One Of The Youngest Girls On Death Row Buried Her Victims Alive

death row, a place forward the coldest and cruelest of killers. It has always piqued my interest. Women that end up on death row. Women that are typically seen as loving and caring and gentle. What crimes do women commit to earn the rightful spot on death row? Right now, the way things seem, it's larger first than anymore. If you've convicted a first than anymore, you have two penalties. Life or death. That's it. In this episode, we're looking into one Tiffany Cole, one of the youngest women to ever be sentenced to death, and the cold and cruel murders that landed her there. My name is Beriana, and I'm hot on the case. Tiffany Cole was born on December 3, 1981 to her parents Shirley and David Duncan and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. Her parents had her when they were very, very young. Tiffany's mother was actually only 16 when she gave birth to Tiffany, and Tiffany's father was actually incarcerated at the time of Tiffany's birth. Tiffany's parents divorced when she was very, very young. She was about five years old, and then for the rest of her childhood, she was just constantly being bounced around between both of their homes. It was not a stable childhood by any means, and Tiffany's parents also kind of used her as a free babysitter for most of her childhood, taking care of her younger siblings. So Tiffany said, growing up, she didn't really feel like she had a childhood because she had so much responsibility to care for her younger siblings, but she also felt like she didn't really have a home because she was just constantly being bounced around between her mom's home and her dad's house. Tiffany's mother would remarry, and she remarried Tiffany's stepfather, a very, very violent abusive man. He was violent and abusive towards Tiffany's mother, her younger siblings, and even animals. There was a time when Tiffany was very, very young, and she witnessed her stepfather take out his anger on their little puppy, throwing the tiny, innocent, defenseless puppy against a wall so hard that it broke the puppy's neck and killed it. Despite all of the turmoil going on in Tiffany's life, she's seemed pretty well put together and well adjusted on the outside. She was a dedicated girl scout, she was a talented preppy cheerleader, she played the flute in the school band, and earned nearly perfect grades all throughout school, and she was doing all of this while also dealing with some truly horrible things going on at home. Tiffany claims that around 16 years old her biological father, David Duncan, began to sexually assault her, and when Tiffany told her mother what her father was doing, that her mother didn't believe her. Tiffany ran away from home at this point, she's extremely, extremely young, and she gets involved with a not so great crowd. She dated very abusive toxic men, she was heavily drinking, and also started using a lot of drugs. It was a very bad path that Tiffany was going on, especially in contrast to how, by the book, she used to be not that long ago. Tiffany wasn't on her own if her very long, her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was dying, and he was in need of a full-time caregiver. And Tiffany took on that role, she moved in with her father, the same man that was just abusing her, and she sat there and took care of him during his final days. It was a great sacrifice for Tiffany to take on, not just in her time, but also in convenience, she was in her very early 20s, possibly even her late teens at this point, so I'm sure that there was more she would rather be doing with her life than staying home, taking care of her sick father that was abusing her, but also this took a very serious mental toll on Tiffany, having to care for her abuser like this. And there were two people that certainly took note of what a noble thing Tiffany was doing. They certainly weren't aware of the abuse that Tiffany endured at the hands of her father, but they noticed this young girl at the start of her life, putting her life on hold to care for her very sick father. And those two people were the neighbors who Tiffany's father Reggie and Carol Sumner, a married couple in their late 50s. Reggie and Carol Sumner, they got married later on in life, but their love story is really, really incredible and really, really sweet. It almost brings a tear to my eye, even just thinking about it, how sweet and loving this love story was. Reggie and Carol actually dated in high school, but they broke up when they were around 16 years old. I'm not sure what the reason was, but I'm sure it was pretty silly, you know, they were very, very young. They were only teenagers. They grew up separated from each other, and this was of course the times before social media, so after graduating high school, you really didn't have a lot of contact with the people that you grew up with. You know, so Reggie and Carol, they grew up, they separated, and they have really no contact and don't have any idea what the other one is doing with their lives. Reggie and Carol both ended up getting married to different people. Reggie would have an entire career in the Navy. He, of course, like I said, married his first wife, but this marriage did end divorce. And Carol also, like I said, got married to her first husband together. They had a daughter named Ronda, but he was unfortunately her first husband, a very, very terrible abusive man, and I cannot stress that enough how truly terrible this guy was. So after deciding to divorce her terrible husband, Carol's ex-husband showed about her place, pulled out a gun, and shot Carol