True Crime All The Time - Antron Singleton

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

In April 2002 up and coming rapper Antron Singleton murdered his roommate Tynisha Ysais. He was seen walking away from the crime scene, covered in blood. It was later determined that Singleton had both blood and flesh in his stomach. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the murder committed by Antron Singleton. Singleton went by his stage name Big Lurch. When it came time for trial, Singleton's defense tried to say that he was insane at the time of the murder because he was high on PCP. The court convicted him of first-degree murder, but Antron and Tynisha’s mother believes he was set up. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 308 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime. Mike Gibson, give me, how are you? I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing very well, much better than I was doing last week. I actually can hear your voice.

Yeah, my voice is back. We made it through last week, but it was rough. Yeah. It definitely was rough. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Tracy Bauer. Hey, Tracy. Liz Arnheim.

I appreciate that lens. Sam Heggler. What's up, Sam. Sherry Andrew Sarton. Hey, Sherry. Ashley. Ashley. Kim Panetti.

Well, thank you, Kim. Mugley Games. Ooh, Mugley. Courtney Shares. What's going on, Courtney? Brandon Wilkinson. Hey, Brandon. Paige Nicole.

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Hey, there's Katie. Beth Erlinson. Hey, Beth. Natalie Bwonos. Oh, that's awesome. Natalie. Rebecca Gardner Paul Worley

Hey Paul The G man The G man Carl Greenblatt What's going on Carl And last but not least Deanna Lori Stock

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All the continued support We had great PayPal donations From Leah Miller And Jocelyn Sinclair Thank you Jocelyn So thanks to everyone who makes a choice to support the show. Gives,

we put out an episode Saturday night on Patreon on Charles Rodman Campbell. He was an absolute monster. We went to Washington State and this was a guy who committed a sexual assault on a woman and then went to prison, got out early only to come back and later murder this woman, her daughter and the woman's neighbor who previously testified against him. It was a brutal case. It is a very brutal case, no doubt about it.

And we have an episode out right now on Unsolved on the Lava Lake murders. Yeah, right up to Oregon or however you want to pronounce it. Oregon, the way it should be pronounced. But we're going to go up there and we're going to cover the Lava Lake murders and we're going to talk about some fur trappers that go missing. and then they're found dead. And we'll take it from there. So make sure you check that out.

All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime all the time? I'm ready. We're talking about a rapper named Antron Singleton who went by the nickname Big Lurch. Well, you had a nickname. They called me Big Papa? They call me Big Papa.

Yeah. No. No. That was not. Oh, okay. In April 2002, up-and-coming rapper Antron Singleton. murdered his roommate Tynisha Sayas.

Antron pleaded not guilty due to insanity at the time of the murder due to the fact that he was high on PCP when Tynisha was killed. The court convicted him a first degree murder, but both Antron and Tinesha's mother believed that he was set up. So we've got a lot to get into. Let's get to it. In 2002, Antron Singleton was a 27-year-old rapper. who, like I said, went by the stage name Big Lurch.

But stage names are important. They are. They are. I know you have a lot of them. I do. For your different ventures, we'll call them. Antron Singleton was born in Fort Worth, Texas. On September 15th, 1976, he grew up in Dallas and started writing poetry at the age of seven.

He decided that he wanted to be a rapper. And he began performing in 19. which is interesting because that was around the time that I was in to rap. I was in high school. Yeah. In 1990. And I was pretty big into rap during that year. Had a lot of posters on your wall?

No, it wasn't really big into the posters, more basketball posters. But I did have a rap phase. Antron Singleton said in a documentary interview, I started off underground with 45s, you know, rapping over other people's beats. doing songs like in 91, 92 in Dallas, Texas. And I came to California. Mac Mall hooked me up with Mike Mosley. Mike Mosley was doing Tupac at the time in E40.

I got in where I fit in and got my shine on, you know. Well, if you get your shine on, it's good. Well, let's face it, Tupac was a big name. So I think to get in with some people that were in with him. Yeah. Seems like a pretty big deal to me. I think so. So we mentioned it, right?

