Christopher Payne found guilty of killing his children

After deliberating roughly 3 1/2 hours, a Pima County jury found Christopher Payne guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of his 3-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in the summer of 2006.

The jury rejected Payne’s attorneys’ suggestion Payne was “reckless” for not getting help for Ariana and Tyler and should only be convicted of second-degree murder.

In addition to convicting Payne, 30, of two counts of first-degree murder, they convicted him of two counts of concealment of a dead human body and three counts of child abuse.

There was complete silence in the packed room when the verdicts were read. Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Fields had admonished the crowd not to show emotion.

The jury must now decide if there are aggravating factors in the case. If they decide there are, they will then hear from additional witnesses and be asked if Payne should be executed.

Prosecutors Susan Eazer and Bunkye Chi believe Payne starved Ariana and Tyler to death in a bedroom closet and then hid their bodies for months, first at his apartment on West 36th Street and then later at a storage facility on West Prince Road.

Ariana’s remains were found Feb. 18, 2007, stuffed in a 25-gallon plastic tub in a trash bin at a Prince Road storage unit. Police believe Tyler's remains were missed inside the trash bin and ended up at a landfill.

During a 5-hour interview with Tucson police, Payne insisted the children starved themselves to death once they realized they weren’t going to be allowed to live with their mother.

At one point, Payne said, “They were freaking me out because of how skinny they were getting, and I didn’t want anybody to know that because then they were going to take them away from me for good.”

When asked why he didn’t call 911, Payne replied, “Sir, it wasn’t about medical care, sir. They wanted to be with their mom.”

When the children stopped eating, Payne said he bought, stole or made food he thought would appeal to them, like Cream of Wheat and pizza.

“I would just take them the food, man. They wouldn’t want to eat. I’d put it in front of them, and we’d try to sit down and watch TV and they would throw it. They would get mad, and they’d kick and scream. It was a constant battle with them,” Payne said.

Eventually, Payne said the children became incontinent and looked like “Ethiopians.” Payne told detectives he performed CPR on Ariana for more than a day and Tyler died about a week later.

The children’s mother, Jamie Hallam, testified she and Payne split up about three weeks after Ariana was born in October 2002. She and the children didn’t hear anything from Payne until December 2005 when he asked if he could see them.

After the first visits went well, Hallam dropped Ariana and Tyler off with Payne on Jan. 20, 2006, for what was supposed to be a weekend visit.

Payne kept extending the visit, however, and when she asked for CPS’s help in getting the children back, she was rebuffed despite the fact she had sole legal custody of them.

CPS case worker Cindy Graupmann testified she began investigating Hallam for suspected child neglect in October 2005. She made two surprise visits to Hallam and each time, the children were dressed appropriately and appeared healthy, Graupmann said. But Hallam had sores on her face, leading her to believe Hallam was using drugs.

Although Hallam’s drug test came back negative, Graupmann said she considered it a positive because Hallam waited three days to supply her urine.

She spoke with Payne on the phone on Feb. 6, 2006, and urged him to seek custody of the children, Graupmann said.

Graupmann admitted when she spoke to Payne that day, she didn’t know Payne had just re-established contact with the children. She also acknowledged never meeting Payne, not doing a criminal background check on him and not asking him to submit to drug testing.

All those things would have been done if Hallam's parental rights had been formally severed. When Hallam went with police to retrieve the children March 9, 2006, she had a letter stating the investigation was over and the allegations were unsubstantiated.

There is some dispute as to why the children remained with Payne despite that letter. Former CPS supervisor Christy Tarpley testified the officers told her Payne had a signed court order giving him temporary custody of the children and she couldn’t over-ride that document. The officers testified they told Tarpley Payne had documents showing he’d merely applied for custody.

Payne’s former girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, testified Payne locked up the children and began starving them after he lost his job in April 2006 and began to use increasing amounts of heroin.

Prosecutors believe the children died in late June or early July of that year.

Gonzales, who was originally facing the same charges and potential penalties as Payne, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 22-year prison sentence. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 20.

Payne’s defense attorneys, Rebecca McLean and John O’Brien, tried to convince jurors Gonzales starved the children, citing testimony she hated the children and was home alone with them while Payne was out selling heroin.

Hallam, who sued CPS and the Tucson Police Department, settled her lawsuit against CPS for $1 million last year. Her lawsuit against the police department is still pending.