multiple times trying to kill her. And he was doing this just because she left him and divorced him. He then turned the weapon on himself, ending his own life after believing that he just murdered his ex-wife. But miraculously, Carol survived being shot multiple times, and she was rushed to the hospital where she had to go into a life-saving surgery. And Carol pulled through. It was absolutely a miracle, but unfortunately during her surgery, Carol was given a blood transfusion, and the blood that was given to her during her life-saving surgery was tragically, unfortunately, infected with hepatitis C. I'm absolutely not a doctor, so I'm not sure the medical reason behind this, but all sources online say because she was infected with hepatitis C through this transfusion. The hepatitis spread and actually resulted in her being diagnosed with liver cancer. Which is just so terrible, this poor woman survives an abusive marriage. She then survives her abusive ex-husband trying to kill her. She's rushed into a life-saving surgery where she's given a life-saving blood transfusion, but it just so happens that that blood was infected with a disease that was also now trying to kill her. Carol said that it felt like her ex-husband was trying to kill her again, but this time just from the grave. It took a very long time for Carol to recover, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. She got a lot of help from her daughter, Ronda, the mother and daughter were extremely close. They lived in the same city of Charleston in South Carolina, so Ronda was always over at her mother's house trying to help her during her recovery and now through her cancer, but they also spoke on the phone every single day. Carol also eventually wanted to work. Again, she wanted to get a job, something to get herself out of the house. It was something to do. She couldn't do much, unfortunately. She was still recovering from being shot multiple times and now she was dealing with her cancer and all of her chemo. So she couldn't do anything too physical, so she ends up getting a job working at a call center for a TV cable company. And it was one day that Carol was at work and she gets a call from someone calling their TV cable company. And this man says his name, so Carol can look up his account and what do you know? It's Reggie Sumner, her old boyfriend from high school that she dated when she was like 15, 16. What are the odds? It really felt like fate out of all the days that he could have called and all the different people that were working at this call center that they would have the chance to reconnect and they did. They spoke on that phone call for a lot longer than Carol probably should have since she was on the clock and should be, you know, taking more calls, but they just kept talking and talking and catching up and they even made plans to meet up in person and catch up in person. But it was after meeting up in person and catching up in person that the two realized that there was still feelings there between them. And the two actually started dating again 40 years after they dated in high school. They were down their 50s. They got married. They bought their own home in Charleston, which was like I said, of course, the home that was directly next to Tiffany's father's house. Reggie and Carol absolutely loved Tiffany. They saw this young girl doing so much to help her father. They thought that she was this really sweet good person. And they really brought Tiffany into their lives and did as much as they could to support her and help her. And they even started to see Tiffany kind of like their own daughter. Reggie and Carol were the type of people that would literally do anything for anyone, even a stranger. They would quite literally take their clothes off their back for someone in need. So it absolutely makes a lot of sense that they see this very young girl that is putting her life on hold to care for her second dying father that they would want to do as much as they could to help her. At one point, Reggie and Carol even had plans to sell their car, so they had a little bit more spending money, but then they found out that Tiffany really needed a car she didn't have one. So they gave Tiffany their car and set up like a payment plan sort of thing where Tiffany could pay them back as she was able to, and they of course didn't need to do that. They needed some money, they had plans of their own. So the fact that they did this really just shows the kind of people that they are giving this car to a girl in need and just letting her pay them back over time when they could have just sold the car to someone else and have gotten all the money right away. While it was in early 2005, it was actually in February that Reggie and Carol decided that they're going to sell their house in Charleston, they're going to move down to Florida. They really liked the idea of enjoying their retirement down south in Florida, just sitting on the beach and relaxing together as a pretty new married couple, they had only been married for four years at this time. They bought a new home in Jacksonville, Florida, they sold their home in Charleston, and they were actually really, really sad to do this because I meant that they were leading Tiffany, they had really grown to love Tiffany, they had gone so close to her, so they told Tiffany to please stay in contact and if she ever found herself in Florida to give them a call, make sure that she comes and visits and if she ever needed a place to stay that she would always have a place with them. And about three months after Reggie and Carol moved to Jacksonville, Florida, Tiffany is on