When Jimella Tunstall and Tiffany Hall met in kindergarten they became best friends. Their families also bonded and the girls would remain close until tragedy struck in 2006.

After being arrested several times for drug charges, Hall entered a drug treatment program and began to change her life. She eventually went back to school and got a cosmetology license, but she still wanted more education. This summer she is planning to take classes that will count toward a master’s degree at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Despite being clean for nine years, Hall’s life was still filled with ups and downs. She’d be pulled over for selling drugs, she’d get thrown out of work for missing curfews and she’d end up in the backseat of Lt. Foster’s patrol car. He encouraged her to stop the drugs, go to school and start a new chapter in her life.

In 2008, Hall pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one charge of intentional homicide of a fetus. She was sentenced to life in prison. Over the next decade she challenged her sentence several times, but each time was denied. In 2012, she filed a petition for a new defense attorney alleging that her original attorneys failed to adequately investigate her mental health and fitness to stand trial. The petition was dismissed, but she continued to fight.