Singleton went by the stage name Big Lurch. The name was inspired by the character Lurch from the Adams family. Most likely because Antron is six foot five. Okay, big guy. Always happened to lurch over you, right? Lurch was big, right? From the Adams family. Antron worked with several Bay Area rappers,

including Two Short, MacDray, RBS. Posse, Sebo, E40, and Mystical. He was a member of the music group Cosmic Slop Shop. Strange name. It is. Never heard of it. I've actually never heard of any of those rappers except for Too Short. Too Short was somebody that I listened to in the 1990s.

Very good rapper. According to IHeart's disgrace land, Antron wrapped about fictional serial killers like Hannibal Lecter, Freddie Kruger and Jason Borhees. So he was said to have been part of what was called horror core. It was like this hip-hop subgenre in the 90s. Antron traveled to Oakland to produce an album with Rick Rock. The album was a flop, but it helped get his name out there.

Any pull-up, blah, blah, blah. I got it. I'm leaving it in. You're going to try to redo it and I'm not going to let you. I just thumb on across my lips. No, but everybody will know what you were saying. Yeah, that's right.

publicity. You just wanted to prove that you could say. Exactly. Jake Brennan, host of Disgraceland, said that hip hop was changing in the late 90s. Tupac was dead. So was Biggie. Shug Knight was in jail. Gangster rap as a genre,

seen to be waning in influence over. mainstream America. Eminem released his The Slim Shady LP with lyrics about murder. Brennan said this new style that Eminem was messing with was called Horror Corps. And this was what Big Lurch was into as well. And if you haven't listened to this podcast, Just Graceland, it's very good. I recommend it. We're not doing an ad for it. Yeah. But, you know, I do recommend it. In September 2000, Antron was hit by a drunk driver. He broke his neck in the accident, spent some time in the hospital. Afterwards, he experienced chronic pain and he had a lot of difficulties with walking. He had tried PCP when he was younger and he started smoking it again to manage his pain. He said in an interview,

I smoked it two or three times when I was younger and I got that numb feeling. So I was using PCP as an anesthesia. It was a work for him. That's why he used it. Well, and let's face it, there are quite a few people who turn to drugs to manage chronic pain. I do believe that. My fear is Gibbs that more and more people are turning to illegal drugs because of the fact that it's very hard nowadays to get legal drugs to manage pain.

I don't know if you've experienced it. that. No, I hear it's very difficult out there to get the medication you need to manage pain. Because so many people have misused it. Yes. They've cracked down. But what it's done is it's hurt the elderly and it's hurt people who really need it to manage severe chronic pain. Yeah. Antron started producing music again after he recovered. He moved to L.A. to pursue his music career. according to the 2011 documentary Rime and Punishment. He was living in a dope house with L.A. gang bangers. Antron's career in L.A. was off to a good start.

He signed with a record label. He started collaborating with people. According to writer J.A. Hernandez's article about Antron, he said, though he did have a personal background with gangs, he liked to keep his passion, his music strictly professional, and was concerned about the deep connections that his new record label, owner of the record label, and music collaborators had with gangs in the area. Reuters reported that Antron was in Los Angeles, recording an album in 2002.

He was living in an apartment with Tinesia Sayez and her boyfriend Thomas Moore. Tynisha Renee Seyes was born on July 30th, 1980 in Los Angeles County, California. she was just 21 years old when she was murdered her friends and family told the la times that she wanted to be a model she was a mother to two young children her friend tanisha low said she was beautiful no matter what was going on in her life she knew how to keep smiling tinesia was murdered on april 10th 2002 by her roommate antron singleton antron attacked and murdered tinesia inside her apartment he stabbed her and then he ate parts of her body while he was high on PCP. You know, I know when we researched this, I thought, what in the world, man, eating her body?