a beach trip with some of her friends when she meets Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson. This was a man named Michael James Jackson and he just so happened to have the same first and last name as the extremely famous King of Pop. I actually had a roommate that had the same first and last name as a very atless celebrity, and it was always so funny because when I would tell people that I live with blank, they would never believe me or they would think I'm joking, but this girl actually just so happened to grow up with the same name as this very, very famous person, and I bet that would get extremely annoying. Well, when Tiffany and Michael meet, they immediately hit it off and actually Tiffany spends the rest of her beach trip that she was supposed to be, you know, hanging out with friends on, hanging out with Michael Jackson. And when it was time for Tiffany to leave, Michael and Tiffany made plans to keep hanging out and they would see each other as much as possible over the next few weeks. They definitely were not boyfriend and girlfriend as far as I can tell. There were no plans for Tiffany or Michael for this relationship to ever become extremely serious. They both agreed that this was just like a fun, casual fling, you know, like maybe one step above friends with benefits. But after a few weeks of knowing each other, Michael actually invites Tiffany on a trip that he's planning. He wants to go down to Florida to visit one of his friends named Alan Wade. And Alan Wade just so happened, what are the odds to live in Jacksonville, Florida, which is exactly where Tiffany's old friends Reggie and Carol just moved a few months earlier. Tiffany says to Michael that if he was okay with it, that her friends Reggie and Carol would definitely give them a place to stay, a place to crash while they're down in Florida visiting his friend and that way they wouldn't have to spend any money on a hotel. Michael is completely down for this idea, so Tiffany calls up Reggie and Carol and of course that they miss Tiffany so much and they said that she always had a place to stay with them. He said please come down and they were actually really, really excited to see Tiffany again because they loved her so much. Tiffany and Michael make the drive down to Florida. They of course see Michael's friend Alan Wade, but they spend a lot of time with Reggie and Carol and Reggie and Carol absolutely welcome Tiffany and Michael into their home. They of course did not know Michael Jackson, but because this was a friend of Tiffany's, they welcomed him into their home and they were extremely accommodating and welcoming house. Over up them, Reggie, Carol, Tiffany and Michael were actually having a great time together on one day. They're just all sitting around the table and they're talking and laughing and they're telling stories. Reggie and Carol are telling Tiffany and Michael about how they just moved to Florida, how they're liking their new home, their new neighbors, all like you know the stuff that they're doing, how they're liking Florida and at one point they're talking about leaving South Carolina, leaving their home in South Carolina and at one point Reggie actually brings up how much money they sold the home in South Carolina for and how they actually made quite a good profit after selling that home and buying the one in Jacksonville. And he actually says that between selling that home and buying this new one, they actually made about $100,000 in profit. And the second Michael Jackson, here's this dollar amount, $100,000, that's a lot of money. He's just seeing dollar signs and he wants to find out how he can get that money for himself. He's sitting in Reggie and Carol's home thinking about how he can steal from them. He wants to find a way to steal every last dollar out of their bank accounts and he's looking around the room and he's making like a mental note of all of the valuables in Reggie and Carol's home because he wants to rob them blind. That's the kind of guy this Michael Jackson was. And later that night while Michael and Tiffany were staying in Reggie and Carol's guest bedroom, Michael brings up the idea that Tiffany about robbing these two people that are letting them stay in their home. It's absolutely disgusting and unbelievable but even more unbelievable, Tiffany agrees that sounds like a good idea and she's completely down to rob these people that have only ever been amazing to her. So there's now a plan and motion to steal from these two really great people but Tiffany and Michael decide that they're not going to rob them quite yet. They want to come out with a more fleshed out plan first. So they leave Jacksonville and they drive back to Charleston and over the next few weeks they start putting their plan together. And while planning how to rob from these two amazing people, they're actually having a really hard time trying to figure out how not to get caught because obviously Carol and Reggie know Michael and Tiffany. So if they steal from them, Carol and Reggie will be able to go to the cops and turn them in. And Michael brought up the idea that they would also have to kill Reggie and Carol. And again, Tiffany's fine with it and she agrees. I just have a really hard time wrapping my mind around this. How could this young woman? She is 22 years old and she's willing to kill two people that have done so much for her. That's just evil. There's no other way around it like that is just evil that's heartless. The more Michael and Tiffany are talking out this plan and brainstorming about this plan, they actually come to the decision that it would be extremely hard for