Cruel Death

by M. William Phelps

  “Yes, I did.” Erika seemed intrigued by the conversation. Even stimulated by it. Not in the least bit sorry or remorseful. “BJ told me to get it there! He loves it, too. He compliments me all the time on it.”

  This was important to Erika, because BJ, she claimed, had only made compliments to her about “two things. Before the murders he said I was a cool wife for going to strip clubs with him, and now he says he likes the tattoo because it is in the same location that I cut [Geney].”

  Campbell noticed that Erika had a small scar above her thumb. “Is that from cutting yourself while cutting [Geney]?”

  “No,” Erika said. “That’s a crocodile bite.”

  After she finished “cutting” Geney, Erika explained, she went downstairs to get some garbage bags. When she returned, she got her first view of the horror that had gone on inside the bathroom, and the additional horror, in fact, that was about to take place. Now there was blood covering just about every square inch of the floor, all over the walls, and even on the blinds. BJ was naked, as if participating in some sort of ritual, and completely covered in blood. By now he had moved the bodies into the hot tub.

  BJ just sat there for a moment as Erika looked around the room. Still, seeing her husband naked and covered in blood didn’t really have that much of a negative or even sinister effect on Erika. Because no sooner had she walked into the bathroom did she run back out into the bedroom, she later explained, “to look for my shit.”

  It was important for Erika to find her jewelry. After all, two people had lost their lives because of that jewelry.

  “I just love my stuff,” Erika explained to Campbell, as if they were two women out for a day of shopping, “and have about forty thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds, including a two-inch carat canary diamond my grandmother gave me.”

  According to Erika, as she was looking around the room, BJ came in and said, “Look underneath the bed.”

  She said she got on her stomach and lifted up the blanket hanging over the edge of the bed—and there it was: all her stuff.

  “He put everything there,” Erika said later, “to mess with me. He probably did it so I would be upset with Geney and Joshua and want to kill them.”

  This part of Erika’s story doesn’t add up: the bed had only about a half-inch clearance underneath it.

  Nonetheless, Erika said, she sat on the bed with her things, looking through them, to make sure everything was there.

  Within a few moments, BJ sat next to her. Without warning, he said, “I masturbated over their bodies.”

  “What?”

  He said it again.

  Erika later explained that she didn’t see him do it, “but he told me he did.”

  72

  Horror Show

  Erika explained to Carri Campbell that she was still wearing the same clothes she had wet herself in, which now had blood on them, when she went out to get those garbage bags for BJ, at 4:00 A.M.

  When she returned about thirty minutes later, and ran immediately up to the bathroom, she said, “I saw BJ cutting a leg off one of the bodies.”

  “Do you know what that is?” BJ asked, pointing to another body part on the floor next to the tub.

  “An arm?”

  “Can we eat it?” BJ asked.

  “No, Beej. We cannot eat it,” she answered.

  After he finished carving both bodies into six parts, BJ put all the body parts into garbage bags, tied them securely, then put the garbage bags into military duffel bags and loaded those bags into blue plastic tubs. Erika admitted that she helped him wrap up Joshua’s torso with a “cream-colored blanket” she took from one of the closets in the condo (which was later confirmed).

  She was detailed in describing, Campbell wrote of Erika’s descriptions, the way Josh’s torso (with no arms, legs, or head attached) was balanced on the edge of the hot tub.

  Again, Erika showed no emotion or even cried as she talked about these graphic scenes of her husband dismembering two human beings. It was as if she was describing a dream, or some horror movie she had recently seen. There seemed to be no human or emotional connection whatsoever to what had transpired.

  After disposing the bodies in Dumpsters behind a grocery store in Delaware, Erika explained, she and BJ “were both very tired and just slept downstairs for a few hours.”

  When they got up at noon that same day, Erika told BJ, “We need to clean up the bathroom.”

  “We used cleaning supplies, such as bleach and Drano,” Erika explained to Campbell.

  The following day, they went and made sure the Dumpsters had been emptied.

  According to Erika, “Boy, what a number you did on [Geney’s] throat,” BJ said to her as they were driving. This was the first time Erika Sifrit had ever admitted—in not so many words—that she had actually slit Geney’s throat.

  73

  Deal’s Off

  Arcky Tuminelli paced, drank coffee, and wondered what in the world was taking the Secret Service so damn long. He’d had some previous experience with polygraph tests, and they had never gone on for this duration of time.

  Come on . . . what’s the problem here?

  Something was up.

  Arcky went and got a drink of water, wondering if he should go in and interrupt the test. In truth, however, if he destroyed Erika’s chances for taking the test, the deal would be taken off the table. There was no legal grounds on which he could barge into the interview to check and see if things were going all right.

  In the interim of talking with Joel Todd about when to do the polygraph, Arcky had been presented with a second agreement, on top of that first agreement he and Todd had drafted late into the night in Joel Todd’s office. This second agreement was actually a document designed to protect Erika. In it, under no condition or circumstance could anything Erika say during the polygraph be disclosed to anyone without her written consent.

  It’s important to note the word “polygraph” here.

