Guilty Plea In Ariana and Tyler Payne Case
Ariana & Tyler Payne (photo courtesy of Jamie Hallam)
On August 25, 2007, I sat at the memorial service at the Adair Funeral Home in Tucson, Arizona to pay my last respects to little Ariana and Tyler Payne.
On February 18, 2007 Ariana Payne's decomposing body was found inside of a storage tub in a trash bin located at the U-Store-It storage facility. Police soon learned that Ariana's older brother, Tyler was missing as well, and had reason to believe that he was deceased. An extensive search of a nearby landfill yielded few clues and to this day, Tyler's body has not been found.
According to past reports, the children's mother, Jamie Hallam-who had sole custody of the children-allowed Christopher Payne visitation with the children, Ariana and Tyler, even though a judge ruled he was not allowed to have any visitation. There have been alot of comments on reports by people who are seemingly confused as to why Jamie allowed Christopher Payne to see these children in the first place. First of all, Jamie did not "hand over her children" to this man. He had not seen Ariana and Tyler for a couple years. Knowing the kind of person Chris Payne was, his violence against her, she was very hesitant when he contacted her to visit the children. He had a new girlfriend, a new son, and a job. He seemingly had some stability in his life. There were several supervised visits between the first visit and the visit in which the Payne children would ultimately be forever taken away from their mother. The last time Jamie Hallam knew her children were alive was March 9, 2006. That was the day she took her court ordered custody agreement and contacted the Tucson Police Department. In turn, TPD contacted Child Protective Services (CPS) and told the police to keep the children with the father. CPS never checked on them again.
Soon after Ariana's body was found the following February, her father, Christopher Payne and his girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, were charged with first degree murder. Reina Gonzales claimed to have no knowledge of what happened to Ariana and Tyler. Past reports have her claiming that she left the apartment for a week and when she came back, the children were gone. She claimed that Chris Payne told her he sent the children back with their mom. With her trial date rapidly approaching, defense attorneys pulled out all the stops to prevent Reina Gonzales from getting the death penalty. Attempts to prove Reina Gonzales is mentally retarded were unsuccessful.
So, as of yesterday, August 25, 2008-a year to the day of the memorial service for these precious little angels-Reina Gonzales is a confessed murderer. Reina Gonzales pleaded guilty to two charges of second degree murder.
In video taped testimony a tearful Reina Gonzales recounted events surrounding the last couple months of Ariana and Tyler's lives. She also acknowledges her role in the deaths and that she sat back, getting high on heroin and did nothing to help Ariana and Tyler.
So, there we have it, in her own words. Reina Gonzales admits she did nothing to help these children. She knew that Ariana and Tyler were locked in a closet with no food or water. She knew that Tyler was suffering from a horrible head injury. She knew that Ariana was dead and was put in a tub. She knew that Tyler was forced to stay in the same closet, with his dead sister's body, to suffer and die. Finally, she knew Chris Payne was violent and by her own admission , he was abusive to her. She did nothing but drug herself up to numb herself of what was going on.
With all of Reina Gonzales' admissions comes the undeniable truth that these children suffered far beyond what any child should have to go through. Yet we still have people who focus on Jamie Hallam. People who call her a drug addict who gave away her children. The truth is all abuse/neglect allegations and drug allegations in relation to Jamie Hallam, which was checked by CPS, was found to be unsubstantiated. No proof found from an agency determined to keep children with a dangerous person. No proof found from an agency who did nothing to verify court custody records.
Chris Payne is due to go on trial in January 2009. Reina Gonzales will testify against him at his trial as part of her plea agreement.
Source: Tucson Citizen; Video source-KVOA.com You can find my past blog entries about this case here.Your comments are welcome on this case.
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