them to go through this plan. Just Michael and just Tiffany and they're probably going to need some help. So Michael recruits two of his friends into their devious deadly plot. Michael Jackson recruits Alan Wade, which was the friend that Michael and Tiffany were going to see when they went down to Jacksonville, Florida, stayed with Reggie and Carol and came up with this idea to rob them. But Michael also recruits one of his friends named Bruce Nixon. And the four of them start preparing for this robbery and the murders. They gather a bunch of supplies that they think they're going to need like gloves and stuff like that. Tiffany also rents a car. It's a Mazda. So if anyone sees a vehicle outside of Reggie and Carol's home, they won't be able to pin the car back to the car that Tiffany got from Reggie and Carol. They also start coming up with a plan with what they do with Reggie and Carol's bodies after they steal from them and they kill them. And they decide that the best way for them not to get caught is if they hide the body somewhere no one will ever find them because there's no old saying, nobody, no crime. They don't think they'll get caught for murdering them if they can't find them. So they think the smartest thing to do would be to bury Reggie and Carol's bodies in a third state. So not in South Carolina, but also not in Florida where Reggie and Carol live. Two days before their evil evil plan, the group drives down to Georgia to find a place to bury Reggie and Carol after they kill them. And they decide on an isolated wooden area right across the Florida, Georgia line. They even pre-dig the grave in advance, about six feet down. And then on July 8th, 2005, the four of them, Tiffany, Michael, Alan and Bruce drive Tiffany's rental car down to Jacksonville, Florida. Once they arrive at Reggie and Carol's home, Bruce and Alan get out of the car. Tiffany told them how great of people Reggie and Carol were and how they would literally do anything to help anyone, even strangers. So Alan, a way to go up to Reggie and Carol's front door, Michael and Tiffany obviously stay back in the rental car, the Mazda because Reggie and Carol would recognize Michael and Tiffany. Reggie and Carol were in the middle of making dinner together when they hear a knock at the door. Carol goes and she answers the door and that's when Alan and Bruce tell Carol that their car just broke down and their phones were dead and they wanted to know if they could come inside and use her phone. Reggie overhears this. We also walks to the door and, you know, Alan and Bruce, they're both extremely young men. They're both only 20 years old and they seem like good boys, harmless. So Reggie and Carol invite the men inside and immediately, that's when Alan and Bruce next said that they pull out a fake gun. It's a fake gun, but it looks very, very real. They're pointing it at Reggie and Carol and threatening them. They do anything, if they say anything, if they don't cooperate, then they will kill them. And this immediately brings me back to when Carol's ex-husband was furious about the divorce. He went over to her home and pointed a gun at her and fired it multiple times and tried to kill her. The fact that she's going through this twice, she thinks. It absolutely breaks my heart and what breaks my heart even more, even though I do not have any confirmation about this, is Tiffany probably knew about this. Over all the years, I bet Carol would have told Tiffany about this. But Reggie and Carol, they agreed to comply and that is when Alan cuts their phone lines just in case they escape, they can't call anyone for help. And that's when Alan and Bruce, they wrap duct tape around Reggie and Carol's wrists and their ankles and they also put duct tape around their eyes and their mouths. This is when Michael Jackson goes inside and he starts going around the house, stealing all the things that he planned to steal while he was staying with Reggie and Carol for free just a few weeks earlier. He was stealing pretty much anything of value. He stole a coin collection that Reggie had been collecting his entire life and also stole Reggie and Carol's debit cards. Because remember, this all goes back to wanting that $100,000 that Reggie and Carol got from selling their home. They then bring Reggie and Carol into the garage where their car was parked and they opened up the trunk and forced Reggie and Carol into the trunk of their own car. My heart was absolutely breaking, reading this and it is breaking right now, saying this out loud again, these two people genuinely seemed like really, really great people and it's extremely rare to find people. This selfless and this generous and this good, especially after all that Carol has already gone through, especially after all that Carol and Reggie have done for Tiffany. And now they've finally gotten back together, they were separated for 40 years, they finally find their way back to each other, they've only been married for four years and this is happening to them now, it breaks my heart, it truly, really does. And it breaks my heart imagining how terrified they were while they were forced into the trunk of their own car. Allen and Bruce drive Reggie and Carol some nurse car while Tiffany and Michael drive Tiffany's rental car. They drive it across the Georgia State line to that pre-dug grave that they dug only two days earlier. Once they are there, they open the trunk and Reggie and Carol are hugging each other in the trunk and I believe at this point is when the duct tape is at least partially removed from them, we at least know it's removed from their eyes, mouths and I do believe and