Neglect, Abuse and Death: Tyler and Ariana Payne

0:00 Welcome to True Crime Stories with Crimetorium.

0:21 Tyler used to play with his trucks and watch the show Scooby-Doo. He used to spend time cooking with his mother, Jamie, and he always protected his little sister. Ariana was the more outgoing of the two. She loved to color and dress up, and she wore her favorite baseball cap with every outfit. This is the tragic story of Tyler and Ariana Payne. Jamie Hallam and Christopher Payne Sr. married in January of 2002 in Tucson, Arizona, when their son Tyler was only a few months old. Ariana was born the following October.

1:04 The marriage was rife with domestic violence and drug abuse, causing them to split not long after Ariana was born. Jamie was awarded sole custody of the kids, and Payne was to have no contact with them. In December of 2005, after years of not seeing their father, Payne convinced Jamie to allow him to visit Tyler and Ariana for a few days. Payne was $19,000 behind in child support. The visit seemed to go well, so on January 20, 2006, Jamie agreed to let the children visit again just for the weekend.

1:44 Payne did not return the children at the agreed time, and each time Jamie called him to get the children back, he would put her off until he finally stopped answering her calls altogether. On February 3, 2006, Jamie called the police for assistance. Once the police located the children with Payne, they refused to return them to Jamie on the advice of the Arizona Child Protective Services on the grounds that Jamie was abusing drugs. By this time, a caseworker had encouraged Payne to seek custody of Tyler and Ariana without so much as checking into his background.

2:25 Payne lived in an apartment with his girlfriend, Raina Gonzalez, and their one-year-old son Christopher Payne Jr. Ariana and Tyler slept on the living room couch.

2:38 On Sunday, February 18, 2007, a 911 call came into the Tucson Police Department from a manager of a storage unit. She called a report finding a Rubbermaid container with a foul odor emanating from it. Once the officers arrived, the manager informed them that she found the Rubbermaid container with the Tommy Hilfiger bag sitting on top while cleaning out an abandoned unit. She put the container in the dumpster and decided to call the police due to the suspicious smell. An officer removed the container from the dumpster, which was in the upright position, and opened the Tommy Hilfiger bag.

3:23 Inside was a black garbage bag that had been tied off. The officer used a knife to cut the bag open, revealing the decomposing remains of a small child. The child was in a fetal position and estimated to be about three years old.

3:44 The storage unit manager, Diane Hanselman, was interviewed later that day. She told the officers that when she placed the container in the dumpster, some of the liquid from the container spilled onto her shoe, but nothing spilled into the dumpster. The officers inspected the unit and it was empty, noting a rectangular stain in the southeast area, presumably from the Rubbermaid container. They also checked the dumpster and it was half full. They also located the lid to the container sitting on top of the debris Officers noted that there was no foul odor coming from the dumpster It was decided that any evidence they would need would be located in the Rubbermaid container, so they did not remove any debris from the dumpster at that time.

4:38 The medical examiner, Dr. Eric Peters, arrived on the scene to examine the remains. Once the child's body was removed from the bag, it was laid out onto some paper. The body was in a severe state of decomposition, almost mummified. The child had reddish-brown hair and was estimated to be between two and four years old. The doctor determined that the child was a white female. The unit had been rented in September of 2006 by a man named Joshua Neusser. Officers located him staying at his mother's house and brought him to the station for questioning.

5:24 Neusser told the officers that a man named Chris and his girlfriend needed someone to rent a storage unit for them in exchange for $50. Neusser agreed to do it. Once the unit was rented, Chris and his girlfriend put a lock on the door, and that was the end of it as far as Nusser was concerned. He began receiving monthly bills, but he ignored them, causing the unit to be taken back by management in February of 2007.

5:56 Nusser was able to provide Chris's cell phone number to the officers, but he couldn't remember his last name or his girlfriend's name. After days of investigation, officers finally had the names of the people that rented the storage unit, Chris Payne and Raina Gonzalez. They spoke to the apartment manager at their last known address, which was the Portofino Apartments in Tucson. She advised the officers that the two had lived there until August of 2006. On March 1st, the police were able to track Payne and Gonzalez to a Lazy 8 motel in Tucson.

6:38 The two were brought into the police station for questioning that day.

6:44 Payne was first to be interrogated. He waved his Miranda rights and began talking. He said that he missed Tyler and Ariana and blamed them for starving themselves, saying that they wouldn't eat and began eating feces. He bought them pizza and ice cream, but they refused to eat it, he said. He claimed he was keeping them from their mother, Jamie, because of her drug use. The interview was erratic and all over the place, but eventually, the entire story finally came out.

7:19 Reyna Gonzalez was interviewed next. She told the detectives that she and Chris met five years prior. They moved in together two weeks later and had a son in 2004 named Chris Jr. She also informed them that they were planning on getting married the following day. She worked as a waitress up until two weeks prior and Chris only worked sporadically. She claimed that Tyler and Ariana visited once in a while and the last time was about a year prior for two weeks. After that, their mother Jamie and her boyfriend picked them up.