But PCP, man, it could really mess with you. I'm going to take your word on that. All I know is what I've heard. Yeah. And that's, you know, stories about people with almost superhuman strength. Yeah. it taking you know four five six police officers to bring somebody down who's high on PCP because you know it's just one of those really really strong drugs they kind of refer to it as the zombie drug too

i don't know i think they do i don't know yeah now you're not talking about bas salts you're not talking about the one that makes people eat other people's faces off no that's that's even one yeah that that one's that one's a bad one but you know PCP's been around for a long time it has time. And, you know, like I said, I've just heard just horror stories about what people are capable of when they're high on that drug. It's so bizarre that a drug can be so horrible, the effects of it, but also can give people relief. Well, obviously, PCP is not a prescribed drug. For good reasons. For good reasons. And for relief is not meant for that. but there are a lot of drugs that are illegal that that people take to get relief or they think relieves them of one thing or another and maybe it does now PCP is not one that I've heard of as

being commonly taken for pain relief but again I don't know that much about it yeah tinesha's boyfriend Thomas Moore later testified that he and Antron spent the evening before April 9th, 2002, smoking PCP. According to Antron, there was a party at the house the night before the murder. They smoked PCP cigarettes. Antron said that people kept feeding him cigarettes, dipped in liquid PCP, and that he only remembered smoking and then waking up in jail charged with murder. He said he submitted to peer pressure during the party.

I mean, peer pressure is not going to be. be a good reason to use because you're in control of that pure pressure, right? You can either decide to give into it or not give into it. Yeah, that is true. I mean, a lot of people succumb to peer pressure, right? They might drink alcohol when they really don't want to to try to fit in or this or that. I think the thing here, and we'll probably get into it as we go along, is that it was no stranger to PCP. He admitted that he had been smoking it, using it, for, you know, quite some time. So Tynesia came back to the apartment on April 10th. Antron was still there. He was high on PCP. The following information comes from Antron's 2005 appeal, People versus

Singleton. A man named Derek Christopher went to the apartment to purchase marijuana. Antron helped him carry his wheelchair up the stairs. Thomas Moore told Christopher to watch over. Tynisha. and Antron. And Antron and Derek spoke with each other. Christopher smelled PCP inside the apartment. And he later testified that Antron appeared to be hot. They both saw Tynisha go into the bathroom. Antron looked at Christopher, according to him, like he was up to something. Christopher later testified that there were little signs that I read that wasn't right. He said that Antron told him, him, I'm going to get me some pussy. That's what he told him. It's not a word that I use a lot. No. But it is a direct quote from a court document. A neighbor named Tina Hardaway helped

Christopher get downstairs. As he went downstairs, he heard someone scream. Stop, stop. Tina Hardaway heard a bump from Thomas Moore's apartment. And then she later saw Antron leave the apartment. He was shirtless and wearing gloves with a red substance on them. Okay, not looking good so far. No, for Antron. Not at all. He went back into the apartment less than a minute later. She said she heard some running water. And then about 45 minutes later, he left again. He was naked, had blood on him, and was eating something. I hate to wonder what that was. I'm worried that we are going to find out. Tina Hardaway called the police, which makes a lot of sense. If you see that, you should call the police.

Yeah, that's a, that's a no brainer, right? Mm-hmm. Pick up and dial 911. That's not even a red flag. No. That's a red alert. Yes. I have a naked man bloody walking around the eating something is neither here nor

there at this point. Yeah, exactly, because you don't, you wouldn't know. You wouldn't know what it is. But I guess you could make the case, it'd be like, you know, one of your old college benders where you're naked and you're walking or jogging up the courtyard. Through the quad, going to KFC, yeah. Yeah, with a bucket of chicken. That's happened.

A chicken leg in your hand. So, you know. But I've never been bloody. No. So there's an element to it there. I had jello, red jello on you from your old jello wrestling days you used to do. Yeah, I think you have to take that blood into a. count for sure. Tyneisha's friend Alyssa Allen called her phone to speak with Thomas Moore,

but it was Antron who answered. She asked for Thomas, but Antron told her that he and someone else went to the mall. When she asked him who was at the apartment, he said that Tyneisha and Derek Christopher were there. But Alyssa saw Derek later that day. And it was then that he said that she should check on her friend because he heard her screaming. So Alyssa went to the, apartment and she saw Antron leaving. He was naked. He had blood on him. He walked down the street staring at the sky and looked like he was braiding his hair. So Alyssa flagged down a police officer. And as you would, she reported that a naked man was walking down the street. Then she went to the apartment. She heard running water in the shower. She saw a closed door with blood on it. That's when she went in two

Tyneesh's room and found her body. And this is where things get very graphic. It's going to get a little rough. Tyneisha's chest was described as torn open and a three inch knife blade was found broken off and her shoulder blade. Her right lung was torn completely from her chest. Gibbs, there were teeth marks on her face and on her lungs. Her neck and jaw were broken. And one of her eye Sockets was fractured. It's more than rough. Well, and imagine being Alyssa walking in on this scene. First of all, I don't even know how you process it.

