of there. I just wanted to leave. That was probably the first time. No shit. I wouldn't get out of jail as soon as they say four years ago.

[Jimmy Wisman]

May I leave now?

[James Pietragallo]

Are we good?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Not guilty.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm going. I'll sign whatever you need to. On the way out though, is where I'm signing it. Wow. He said, I just wanted to leave. That was the first time, probably the first time that I just. Absolutely. Just because the whole weight of the world had just been lifted off of me. Sharon, his mom said, I've been relieved. I've been praying for this for almost six years. She's Been paying for it, too. Paying and praying, she said. And it's been torture, as I said.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, the good news, Sharon, is whoever you sold your house to, it's not worth a goddamn thing.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. It's 2008. So she's like, hey, sold it. Right in the nick of time.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Hey.

[James Pietragallo]

I would have lost that all. I'd rather give it to a defense lawyer to get my son off than just lose it in the market.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Just give it back to the bank.

[James Pietragallo]

Because some dickheads were shorting stuff somewhere on Wall street that I don't know about. Some hedge fund facts fucking doing something

[Jimmy Wisman]

that I don't understand.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Jackasses made fucking billions of dollars off of this shit. Good. My son got out.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Fat cats there. So the defense attorney said, I told Tyler this morning, my life is coming to. My life is coming close to its end, and his life is just beginning. So he has all the potential in the world. Now that this burden's lifted, there's no telling what this young man will accomplish. December 2008.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Christie writes Tyler a letter. What? Okay. This is Tyler's quote about it. Quote, there was a letter, and it was an apology letter. She didn't even say what she was sorry for. It literally said, I'm sorry for. Well, you know what I'm sorry for? She didn't want to put it in writing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Putting you through all this shit that you didn't do.

[James Pietragallo]

And that just pissed me off. It made me so angry. Like, you wait five and a half years, two trials later, now you want to say you're sorry? Yeah. I would say gross. 2010, Christie appeals.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. Now. Okay. The court documents show that during the trial sentencing phase, the bailiff left his Bible in the jury room. Why are you taking your Bible to work while you have a badge on? Why. Why do you have a Bible on you at work?

[Jimmy Wisman]

He left it where?

[James Pietragallo]

In the jury room.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay. So they thumbed through. Yeah. I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

Put it in your locker, leave it in your car, put it in your shirt pocket, stick it up your ass here. Your job is a. Law enforcement has nothing to do with this whatsoever. So, anyway, when he returned for it, one of the jurors after asked if the group could keep it. And then 15 minutes later, the jurors came back with a death sentence.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. What?

[Jimmy Wisman]

They all pray for forgiveness, that they're about to call somebody.

[James Pietragallo]