  So Erika had walked into that interview under the impression that whatever she said—no matter what—could not be used against her, even in a court of law, without her written consent. This test was simply a way for the state’s attorney to feel more comfortable about granting Erika the deal.

  One would have to wonder: Was this why Erika decided to open up to Carri Campbell? Was she displaying a hubris on her part that said, “You people are so stupid . . . . I can say whatever I want to, and still walk out of here”?

  What was important about the wording of the second agreement, however, was that it covered the polygraph itself, not any of the preinterviews.

  When Erika finished what had become an almost four-hour pre-polygraph interview and Campbell emerged from the room, Arcky took one look at the pregnant Secret Service agent and knew something was wrong. He had been sitting and waiting with the Assistant State’s Attorney E. Scott Collins. The morning had dragged on. It was well into the afternoon.

  Looking at Campbell, Arcky said, “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  By now, Erika had been sent back to her holding cell. According to several witnesses who saw her later that day, Erika looked as if she had unburdened herself of a great weight. She had color in her face. A bounce in her step. A smile. She was either callously having some fun in describing such gruesome aspects of her crimes, or she was seriously trying to release an overwhelming amount of evil that had accumulated in her system.

  The two Secret Service agents stood in front of Arcky Tuminelli and Scott Collins. Campbell spoke first. “We cannot use these questions,” she said, holding a piece of paper.

  Arcky looked concerned. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

  For a polygraph to work properly, the relevant questions need to elicit a negative response from the interviewee. The test is set up in a way in which the answer that is not incriminating would have to be no. If it is a yes, then the entire test has to be reworked and new questions written to correspond with whatever new information has been acc
rued.

  Arcky knew this. So when Campbell said she couldn’t continue the test based on the questions they had all previously agreed to, his heart skipped a beat. He stood up. “What are you talking about?”

  The surprises for Arcky just kept coming and coming.

  The problem was that Erika had admitted to Carri Campbell that she had taken part in the crime itself. She said she was there at the moment of the murders and had even participated in the act and, in some respects, had commissioned the murders. One of the relevant questions on the polygraph was Did you cut on any of those people?

  Erika had admitted that she had, in fact, “cut” Geney Crutchley.

  Knowing what she now knew, Campbell understood that Erika would have to answer yes to that question when she asked it during the polygraph and, essentially, negate the polygraph test itself.

  What did this do for the deal Arcky Tuminelli had drafted for Erika with Joel Todd? For starters, the examination was over. They could not continue.

  According to a report drafted by Detective Scott Bernal, who was there during all of this legal madness now taking place, It was decided that with the answers Erika Sifrit gave to Special Agents Doyle and Campbell that the relevant questions which were intended to be asked should no longer be asked. Mr. Todd [and] Mr. Collins discussed this with Mr. Tuminelli and he agreed . . . [that] the actual polygraph examination should not be administered.

  The other problem—which became larger as the day carried for ward—was that Erika had made a claim that BJ told her to “cut up” Geney. Erika said she cut Geney on the side of her hip. This particular answer, of course, canceled out the other relevant question on the pretest regarding cutting any of the victims.

  “We need to reformulate these questions,” Carri Campbell announced.

  Scott Collins nearly jumped out of the chair. Arcky Tuminelli felt as though he’d been burned once again by Erika.

  “We don’t need to reformulate anything,” Collins said. “There’s not going to be a polygraph. The deal’s off!”

  Rubbing his head, Arcky Tuminelli said, “Wait a minute . . . just wait a minute, Scott. Hold on. You were not there when we drafted the agreement. Hold on.”

  “No . . . the deal was that she didn’t have anything to do with the murders.”

  It was clear that Erika had admitted to her involvement. The details of what she did, and how and when she did it, well, none of that really mattered as far as the agreement was concerned—at least from where Scott Collins and the state’s attorney’s office stood.

  “Get Joel to come here,” Arcky said. “We’ve got to talk about this.”

  “No. The deal is off.” Collins didn’t want to hear about it. “She participated in the murder, Arcky.”

  End of story.

  74

  Technicalities

  Arcky found himself—and his client—in a terrible position. Why would Erika do such a thing? Why would she jeopardize the agreement by spending nearly four hours talking about her involvement in a double murder, without her attorney present?

  “To place all the blame on Benjamin,” said one source from the prosecution’s side. “If you notice, everything during that interview with Carri Campbell she said was designed to implicate Benjamin and lessen her involvement.”

  It was a plan, in other words, on Erika’s part, to walk into that interview and begin laying the foundation of her defense: it was all BJ.

  Nevertheless, her freedom and subsequent charges were contingent upon Erika passing the polygraph.

  “And if she cannot pass the polygraph,” Arcky considered, “we’re back to square one.”

  Erika had been told a number of times about the importance of being honest with her attorney. It was something she was made well aware of by several different people. On the eve of the polygraph, Arcky had met with Erika and reminded her of this very issue and its importance. According to several sources, Erika understood clearly what her lawyer meant.

  Arcky Tuminelli and Scott Collins were listening to Carri Campbell, and at first, none of it registered for Arcky. But then Campbell explained things further, and now there was this problem of the deal being quashed by Erika’s own words of admission.

