By Alicia Cruz
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| The accused |
Prosecutors say William Darnell Fuller quickly admitted to shooting his step-mother in her garage on the night of May 18, 2010. But the kicker is he told police that his own father pushed him to do it and to sweeten the deal, his dad offered to give him $3,000 from the life insurance proceeds.
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| Victim, Pauletta Burleson |
Like many blended families, the Burleson's had their share of problems. Depending on who you believe, Tracey says William felt unwanted and unloved by his wife and acted out because of this.
There are reports that both Pauletta and Tracy physically and verbally abused their children, including William.
According to Harris County District Court records, in 2005 and 2006 the couple was arrested and charged with three counts of injury to a child. They were accused of beating their children with an extension cord, shovel and a wooden board. The boys were 11 and 12-years-old at the time.
According to an affidavit by a member of HPD's Child Abuse Unit, the boys "had injuries on their heads, back, stomach, arms, buttocks and legs."
Former neighbors of the Burleson's made statements to the police indicating that they saw Pauletta strike one of the boys with her fist and hit him about the head with the shovel. The former neighbor further stated that Pauletta then allegedly had the two other brothers drag the injured boy "around the house and beat him, saying she would beat them if they didn't 'beat the hell out of him.'"
She also remembered Pauletta reportedly making comments to the children such as, "Nobody wanted y'all bastards," and
"I took y'all cause I felt sorry for y'all asses," and "Them motherfuckers ain't no good," and "Y'all wanna eat, y'all gonna fuckin work to eat."
In May 2007, Pauletta Burleson pleaded guilty to injury to a child under 15 (a third-degree felony) and again received three years' deferred adjudication. Three years later, she would be dead of a gunshot wound to the head at the hands of her step-son, William Fuller. Source
Prior to the abuse allegations in 2005 and 2006, Pauletta was in trouble with CPS and police after she was charged with injury to a child in 1997. She later pleaded guilty to abusing her 3 and 4-year-old sons at that time. In the 1997 case, she again received deferred adjudication. Tracy was not indicted on the 2005 and 2006 charges.
Some family members, who did not want to be identified, said the alleged abuse, berating and psychological abuse William suffered during his childhood time in the Burleson home caused him to grow into a confused and extremely angry young man.
Apparently his father was telling him one thing behind Pauletta's back, then saying something else to Pauletta, which only served to further strain the step-mother, step-son relationship. William also suffered from sickle cell anemia, which required frequent doctor visits. It was around this time, in 2009, that William met Tyonne reportedly through a mutual friend who lived near Tyonne.
Tyonne Palmer quickly befriended William and would cook for him, drive him to his medical appointments and just provide genuine "motherly-like" support to the troubled boy who told her he could not stand to live in the Burleson home any longer. Eventually William moved into Tyonne's home with her and her children.
William's relationship with his step-mother continued on it's contentious path although he no longer resided in the Burleson
home. Pauletta found herself dealing with not only a rebellious man-child, but other issues that stemmed from her and Tracy's constant fighting over money and Tracy's inability to remain faithful to his wife.
Despite his title as pastor, several witnesses say Tracy did very little to hide the fact that he was a womanizer. Reports say Pauletta, 56, even caught him having sex with a choir member in the church's sanctuary. This incident coupled with other atrocities led church members to file a lawsuit to have Tracy ousted from the pulpit.
Mysteriously, during the early morning hours of May 12, 2010, the 93-year-old church was destroyed by a suspicious 2:30 a.m. fire. The local fire department brought the fire under control within an hour, but their was nothing left but ashes. This occurred one week prior to the murder of Pauletta Burleson.
Fox News 26 reported that sources close to the arson investigation said Tracy Burleson ordered his son to torch the church in order to collect money.
Source
A local community activist, Quanell X, seemed to back up the Fox News story whe he said that William admitted to him that he and Tracy were involved with the church fire. William said their plan was to burn the church's cafeteria not the entire church. Arson investigators have never named William or Tracy as suspects in the church arson. Source
**After thoroughly checking sources and additional media reports, there is no evidence that William Fuller started the fire at the church. Arson investigators have not yet filed any charges in connection to the church blaze**
Pauletta Burelson's son, John Ross, said he believes his mother learned of Tracy's plot to burn the church down for insurance money and William's involvement and the father and son wanted to silence her before she could tell anyone. This has never been proven, but to some, it makes perfect sense. Friends and family members believe Tracy seduced his son into committing the murder with, not only the promise of money, but also a place to live -- back in the Burleson home minus the alleged "wicked" step-mother.