I'll tell you later on why that it was removed from their wrists as well. So at this point, it's pretty obvious that Reggie and Carol see who's behind this, they see Michael and Tiffany standing there in front of them. Michael is threatening Reggie and Carol to tell them what the pin is for their debit cards. So this is why I say I know that the duct tape was taken off of their mouths because Reggie gives Michael the pin to their debit cards and he actually does give them the real pin thinking that if he just listens and complies and does everything that these people are telling him to do that maybe him and his wife could survive this. But sadly, that is not what happens. Because after this, Reggie and Carol were thrown into the six foot deep grave and then the group starts to shovel dirt on top of them. While Reggie and Carol were still alive, something I'm sure had to have been such a slow process. The fear and anxiety going through Reggie and Carol's mind is literally something that brings me to tears just thinking about every single pile of dirt that is being thrown on top of them while they're still alive. And the entire time Tiffany Cole is just standing there watching. Someone that Reggie and Carol loved like their own daughter is now just standing by and watching them being buried alive. And then Reggie and Carol were completely buried alive which had to have been such a slow and painful and terrifying way to go. There's a reason why being buried alive is so many people's greatest fear. The group then gets back in the Tiffany's rental car and Reggie and Carol's car. They drive Reggie and Carol's car back over the Florida state line and they abandon it on the side of the road. And then they all get back in the Tiffany's rental car, the Mazza and they drive it back to Reggie and Carol's home because they want to steal more stuff and they steal anything that could have any value. Any jewelry, any electronics, literally just anything they can find. And then over the next few hours they pawn a bunch of Reggie and Carol's stuff off at a bunch of different pawn shops. They also go to multiple different ATMs taking as much money they can from Reggie and Carol's bank account. And after committing such terrible, cruel, cold, blooded murders, the group decides that they want to party. Yeah, they were in the mood to party after barring such a sweet elderly couple alive. They rent a limo with Reggie and Carol's money and they're driving around town, partying in the back of this limo with expensive champagne throwing money all around money that belongs to Reggie and Carol. They even take a bunch of photos in the back of the limo holding up the money that they just stole from the people that they killed. Tiffany Cole even has the money hanging out of her mouth at one point. So, so disgusting. Meanwhile, Carol's daughter Ronda, who I've already told you about, who was extremely close to her mother, Carol, and they literally spoke every single day, while Ronda is panicking because she cannot get a hold of her mother or her stepfather. She's calling multiple times. She's not getting an answer. She's calling multiple times, leaving voicemails. Her mother and her stepfather are not calling her back. It was extremely unusual this ever happened before, so after only two days of not hearing from her mother, Ronda decides that she's going to drive from Charleston all the way to Jacksonville, Florida to check on her mother and her stepfather. When she gets to Reggie and Carol's home, she sees that their car is not there. They are not there, but their dog is there and the medicine that Reggie had to take every single day was still there. But the strangest and most suspicious thing was that it was clear that her mother and stepfather were in the middle of making dinner when they just got up and left. Like I told you, Reggie and Carol were in the middle of making dinner when Alan Wade and Bruce Nixon knocked on their door. So she sees dinner have cooked in the kitchen and she's wondering what could be enough, what could have happened for her mother and stepfather to just get up and leave in the middle of making dinner and not tell anyone where they're going for several days. Something was very, very, very wrong, so Ronda immediately calls the police. And thankfully police look at the situation and they agree that there's something going on here that is extremely suspicious. Neighbor tells family that she remembers seeing a strange car come and go from the Sumner's house. And family says that they think that Carol and Reggie probably were just being nice, allowing the group to stay overnight so they didn't have to make the trip to and from Charleston all in one day. So first they decide to start looking for Reggie and Carol's car, hoping that the car would lead them to Reggie and Carol. And since the car was abandoned on the side of the road, it was actually very quickly reported to the police. So it was extremely easy for the police to find Reggie and Carol's car, but of course, Reggie and Carol were not in the car and there were really no clues. So this was kind of a dead end, but it did make it a lot more obvious that whatever happened to Reggie and Carol was foul play. So it was finally released to the public that Reggie and Carol were missing on July 12th. The news spread very, very fast that this loving sweet elderly couple was missing and were likely in danger. And the news spread all around Charleston where they used to live, which makes a lot of sense that the news spread there very, very fast from what I know about Reggie and Carol. They seemed really great, so there were probably a lot