It says, an eye for an eye right here. I read it. So, I mean, so the office. James Lapin with the office of Capital defense counsel argued that the circuit judge did not individually question jurors about the presence of the Bible. He asked the jurors as a group if the presence of the Bible affected their decision, and they all said it didn't. But he didn't individually ask them. So as we know, you have a much different response if you're asked something just you or in a group, you might go with what the group says. So this lawyer went on to say, prejudice is presumed with the Holy Bible. We don't know the Bible was used. We don't know that the Bible wasn't used. We can assume it was used. The attorney general said what he did by questioning the jurors about whether they could render a fair verdict regardless of the presence of a Bible. So it doesn't matter because they said they would be fair. He said, there's no evidence that it improperly influenced the jury. You don't check your morals at the door. You can certainly bring them in the jury room with you. Okay, but this isn't a biblical court. It's a court of law. So you want them to look at laws, not the Bible's laws. You don't know what these fucking 12 Mississippians are in a room with a Bible.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That tells me somebody in the room was like, if we're gonna do it, we better fucking get right with the.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Wow. They said a handful of death penalty cases have been overturned in the past two decades because the judges considered the Bible to be illegal, outside reference material, meaning if somebody made a reference. So the judge questioned whether something so common in our society carries a presumption of prejudice. So, yeah, they do say that. Well, you don't know what they read. The one lawyer said the Old Testament refers to an eye for an eye. The New Testament speaks of forgiveness. So who the fuck knows? Depends on what part of the Bible they were into. So the judge said that many courts have held there was a presumption of innocent or influence when external elements are brought into a jury room. But he said the only way to know what happened with the Bible was to ask the jury. He said, I think it's unlikely that if the Bible was asked for by a juror, that it wasn't used. That's fair. Questions about the Bible were among 38 possible errors cited by these defense attorneys, prosecutors here. There's all sorts of different shit that we'll talk about here. They talk about that the lawyers argued that Joey had abused her and she suffered from PTSD and that all that kind of shit. The Supreme Court heard arguments, issued a statement that Joey's family continues to suffer because of his death. So they get that, too. The one lawyer said here that there are no winners when a wonderful, caring son and father like Joey Fulghum has taken away from his family at such a young age, all for an insurance policy and a paycheck. And it's even more difficult for a family to forgive when they have not been requested by those responsible to do so. Meaning she didn't ask them to forgive her either. So she argued that there was that court erred, permitting the state to present evidence of a romantic relationship between her and Tyler. However, they found that they did not object to it at the time. They didn't object to it till later on. They also said, in the sentencing phase of a capital murder, the stakes are life and death. The defendant is permitted to introduce virtually any relevant and reliable evidence touching upon their background and character. Meaning they should have let that social worker say everything she wanted.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Her death sentence is thrown out, just remanded for resentencing.

[James Pietragallo]

Resentencing only.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Okay, fine.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay. No new trial. Now, she could still be sentenced to death again, just under different circumstances. But the Fulghums, at their request, the family's request, said, please don't do this, because they have to have a big jury. So they have to come in, they have to testify, they have to cry about Joey. And so we can't do it again. We just went through. We've gone through three trials already, but

[Jimmy Wisman]

it's capital murder, so anything opposite would just be life without. Right.

[James Pietragallo]

So as part of this, they offered her to be resentenced to life without parole so we never have to deal

[Jimmy Wisman]

with this ever again.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. And as part of the agreement, she signs an affidavit forfeiting all rights to future post conviction relief.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No more.

[James Pietragallo]

This is the Bryan Kohberger deal that people were mad about. And it's, like, gone.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, it's over.

[James Pietragallo]

Poof. Like it never fucking happened. That's what it is.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Ninja smokescreen.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they said. So the death penalty had to be handed out by a jury is why the family doesn't want a jury trial. Kind of their only thing. So you, ma', am, may fuck off. Life without parole.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Never see you again.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, eat dicks now. Tyler's exoneration was one of several cases that exposed Dr. Stephen Haines testimony. At least three other convictions relying on his opinions were overturned. From this, Mississippi removed him from its list of approved pathologists.

[Jimmy Wisman]

How about that?

[James Pietragallo]

He sued the innocence Project for defamation claiming they damaged his reputation and the case was settled out of court. That's why I'm just a legend. Alleged his testimony about two sets of hands was obviously the biggest load of shit I've ever heard. That's my opinion. Sorry. My non scientific opinion is that's scientifically a load of shit is with that big steaming lies.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Fired guns before and that seems fucking stupid.

[James Pietragallo]

Very.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It seems it.

[James Pietragallo]

So what happened to Tyler here? Tyler said, quote, There's a part of me that believes the only reason she came back into my life was because she was planning. There's part of me that believes she knew what she was going to do and that maybe she got close to me just to use me as a scapegoat. There's part of me that honestly believes that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, that's so fucked up. She may have gotten in touch with him in the first place just to get him mixed up in this.

[James Pietragallo]

She seems fucking diabolical. Yeah. That she would dude the whole. The Montel, the other guy with the dog.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And she uses everything at her disposal to manipulate everybody in her life.