Pauletta Burleson may have been frustrated with William, but her family says she certainly did not hate him. Perhaps Tracy, playing both ends against the middle, may have convinced William that he was hated and unwanted at the Greenloch Lane home to keep him fired up and living with his mistress, Tyonne Palmer Pollard. This would have made it easier for Tracy to have a seemingly legitimate reason to spend so much time at Tyonne's home without raising the suspicions of his wife.
Pauletta, by many accounts, seemed to be a woman on the verge of banishing the toxins from her life just before she was killed: Tracy Burleson. Her son, says his mother "took the fall" for Tracy Burleson during the 2005 and 2006 child abuse charges, but I'm not sure why. Maybe Tracy convinced her it was for the benefit of his image as Pastor. Who knows.
Fox News 26 also exposed Tracy as a potential bigamist in 1995 when they disclosed marriage licenses that showed that Tracy was still married to another woman when he married Pauletta. During the time he was dating his mistress, Tyonne, the couple applied for a marriage and there were media reports stating that Tyonne even tried on wedding dresses. She ended up marrying another man shortly before her murder trial began.
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| Tyonne Palmer |
Tyonne Marie Palmer Pollard moved to Houston following the mass exodus of thousands of New Orleanians after Hurricane Katrina nearly obliterated their city. Sometime after her arrival in Houston, Tyonne found a church and began putting her life together. She was married, but she and her husband split up once moving to Texas and remained separated. Very shortly after she joined the First New Mount Calvary Baptist Church, she caught the roving eye of Pastor Tracy Burelson. Strangely, Tyonne had already met and befriended his son, William.
During his "Snapped" interview, Tracy told reporters that he was astonished by Tyonne's "Pretty milk chocolate complexion, her Louisiana accent and caring nature. She was so different from Pauletta," Tracy swooned.
The pastor wrote Tyonne a letter expressing his interest and desire to "get to know her better." Tracey referred to Tyonne as "Jazzy" and "Pretty" in his letter and even told her that he prayed to God about her. When he was done, he asked his son, William to deliver the letter to Tyonne. William, well aware of his father's depraved womanizing, was apprehensive about giving Tyonne the letter because he did not want his father to "do her the same way he did so many other women."
"She was real nice," said William, "I didn't want him to hurt her like the others but I gave her the letter anyway."
It was downhill from there.
Tyonne says she met Tracy in December 2009 and was under the impression that he was separated from his wife. It wasn't long before the 32-year-old mother quickly and foolishly fell for the smooth-talking, deficient, cruddy, skirt-chaser masquerading as a man of God.
Tracy thought he could not divorce his wife without suffering a lot of backlash, plus he stood lose a lot since, according to a family member of Pauletta's, his wife was essentially the bread winner.Tracy must have figured murder would pay better especially since he stood to collect $60,000 from a life insurance policy on Pauletta.
During his testimony, William told the court, "She bought the gun, so I could kill my step mom so they could get married. That's why she bought the gun."
It is not exactly clear when William and Tyonne began their sexual relationship, but Tyonne said they were not intimate until after the night William shot Pauletta Burleson. Either way, she was having sex with a father and son at the same time. Perhaps just not on the same days. Some say Tyonne's admission just further backed up William's claim that she, like his father, enticed him into committing the crime with the offer of money, sex, a place to live, and perpetual support if he were caught.
THE NIGHT OF THE MURDER
According to Tracy, he and Pauletta were sitting in lawn chairs, relaxing in the garage of their Houston home when they began discussing (or arguing) over William not living at home. Tracy says Pauletta wanted the boy home, but Tracy wanted him to remain with his "friend," Tyonne.
"He's happy down there," Tracy says he told his wife. "See, William thought Pauletta didn't really care about him, but that wasn't true," said Tracy. Pauletta's last words, he said, were, "You need to make that boy come home."
At that moment Tracy says he left the garage to sit on the back of his car. It was at that time he heard his son's voice, then gunshots were fired.
"I slid down off the back off my car and slowly walked into the garage and then I saw William standing there on the side of her (Pauletta) car. He just looked at me and I said, 'no,no,no,no,no,no, William, no." After this, Tracy says he remembers hollering for help before dialing 911. The 911 operator, says Tracy, asked him if he knew who shot his wife. His response was, "No."
Tracy says he panicked and immediately began covering for his son. When police arrived, Tracy says he continued lying in order to protect his son and that is why he told the officers that he left the house to buy chips and a candy bar from a nearby store and when he returned, he found his wife lying in a pool of blood.