of people in Charleston that really, really loved them. And almost immediately after the police released the public that Reggie and Carol are missing, the police get a call from a man claiming to be Reggie Sumner. I was going to tell my wife right now that the system passed away, trying to mark the rhythm and the name of the call this morning and said that the road is open and that the legion was missing. We just moved back with two there and that long ago from South Carolina. This was actually Michael James Jackson pretending to be Reggie Sumner thinking that he was smart enough to outsmart the police that he could just call up the police and say me and my wife aren't missing. We just went on a spontaneous trip and that would be enough for the police to just end their entire investigation. But the police immediately saw through this. I mean, Reggie was a man in his 60s and Michael wasn't trying to mask his voice at all and he very much sounded like a very young man. But the police want to get more information out of him so they keep asking him questions and they also ask if they can speak to Reggie's wife Carol. And that's when Tiffany Cole gets on the phone pretending to be 61 year old Carol Sumner. Is this Carol? He said it. You doing all right? Uh-huh. She's really quiet. I understand. I understand that you may have some health problems. Uh-huh. Cancer. Cancer. And remember, do you have anybody that we can contact to help us make sure that everything is at the house? Should be there. So that's where I'm not going to make an understanding. And again, Tiffany does not try to mask her voice at all. She very clearly sounds like a 22 year old girl. They did record this phone call and they played it for Rhonda Carol's daughter and she confirmed that the voices on this phone call were not her mother and her son. stepfather. And I bet that filter was so much anxiety. She probably already knows at this point that something happened to her mother in stepfather, but now hearing on the phone that there's people pretending to be her mother and her stepfather to get them to end the investigation, I'm sure, filter with so much worry and anxiety. The place were able to track the phone number that made this call. Tiffany and Michael were not smart enough to use a burner phone or use a pay phone and they put it in a request to get this phone numbers phone records. When they get the records back, they see that this phone number also made a phone call to a car rental company just a few days before Reggie and Carol disappeared. They called the car rental company and the car rental company tells them that someone named Tiffany Cole used this phone number to rent a Mazda again just a few days before Reggie and Carol vanished. Police were also able to get a hold of Reggie and Carol's financial records and they saw that immediately after Reggie and Carol disappeared. Someone used their debit cards to withdraw a lot of their money out of multiple different ATMs. ATMs have cameras if you did not know that and I'm guessing Michael Jackson did not know that because police went and they got a hold of the footage from all these cameras from these ATMs and they see Michael Jackson going and getting money and withdrawing much money out of Reggie and Carol's bank account and in the footage they can see him getting out of a Mazda. Something really great that I was actually not aware that rental car companies did or at least I'm assuming most of them do was that this rental car company actually had tracking for all of their rental cars and Tiffany and Michael were still driving around in this rented Mazda so they were able to tell the police exactly where the Mazda was and it led them right to a motel in South Carolina. Police rush over there and they storm into the room and inside the motel room was Tiffany Cole, Michael Jackson, Alan Wade. They were surrounded by a bunch of money that belonged to Reggie and Carol as well as Reggie and Carol's car keys a bunch of their belongings and their debit cards so all three of them were immediately arrested. They were brought to the station. They were separated and put into different interrogation rooms but none of them would say anything. They did their best to get information out of them telling Michael that they had him on camera taking money out of Reggie and Carol's bank accounts that they had these phone records and so much evidence but no one was cracking. The one thing that they actually weren't able to get out of one of them came from Tiffany Cole that around the time that Reggie and Carol disappeared she was hanging out with Michael and Alan but also a fourth man Bruce Nixon so they bring Bruce Nixon into custody and he immediately confesses to everything. The evil plan to steal from them, the evil plan to murder them and the fact that they buried it then alive. Investigate a mission person case. Yeah that's why I was asked to do this. Okay why is Kevin here to help me out okay. Have you been watching the news? Not familiar at all with anything. That's James Sona and that's his wife Carol Sona. There was a nickname though ring about to you. No sir. Never never been to their house. See I came out of Jackson with his weekend with my friend Alan Wade that came out this past weekend with Alan. Yeah. All right. We'll tell us about that that weekend. I came out here for a couple days he came and picked me up or whatever and went out there with his mom and stayed and had a couple nights. John hang out with anybody else. My friends. There's a girl with us. I don't know what she needs. I think it's his girlfriend. I don't know her. Tiff or something they call her