  After Campbell explained the most damning statements Erika had admitted to, Collins said, “That’s it. There will definitely be no polygraph now.”

  It was Erika’s “Just fucking do it” statement that had turned out to be the clincher. This statement made her an abettor. Therefore, Erika’s own words proved her possible guilt. If that was so, there was no way she could take a polygraph and prove to Joel Todd that she’d had nothing to do with the murders.

  To Arcky, however, the agreement he had written with Todd “wasn’t that clear,” he later said. “It simply said she had to pass the polygraph. It did not go into detail.”

  “Wait a minute,” Arcky told Collins. “You have to get Joel down here. You weren’t there when we drafted this agreement. I don’t think it requires what you think it requires.”

  “Fine. I’ll get him down here,” Collins finally conceded.

  An hour went by. Arcky was sitting by himself in a conference room, where he and Collins had tried working things out previously. Erika had been taken back to the jail.

  Looking at his watch, tired of waiting, Arcky went over to Detective Scott Bernal, who was also there, and asked, “What’s going on? Where is Joel Todd and Scott Collins?”

  “They’re here,” Bernal said. “In that room over there.”

  Arcky walked down the hall and opened the door. Collins and Todd were waiting.

  Bernal followed.

  Later, Joel Todd would say that Arcky Tuminelli had a “deer in the headlights” look to him when he entered the room.

  “They had this look on their faces,” Arcky commented, “when I walked into the room, like the cat that swallowed the bird.”

  They were gloating. And yet, sure enough, they had plenty to smile about. It was obvious they had been briefed by Carri Campbell as to what, exactly, Erika had said.

  Erika was in a heap of trouble. She was going to face first-degree murder charges, which was what Scott Bernal and Joel Todd had expected—and wanted—from day one.

  Bernal wrote in his report of this meeting that Todd sat down with Arcky and began talking about the previous agreement Erika had signed. Todd was firm. No way. Erika had not fulfilled her obligations, and the deal was done.

  Finished.

  Off the table.

  Arcky was in a jam. What could he do?

  “Are you satisfied,” Todd asked, which Bernal verified in his report of the meeting, “given the information that we got from Erika Sifrit, that [we] have fulfilled the conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding?”

  According to Bernal’s report, Arcky thought about it for a moment: “Absolutely, I agree.”

  “You do. Good,” Todd responded.

  There had always been serious concerns about Erika from the prosecution’s side that she was more involved than she had wanted to admit. Now they had proof—in her own words: “You have me on murder, don’t you?”

  Arcky Tuminelli left the OCPD after speaking with Joel Todd and Scott Collins, realizing there were going to be major repercussions over what had happened. He drove back to his hotel in Rehoboth, and sat and thought about things.

  What do I do now?

  He awoke at four in the morning and started reading the “Memorandum of Understanding,” which he and Joel Todd had drafted. He was looking for that loophole to get Erika out of what she had gotten herself into. It was his duty as her attorney. There had to be something.

  “There was nothing in the agreement,” Arcky said later, “that specifically said that she had to pass the polygraph and that it had to be related to questions that she in no way participated in the murders or encouraged [Benjamin] to do the murders.”

  It was a long shot, sure, but all that Arcky had at this point. Erika had created a vacuum. Her entire defense
was being sucked into this one interview with Carri Campbell.

  Arcky Tuminelli called Joel Todd later that morning. “Look, Joel, I have issues that this is concluded now and that you can go ahead and prosecute her for murder.” The previous day, Todd had made Arcky well aware of the fact that he was likely going to be filing first-degree murder charges. “I’m looking at the agreement,” Arcky continued on the phone to Todd, “and it doesn’t say anything about what the questions need to be. It simply says that she has to pass the polygraph.”

  Erika, Arcky was arguing, had never been given an opportunity to take the polygraph, so how could she pass a test that she never had the opportunity to take?

  “Come on,” Todd said. He felt Arcky was reaching. It was ridiculous.

  “Technically speaking, you have an obligation to give her that polygraph test,” Arcky said.

  After Arcky Tuminelli said it, he knew damn well it was a difficult argument, not to mention a stretch. The legal language was on his side, however.

  “No way, Arcky. No way.” Todd was getting annoyed that Arcky would even try such a thing. “Come on—”

  “You do what you have to do, but I think you need to give her a polygraph.”

  That was the position Arcky said he was taking. End of argument.

  Joel Todd was under the impression that Arcky Tuminelli clearly understood that taking the polygraph was for the sole purpose of proving Erika wasn’t involved in the murders.

  Hanging up, they both knew that, in due time, the decision would be in the hands of a judge. For now, there was nothing else to talk about.

  Part IV

  He Said, She Said

  75

  Judgment Day

  As promised, Joel Todd tossed out the agreement and filed first-degree murder charges against Erika. It took a few months, but a judge finally sat and heard evidence from both sides regarding a motion Arcky Tuminelli had filed to have the charges dismissed in light of the agreement he and Joel Todd had drafted and signed.