7:59 The story about timelines and who picked them up changed a couple of times during the interview. She said that Chris was a heroin user and so was she. The interview continued with Gonzalez giving more details about hers and Payne's life together. When the interview was over, the officers called Jamie Hallam and sent a car to her home to bring her to the station. Once she was there, they told her that they believed the body in the Rubbermaid container was Ariana. They also told her that they were still looking for Tyler body but it is believed that he was also dead based on what their father Chris Payne had told them in the interview

8:49 The detectives visited the last known place where Ariana and Tyler lived, the Portofino Apartments. According to the apartment manager, the unit was still vacant. They hadn't been able to rent it out, due to a foul smell that remained even after painting and deep cleaning. The officers entered the apartment and it was still full of trash and debris left behind by Gonzalez and Payne and it smelled like death. They gathered paperwork that had been left behind, children's clothing, and different areas of flooring and drywall that appeared to have blood on it.

9:30 They also noticed a six-inch hole with what appeared to have feces and hair in it. Whatever happened to Tyler and Ariana in this apartment must have been horrific.

9:46 Payne was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in addition to two counts of child abuse and two counts of concealing a dead body. Reyna Gonzalez was given a deal in exchange for testifying and pleading to two counts of second-degree murder. In a letter she read moments before she was sentenced to 22 years in prison, Gonzalez said that she was heartbroken and ashamed for her role in Ariana and Tyler's deaths. The letter, which was full of misspellings, was read by her defense attorney to the judge as follows.

10:21 My case has painfully come to a close, and I just want you to know how heartbroken and ashamed I am. My actions and knowledge in my case was way beyond my control due to the severity of my drug use. I am not trying to use my drug use as an excuse, Gonzalez wrote. She went on to say she had given her life over to God, and she has, asked him to forgive me and helped me to forgive myself now that I realize what I could have done differently if I was sober.

10:59 The trial for Chris Payne began on February 25, 2009. The evidence that was presented to the court was the following. Sometime between March and September of 2006, Tyler and Ariana were confined to a bedroom closet. Some neighbors and even a roommate were not aware that there were other children living in the apartment besides Chris Jr. Although the roommate did say that she thought she heard children's voices coming through the wall from the bedroom closet. A family member visited around Easter time and saw Ariana and Tyler and testified that Ariana's hair was a mess and she looked scrawny and unhappy.

11:43 The two children were initially fed one sandwich a day and then eventually nothing at all. Gonzalez witnessed Payne beating the children on numerous occasions, but did not step in to help or call the police. Money was spent on Payne's heroin addiction at the time he allowed Tyler and Ariana to starve to death. The couple's son, Chris Jr., was well fed and in good health at the time of his parents' arrest.

12:18 Ariana died first. The exact date is not known. Payne claims he performed CPR on her and was unsuccessful. Her body was placed in a garbage bag and put in the closet with Tyler, who died approximately a week later. The plastic bag containing Ariana's body was put in the Tommy Hilfiger bag and then placed in a 25 gallon Rubbermaid container along with Tyler's body and taken to the storage facility in September of 2006 where it was discovered in February of 2007 When officers first heard that Tyler and Ariana were placed in the container together they were stunned.

13:07 The dumpster was not fully checked after discovering the container so they felt it is possible that his body fell out of the container and it was in a landfill. After pinning down what area of the landfill that the dumpster from the storage facility was dumped it was searched tyler's body has never been found

13:33 it still remains a mystery as to whether his body was moved after being placed in the storage unit and buried somewhere or if his body fell out of the container into the dumpster Dr. Eric Peters testified about the findings of the autopsy performed on Ariana. She suffered from various broken bones, all in various stages of healing. The most recent injury was a broken back. This means that the abuse was long-term. The defense portrayed Payne as a loving father who was caught up in drugs. They blamed the death of the children on Gonzalez because she couldn't stand them and didn't want them around.

14:19 They said he took the children in because Jamie Hallam was a bad mother and was addicted to meth. They also claimed that Jamie willingly handed over Ariana and Tyler over to him, and they were underweight and dirty at that time. This evidence was disputed by various witnesses. Closing statements were made on March 6, 2009, and one day later, the verdict came in. Christopher Payne was found guilty on all counts. The penalty phase was held on March 18, 2009. Payne's defense attorney told the court that his mother passed away when he was four months old.

15:05 His father drank a lot and he was passed around from family member to family member. He got into drugs in high school, but went to rehab and went on to meet and marry Jamie Hallam. His struggle with drugs continued and the two got divorced. He then met Reyna Gonzalez.

15:27 Jamie Hallam then stood before the court and read an emotional letter describing Ariana and Tyler. Tyler was always by her side, she said. Ariana was more independent. She described how she can still hear Ariana's sweet little voice saying, I love you. Tyler loved to ride his bike and loved anything that had to do with Scooby-Doo. Being happy doesn't seem right anymore, she said. Sometimes the feelings of despair become so overwhelming, so oppressive, that it takes my breath away.

16:07 The jury came back after three hours of deliberation with a penalty of death for Christopher Payne. Payne showed no reaction to the verdict.

16:19 Payne has appealed the verdict several times, and each one has been denied. Jamie Hallam won a $1 million civil lawsuit against CPS for failing to return Tyler and Ariana to her once they were located. Had they checked the custody documents, they would have realized that Payne was not to have any contact with the children. His criminal report would have also revealed that he had a history of domestic violence. State Senator Jonathan Patan pushed for reforms to the state's child welfare laws based on this case and another one involving a child named Brandon Williams who was murdered by his mother and her roommates.

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