Police were immediately suspicious of the Pastor's tale since he had no potato chips or a candy bar in his car and to top it off, the store he claimed he went to closed at 10:00 pm that night.
During their investigation, detectives learned from a neighbor that the couple were arguing loudly in their driveway around 10:00 or 10:15 pm the night of the murder. Another neighbor says he heard gunshots around that same time.
But no one recalls seeing the Pastor's son near the house.
Shortly after the murder, William finds Tyonne and asks her to help him dispose of the murder weapon. She admitted that she helped William, but says that is as far as her involvement in the crime went.
She adamantly denies planning the murder with the father and son and added that she did not ask William to shoot Pauletta. Tyonne claims she did ask a friend about buying a gun, but only did so to protect her family not to give the weapon to William to commit the murder. She further stated that she did not go to police after William came to her about the murder because she was afraid he might kill her as well.
During her trial, William called Tyonne a bitch as he was being led out of the courtroom following one of his many outbursts. At one time he yelled to her, "You can't be sitting there lying," followed by, "You low-down..." as bailiffs rushed him out of the courtroom and back to his holding cell. He also screamed and yelled at Tyonne's new husband, who sat behind his wife during her trial. Source
Tyonne's attorney, Anthony Osso, argued that his client was only guilty of helping the shooter after the murder so she should not be found guilty of murder.
In October 2011, after 8 hours and two days of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict against the young mother for murder and tampering with evidence by disposing of the weapon. Source
Tyonne cried as the verdict was announced. She was later sentenced to seven years in prison for the murder and 10 years probation for the tampering charge. She will be eligible for parole in 2015.
During Pastor Burleson's trial he vehemently denied having any involvement in his wife's murder. He told reporters and anyone else who would listen that while he was sorry for his adulterous behavior, he did not have anything to do with the murder of his wife and would never ask his son to do such a horrible thing.
The jury didn't buy it.
In September 2011, a jury found him guilty of Capital murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Source
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| William Fuller |
In exchange for his testimony against his father and his mistress, William learned he would only spend 20 years behind bars for murdering his 56-year-old step-mother, Pauletta Burleson. Initially, he was facing 99 years in prison.
THE ACCUSED
Tyonne Palmer – convicted, sentenced to 7 years inprison, 10 years probation
Tracy Burleson – convicted, sentenced to life w/out parole
William Fuller – pled guilty, sentenced to 20 years in prison
INMATE INFORMATION
Tracy Burleson
Polunsky Correctional Institutions Division of Prisons
Livingston, Texas
SID Number: 03452979
TDCJ Number: 01747496
Name: BURLESON,TRACY BERNARD
Race: B
Gender: M
DOB: 1965-08-25
Maximum Sentence Date: LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Projected Release Date: LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Parole Eligibility Date: LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Offense History
Offense Date: 2010-05-18
Offense: CAPITAL MURDER
Sentence Date: 2011-09-29
County: HARRIS
Case No.: 12610201010
Sentence (YY-MM-DD): 5555-55-55
INMATE INFORMATION
William Fuller
Ferguson Correctional Institutions Divisions of Prison
Midway, Texas
SID Number: 07082503
TDCJ Number: 01751763
Name: FULLER,WILLIAM DARNELL
Race: B
Gender: M
DOB: 1989-10-27
Maximum Sentence Date: 2030-06-08
Projected Release Date: 2030-06-08
Parole Eligibility Date: 2020-06-07
Offense History
Offense Date: 2010-05-18
Offense: MURDER
Sentence Date: 2011-11-11
County: HARRIS
Case No.: 126610001010
Sentence (YY-MM-DD): 20-00-00
INMATE INFORMATION
Tyonne Palmer
Dr. Lane Murray Correctional Institutions Divisions of Prisons
Gatesville, Texas
SID Number: 08620207
TDCJ Number: 01749990
Name: PALMER,TYONNE
Race: B
Gender: F
DOB: 1978-12-06
Maximum Sentence Date: 2018-09-15
Projected Release Date: 2018-09-15
Parole Eligibility Date: 2015-03-17
Offense History
Offense Date: 2010-05-18
Offense: MURDER
Sentence Date: 2011-10-13
County: HARRIS
Case No.: 127655601010
Sentence (YY-MM-DD): 7-00-00
Snapped: Tracy Burleson Snapped: William Fuller Snapped: Tyonne Palmer
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