Tiff. We just rode around and they smoked but you can ask all her friends. I don't need to go to him right now. Yes sir. Okay so then you guys they're smoking and you're with them online. Yeah. Is that correct? I don't think it was Thursday or Friday. Okay. First let me ask you a question. Is it how do you think we how do you think we came to to meet with you? I don't know sir. I need to think about the job stop anywhere. No sir. I promise you. What do you think we're here talking about these people? Well you can put it together. I mean you would ask me if they're missing people then you ask me about you. That's why I ain't going to get caught up in all this. Okay. It's kind of freaking me out. No one I owe my best friends and all this. You're right. Look at these fellows. Somebody's grandparents. No no. Somebody. Mom and daddy and uncle. You aren't finally? We were providing you an opportunity to have to because we're we're we just want we want everybody to say. I'm gonna tell you exactly a lot. Okay and that's that's what I need to know. I need to hear it from you. Okay and I need truth. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're going to school next year. To see everybody with this. Balls in your court. You're going to run with it. Shoot or are you going to? Sit down with it. I think if I tell you everything. I probably I'll get out of a lot of trouble. I think I will. We need you. We need to help us out there. All right. I'll tell you. But this is what happened. Alan told me that we were going to rob some people at home. Some money and stuff. Did he notice people? They all knew and get her in the house and stuff. Okay. I need money. I got a family. Bruce Nixon even brought the police to. Where they buried Reggie and Carol alive in Georgia. Police were able to dig up this gravesite. They found Reggie and Carol tragically no longer alive. And when they found them, Reggie and Carol were hugging. They were buried alive and they died hugging each other and trying to comfort each other. He took them to the gravesite and everything. Oh my God, man. He took them to them. Are you kidding me? Try here and today's paper. Where the spot was at? Yes, dear. I don't know. I guess I read all of half of Bruce is sitting there. I don't know what the hell Bruce is doing. Bruce is sitting there. I can like. He's a damn mafia headman in what Bruce hung us all. I'm trying to. No, Bruce. Hey, me. Bruce, this is not what you told your mom on the phone. I'm on now. Bruce is hung us all. I understand that. I understand the way that looks. That's like, you know what I'm saying. You get in trouble. It looks like what it's got. Now I'm caught. Hey, if it walks like they might. You know, I get what you saying, but at the city. I mean, you got to understand my point of view. Okay. I knew about this. So am I didn't get back because you were there. I wasn't there though. I was not there. You know, I told you last time we thought you're going to be a great fiction right? It's not about it. It's not about no big story teller. It's not about no fiction, nonfiction. This is exactly what this is nonfiction. Okay. I understand due to the fact that, you know what I'm saying. When I first met y'all, I said, yo, I was there. I had a flash. Like I did all this. So that right there. It's like first impression is the last impression. So okay, I got it. Like I said, I'm burning on myself. You know what I'm saying about saying that I was there by incriminating myself from being there. But I wasn't there. So now it's like, I got to do. I got to pull a miracle out my head. I got to prove I wasn't there. What I see is this, this is, you know, fourth and long. It's a Hail Mary pass. You know, try anything you could try and hope to pull it out. But it ain't going to happen. How? What's the best thing that can come at it? I mean, what's the best thing that can happen to me? The best thing? If the whole truth and everything, y'all get there. If everything comes out, the absolute best thing is, if you, if you were to be cooperative until everything, the best thing is the problem. I can see death bound. Okay. But that's on the table right now. We can't make that deal. Okay. That's up to the state attorney and your attorney. You come wholly clean with them or wholly clean with us after talking with them. You know, they can make those arrangements. I can't do that. Okay. You're looking at some time right now. If you're convicted, you right now, the way things stand. So you said right now, the way things stand towards the first to be murder. If you've convicted the first to be murdered, you have two penalties. Like, yeah, that's it. Okay. I cannot be cannot make a deal. It takes that off. Police that worked this case actually admitted that this was a murder that really really stuck with them. Something that they thought would stick with them forward the rest of their lives. And a lot of them have even said that this was the worst murder case that they had worked in their entire careers. And all four of them Tiffany Cole, Michael Jackson, Alan Wade and Bruce Nixon were all arrested and charged with two counts of murder. Bruce would plead guilty and he's actually the only one that has ever apologized or shown any remorse and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Tiffany, Michael and Alan all pled not guilty. Their trial began in October of 2007. During her trial, Tiffany would claim that she was innocent, that she had no knowledge and no involvement in the murders of Reggie and Carol. She didn't help with the planning. She didn't know what was going to happen and that she was in an abusive relationship with