[James Pietragallo]

Any and everybody. Yeah, she's an asshole. Yeah. I'm telling. I mean I get that she had a bad upbringing, but once you're an adult, your bad upbringing doesn't matter anymore.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You just gotta deal with that every day. Yeah. That's your problem, not everybody else's.

[James Pietragallo]

Now you have to make your kids not like that. That's your goal. That's it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's a bummer. I assure you. It sucks. Every day sucks.

[James Pietragallo]

But that's life.

[Jimmy Wisman]

You gotta deal with it.

[James Pietragallo]

So after his acquittal, Tyler tried to go home. But he said, quote, I left Mississippi because I didn't know where else in Mississippi I could go. Where I could be anyone other than Tyler. From the five o' clock news.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Everybody hated him.

[James Pietragallo]

They all know him. Yeah. It's a huge. This is a huge story. And a lot of people think he got off easy and they think he should have got the death penalty. I mean that was a popular opinion down there.

[Jimmy Wisman]

He's a 35 year old kid today. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Now he is. Yeah. He's 36, 37 this year. He said I changed. This is what happened with my life and I needed to figure out who I was. He graduated as an EMT from East Mississippi Community College. Wow. He then moved to Arizona. What? Absolutely.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Pals.

[James Pietragallo]

Tyler. We could have walked. He's not there anymore. We could have walked past Tyler several times and not even known it. He worked for the Department of Defense there. Oh. Then this. This. The next couple things I'm going to read you. Sounds like Mad Libs.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah. Like, I mean, you already started it pretty crazy with the dod.

[James Pietragallo]

The dod, yeah. But he moved to Arizona, worked for the dod, whatever. That's fine. But then it gets weird. He was diagnosed with leg cancer. I didn't know. I have never in my life heard of leg cancer. That seems really vague. Leg. That's Calves, thighs. Isn't that a total mad Lib? Like fucking I have leg cancer. Okay. Then he returned to Mississippi to be near his family and he went into remission from leg cancer. So that's great. It would hate to get out of prison and then die from leg cancer. That'd be the worst fucking thing ever.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Come back.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no. Not yet anyway. I don't know. He then opened up a tobacco shop again, bro. You can tobacco shop in Columbus, I believe. Mississippi or Georgia. One of the two. With backing from a local car dealer named Carl Hulk Hogan. I added the Hulk part, but Carl Hogan. There's a picture of him in the newspaper there, standing in his tobacco shop in the Little Woods Shopping center. Then after he realized that's a terrible business and you don't make any money, he moved to Florida and started. I could give you a trillion guesses and you'd never guess the business he started at all times.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Well, I know it's not a dispensary.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's not for sure. Nope. What do you think?

[Jimmy Wisman]

Is it a blueberry farm or a fucking cranberry field?

[James Pietragallo]

An embroidery business. What he's embroidery the most mad. I had leg cancer, so I moved and opened a tobacco shop and then moved to Florida to have an embroidery business.

[Jimmy Wisman]

This is fucking wild.

[James Pietragallo]

It's wild. He's also an activist. He became an activist for juvenile justice reform. He should be the guy most asking for that. Yeah. Speaking at the Mississippi Public Defenders association and advocating for laws requiring attorneys to be present whenever a minor is interrogated. No child should be put in the room with two homicide detectives or two cops at all. They know what they're doing and they don't. That's not fair.

[Jimmy Wisman]

