James and Carol Sumner, both 61
Tiffany Ann Cole
Facts of the Crime:
Tiffany Cole was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of James and Carol Sumner on March 6, 2008.
On the night of July 8, 2005, Cole, along with codefendants Michael Jackson, Bruce Nixon, Jr., and Alan Wade, robbed, kidnapped, and murdered the victims. The Sumners were friends with and previous neighbors of Cole’s father before they moved from the Charleston, South Carolina, area to Jacksonville, Florida. The plan to rob and murder the victims evolved from knowledge Cole already had about the victims and information she obtained from the victims in the weeks prior to the crimes. In June 2005, Cole and her boyfriend, Michael Jackson, went to Jacksonville to visit Jackson’s friend, Alan Wade. While in Jacksonville, Cole contacted the victims, and Cole and Jackson stayed one night at the victims’ home. During the visit, Mrs. Sumner confided to Cole that she and Mr. Sumner had recently sold their home near Charleston and had profited $99,000.
Following the initial trip to Jacksonville and additional trips between Charleston and Jacksonville, Cole, Jackson, Wade, and Wade’s friend, Bruce Nixon, developed a plan to rob the victims. Nixon testified that the foursome planned the robbery together and Cole was the one who knew the victims and who “set everything up.” The foursome ultimately decided they would kill the victims. Two days before the murders, Cole, Jackson, and Wade picked Nixon up in a Mazda RX-8 that Cole rented from an agency in South Carolina. The group selected a remote location in Georgia, just across the Florida State line, to dig a large hole. While Cole held a flashlight, Jackson, Wade, and Nixon dug the hole, which was approximately four feet deep and six feet square. The group left the shovels at the hole when they completed the excavation.
On July 8, 2005, Cole and her codefendants purchased duct tape and plastic wrap. Later that night, Cole drove the foursome to the victims’ home. Initially, Cole and Jackson remained outside in the rented Mazda. Wade and Nixon knocked on the door and, when Mrs. Sumner responded, Wade asked to use her telephone. After Mrs. Sumner allowed Wade and Nixon into her home, Wade ripped the telephone cord from the wall. Nixon held the victims at gunpoint with a toy gun, took the victims to a bedroom, and bound them with duct tape. After Wade and Nixon contacted Jackson through Nextel two-way radio phones—which the group used to communicate throughout the course of the crimes—Jackson entered the victims’ home. Jackson and Wade then searched the victims’ home for bank account records. Cole drove down the street and waited in the Mazda. Eventually, the victims were taken to their garage and forced into the trunk of their Lincoln Town Car. Cole drove back to the victims’ home in the Mazda after Jackson called her. Jackson placed a trash bag containing some of the victims’ belongings in the Mazda’s trunk and got into the Mazda. Wade and Nixon then drove the victims’ Lincoln, with Cole and Jackson following in the Mazda, to the remote Georgia location where they had previously dug the large hole. Upon arrival, Cole remained with the Mazda at the edge of the road, while her codefendants drove the Lincoln into the woods to the hole. At some point, Nixon joined Cole at the road. The evidence shows that only Jackson and Wade were present at the hole when the victims were put into the hole and buried alive. When Jackson returned from the woods to the Mazda, Jackson had the personal identification number (PIN) for the victims’ automated teller machine (ATM) card. The foursome drove both cars from the grave site to Sanderson, Florida, where they wiped down the Lincoln and abandoned it. The foursome then left in the Mazda, with Cole driving.
Upon being arrested, Nixon revealed to law enforcement officers the location where the victims were buried, and on July 16, 2005, the victims’ bodies were discovered. Dr. Anthony J. Clark, medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, performed autopsies on the bodies and testified that both of the victims died as a result of mechanical obstruction of the airways by dirt. Essentially, the victims were buried alive and asphyxiated from the dirt particles smothering their airway passages.
Cole was sentenced to death in Duval County on March 6, 2008.
Co-defendant information:
Michael Jackson and Alan Wade were both convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and each received two death sentences.
For more on Jackson, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...t=tiffany+cole
For more on Wade, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...rida-Death-Row
Bruce Nixon, Jr. pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. After testifying against Cole, Jackson, and Wade, Nixon received two concurrent sentences of 45 years’ imprisonment.
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