Michael Jackson. A man she only knew for a few weeks, not saying that they couldn't have been an abusive relationship, but she tries to claim that she was so entangled up in this man. that she was also technically a victim. If you look at it that way, she's also a victim in this case. - But please remember that I didn't do this. I'm not the monster that created this, but I am sorry I met him. - But Bruce Nixon, who again is the only person that has shown any remorse or has apologized, chose to testify against Tiffany in the trial, and he testified under oath that not only did she know of the murders, but she was there when it happened, and she was there when it was planned. And she was also there celebrating with them, with Reggie and Carol's money after witnessing them be murdered and buried alive. At the end of the trial, Tiffany, Michael, and Alan were all found guilty, and they were sentenced to death. The jury voted in favor of the death penalty for Alan Wade 11 to one. They voted in favor of the death penalty for Michael Jackson 8 to 4, and voted in favor of the death penalty for Tiffany Cole 9 to 3. Tiffany Cole was 22 years old at the time of the murders, and was about 24, 25 years old by the time that she was sentenced to death row, making her one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death row in America, and at the time that she was sentenced, she was the youngest woman sitting on death row. While on death row, Alan Wade would find love. He got married and was even on a reality TV show about finding love after a lockup called Love Don't Judge. Personally, I've never even heard of this reality show, and I watch a lot of reality TV. Let me know if you've heard of this show or seen the episodes before. Alan would also have a baby, a son, with his wife, while he was sitting on death row, which I'm a little confused about, because as far as I can tell, from doing a little internet search, Florida does not allow conjugal visits for criminals sitting on death row, so not sure how they managed to conceive that baby, but I guess they did, they found a way. While sitting on death row, Tiffany Cole would do a few of on camera interviews, talking about her experience on death row, have she did not think that it was right for her to be on death row, that she did not deserve to be on death row, and that she did not agree with her sentence, and she would also have healed her sentence multiple times. And then in 2016, the Supreme Court decided that when it came to sentencing people to death, that the jury should vote in full agreement, but in Tiffany, Michael, and Alan's cases, it was not a jury that all voted in favor. There was mixed votes, most voted in favor, but some did not. So in 2017, the Florida Supreme Court overturned all three of their death sentences, as well as about, think, 150 other criminals sitting on death row, and instead, Alan, Tiffany, and Michael were all sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. - The elements in a big local story that we've been following since 2005, the Florida Supreme Court has thrown out the death sentence for Tiffany Cole, accused of murdering a St. Nicholas couple by burying them alive in Georgia. Joy went back into the news for Jack's archives and has this update for us, Joy. - Mary, this was a story that so many people have followed, Carol and Reggie Sumner. They were reported missing by family, and days later, we learned they had been kidnapped, robbed, and then buried alive. Now Tiffany Cole's death sentence has been thrown out. Now Cole will get a new sentencing hearing, and it's likely the two others who were convicted in the murders of the Summers will also get new hearings, because their death sentences were also not unanimous. - But then in 2023, another law was passed that now allowed death sentence to be given if eight out of the 12 jurors voted for it. So Michael, James Jackson, was resentanced to death, making him the only person to be resentanced to death after this law changed. Michael James Jackson was seen as the ringleader in this plot to murder Reggie and Carol, which is why he was resentanced to death. He would appeal the fact that he was resentanced to death, but in 2025, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. So Tiffany Cole and Alan Wade are still serving out their life sentences to this day. While Michael, James Jackson sits on death row. I'm really interested to hear all of your thoughts on this case. What do you think makes this 22 year old girl kill people that loved her so much and did so much for her in cold blood, and do you think that justice was served in this case? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments. I literally read every single comment that comes in YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. While you're in the comments, please always remember to be respectful. This is Reggie and Carol's story, and they truly seemed like such great people, and my heart truly goes out to every single person that knew and loved Reggie and Carol's summer in real life. So while you're in the comments, let me know all your thoughts. But please always remember to be respectful for their loved ones' sake while you're also in the comments. Let me know what case you wanna see covered in a future hot in the case episode. I'm always grabbing case suggestions directly from the comments. I have a huge Google Doc of case suggestions that I'm always pulling from. So please let me know all your case suggestions down in the comments, and that is all I have for this week's investigation. I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the case once again.