No Child Left behind with homicide investigators. Let's call it that.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Deputies. Anything shit with the cops. Children should not be allowed to legally speak to a police officer without an attorney present. Period. Tyler says. I hear some people say without a parent or an attorney, it needs to be an attorney. Because even parents don't know how to navigate the system. No, they don't know the mother didn't know not to go outside and leave him there. And she was trying her hardest, her damnedest, to do the best for him. Tyler sought compensation under Mississippi's wrongful conviction law. The state refused, arguing his false confession constituted fabricating evidence.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I'd take that shit to the Supreme Court. Right?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, a judge agreed with them, and he got nothing. So he appealed to the Mississippi supreme court, which in 2017, that late date, reversed the denial and sent the case back again. And Tyler was eventually awarded $135,000.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I guess 40 grand, was that? About 40 grand a year? He should get way better than that in that fucking environment, dude.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, this is the only opportunity that I have to stand up for myself today and say, you are wrong. This is what you did to me. And he said he wanted the money. He's not taking a dime of it. It's all for his mother. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Give him all his shit back. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, considering that my mom literally gave up everything that she had, her life, her house, her husband, her financial security, getting the compensation from the state means everything to me. It's my opportunity to say, let me help you out in a way that I probably won't ever have the opportunity to do otherwise. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And if you don't do it fast, Brett Favre's gonna take it.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, it's down there. Yeah. Who else was. Who's the other one? There's another guy just involved in that shit, too.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. It doesn't matter.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It doesn't matter.

[James Pietragallo]

Brett Favre's allegedly Lee. Brett Favre, by the way, because he sues everybody. So Christie's attorney then does an interview in 2014 and says, I still get contacted by people in New York and LA that want to do a documentary on that case. Luckily, the Supreme Court set aside her death sentence and sent her back for sentencing due to some defects in the sentencing phase of her capital murder. He said that death row cases involving women are always catching the public eye. He said, I think that's why this Michelle Byram case, which we've done, that case, by the way, gets a lot of interest. Christy Fulgham's case got a lot of interest. I believe that the statistic is somewhere around 70% of violent crimes that involve women involve a member of their immediate family as the victim. Women don't kill strangers generally, unless a boyfriend made them, like, rob a liquor store or something.

[Jimmy Wisman]

They kill husbands, babies, and they cut babies out of women.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. That's what they do, whether it's a boyfriend, husband, stepfather, whatever. Death row cases are the most challenging for everybody. He said, I don't believe there is a fair way to have a death penalty in America. If a juror stands up and expresses that in no circumstances would they ever vote to give the death penalty, that person is excluded for cause off that jury. See, I think that's bullshit. A jury of Your peers means 12 people that have all different opinions. A jury that only is willing.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Yeah, yeah, Cam jury. I have a couple of people that want to kill you or they're willing to kill you.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. That's fucking crazy. I mean, how.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Under no circumstances.

[James Pietragallo]

That it's so horrible that.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Show that person. It says under no circumstances. Show them fucking crime scene photos and see if they'll find a circumstance.

[James Pietragallo]

And if you can't, life in prison is fine. That's what I'm saying. We don't need any. We don't need to grease the rails for the death penalty at all.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Bloodthirsty people on a jury either.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's fucking crazy. He said. So the fact that the state gets those jurors struck for cause, but I have to use one of my 12 preemptory to get rid of the person who believes the death penalty is the appropriate remedy in every case. That's the inequality, and it is. That's not equal.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's a great argument.

[James Pietragallo]

He said, And I don't know how to fix that. It's almost like he's a lawyer or something, this guy. Yeah. I mean, it's. He knows the law.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Didn't you go to law school about this?

[James Pietragallo]

Right? Oh, God. Joey's family here says they never got what they wanted. And that's the truth. Shannon says the only thing our families ever wanted to know is the truth. There's no way we can bring my brother back. Joey's dead and gone. We don't want to punish somebody else just to seek revenge. We just want to know the truth. Now, the sheriff. Sheriff Brian B R Y A N, in case you want to drop him. A line says the truth is the first statement. After all this, he's just. He said, that's exactly consistent with everything that we found at the scene of this crime. Tyler told the truth and he got away with it. And look, I don't begrudge him that. Maybe he'll make a good life. Maybe he'll have a really happy life. And I hope he does. I'm just gonna go ahead and call him a Murderer. While it's happening. I don't begrudge him. I don't begrudge him. Forget.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Away with it.

[James Pietragallo]

In 2014, there was an episode of Blood Relatives, which. This was the third season. I've never heard of this. And it went more than at least three seasons, called Southern Hell with, like, bell B E L L E, but H E L L E. Southern Hell. Oh, yeah. So there's that. Directed by people and written by people I've never heard of. Excellent. Christie currently is the M. DOC inmate number 117337 and remains incarcerated, serving a life without parole, plus four years for attempted escape, plus eight years for contraband.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Oh, she's got all that tacked onto

[James Pietragallo]

the end of it. Yep. She will fucking die in prison. She's at the CMCF facility, whatever that is, and she's fucked. So there you go. Everybody there is Starkville, Mississippi, and a hell of a fucking wild story. That is twisted shit, my friends. That is one of the weirdest things we've ever covered.

[Jimmy Wisman]

I don't think he. I don't even think he was in the house. I think he was. I think he's being honest. When he said he heard the pop.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I think he was in the car. That's it. Now, my only question is, though, how did she get the gun from his house where his cousin comes? Yeah, I. I'm not positive that he didn't bring the gun. Yeah, but if she didn't, she wouldn't have had to tell him, we're gonna kill Joey. She could have said, there's a stray dog I want to shoot. And he would have went, all right, sure, I'll bring it.

[Jimmy Wisman]

And just brought it with him. Yeah, it's possible.

[James Pietragallo]

That's my only question. But otherwise.

[Jimmy Wisman]

It's from his dad's house, right?

[James Pietragallo]

It's from. No, no, no, no. From his mom's house. I think because he lived with his mom, he didn't live with dad. Danny refused to give. Right.

[Jimmy Wisman]

That's right. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So, anyway, there you go. Figure it out on your own. I'm not sure, but let us know how you feel about it. There's a.

[Jimmy Wisman]

Did he keep both of his legs or did he lose one?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, he's got his legs. It didn't say he lost a leg. Just said he had leg cancer and he was in remission. So there you go. If you like this, get on whatever app you're listening on. If you're not watching on Netflix, get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us Five stars. It helps so fucking much. It really does. Helps drive us up the charts. So thank you to everyone who has done that and to everyone who will do that in the future. It helps. So do that. Head over to shut upandgivemerder.com get your tickets for live shows, everybody. The shows are so fucking fun, I'm telling you. Everybody leaves happy with their faces hurt. And it's a comedy show. There's crazy pictures and jokes within that. It's awesome stuff. We will be in Durham, North Carolina, at the Carolina Theater. That's correct, right? Yes. March 6 on March 6 and then March 7 at the Tabernacle in Atlanta and then March 21. That March 20 Phoenix show is sold out. But March 21, we'll be doing your stupid opinions at standup live in Phoenix. So get your tickets there. Shutupandgivemerder.com is where you do that. You should follow us on social media. We are alltownmurder on Instagram and malltownpod on Facebook. So do that. Hang out with us. Keep coming back and hanging out with us. Get yourself Patreon. Oh, my God. What are you waiting for? Patreon.com CrimeInSports Just like the name of that show that you should check out that we all also do that you don't have to be a fan of sports to like. So do that. Patreon.com crimeinsports that's where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get everything that we put out, including hundreds of back episodes immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder. You get it all. This week for crime and sports, we're going to talk about dead cyclists. And this is just a bunch of stories of cyclists being just fucking butchered, ran over, mauled and butchered by larger things while they bite. Competition. It's crazy. And then for small town murder, Kurt Cobain's death, did he kill himself? Was he murdered? Who did it? If he is, we'll talk all about it. Because I've kept up with this for a long time and there's some new stuff going on right now with it. That's patreon.com crimeinsports and you get all the shows we put out. Crime and sports, your stupid opinions and small town murder all ad free. Free with your Patreon as well. We cannot thank you enough for all that you do for us. You want to follow us on social media, Shut up and give me murder.com has the dropdown menus that'll take you to there to tickets to anything that you need. Keep coming back and seeing us week after week and until next week everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and Save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see. See if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates, but potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.