I don't know if you can. Now, what she did was she called the police to report, you know, what she had seen. But you want to talk about traumatic? That's traumatic. Yeah, I don't know how you ever shake that. At 2.20 p.m. Antron Singleton was found walking on the street by police officers. officers. He was basically found naked in the middle of the street. He was covered in blood and looking

up at the sky. He was also said to have been pulling at his hair and barking like a dog. He was out of it. He had to be. PCP? Yeah. But apparently he complied when he was arrested. And on the way to the station, he said, without even being questioned, oh, Jesus, God, did I kill her? Oh, God, did I kill her? Yes. Yes, you did. did. Well, so let's kind of put some things in context. High on PCP. Does he know where he's at? Does he know what he's doing? How is he able to ask those questions? It's just one thing to kind of keep in mind as we go through the story. LAPD officers entered the apartment unit and they found Tynisha Sayas dead. A detective said her lungs appeared to have been chewed and torn.

According to Antron's 2005 appeal, People v. Singleton, a Los Angeles police criminalist, an expert in blood spatter analysis, testified that blood stains, consistent with repeated impact with a blunt object on the blood source, were found in the bedroom. Blood diluted with water, was found on the bathroom counter, based on the blood patterns. The criminalist opined at trial that Sayez was assaulted inside the bedroom while the door was closed. The assailant then moved the body, opened the door and went into the bathroom. The following is a quote from the coroner's direct examination. According to the coroner, the blood would all drain from the cut through the vessels and would bleed out rapidly within seconds or minutes.

removal of the lung was one of the more terminal events. All other wounds preceded the removal of the lung, since the hemorrhaging associated with those wounds, would not have occurred once the lung was removed. There was no trauma to, say as is, vagina, but semen was present. The coroner did not know how long the semen had been present or if it came from more. The prosecutor had not asked a coroner to test the seaman, to see if it came from appellant.

Well, there's a lot of take in there. Well, there is. And I go back to the Patreon episode that we put out on Saturday, you know, where the coroner said that all three of the individuals who were murdered would have bled out in less than two minutes. Yeah. Due to the wounds that they received,

the LA Times first announced the arrest on April 11, 2002. At the time of this article, investigators were waiting on lab results. Captain Richard Bono of the LAPD said it was a very brutal homicide. He may have dismembered the body. A medical exam of Antron Singleton led to the discovery of blood and human flesh, not his own inside his stomach. Confirming he did eat his victim. It's a little stomach turning. It is. When you really think about it. So we, we, we, kind of mentioned it already, but, you know, it was said that Antron was not aware of really where he was until he got in jail. He learned that his lawyer was Milton Grimes, owner of the record label

he worked with. Grimes also represented Rodney King in his civil action. Antron also learned that he was on howledal, an anti-psychotic medication. His lawyer told him that they needed to make his case look as bad as possible so that he would get sent to a psychiatric hospital. It seemed kind of bad already. Yes, it did. Hey, T-Cat fan, do you ever have that feeling that you're starved for some excitement in your life? Well, what if you had a go-to game that could instantly bring a hefty dose of fun to your day whenever you needed it?

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That's Slotomania on the App Store or Google Play Store for one million free coins. The judge ordered Antron held without bail pending his arraignment. on April 15th, 2002. Antron Singleton was arraigned on Capitol murder with a special circumstance, allegation of inflicting torture. On May 29th of that year, he was ordered to stand trial. Detective Raymond Jankowski testified that there were teeth marks on Tynisha's face and lung, which had been removed from her chest. He also testified that a medical exam found flesh and blood in Antron's stomach that was not his.

According to the L.A. Times, Jankelski testified her chest was open, exposing internal organs. Pieces of Tainisha's right lung appeared chewed and torn. He also said that he found the broken three inch knife blade near her left shoulder. So again, people are saying this over and over, but now they're saying it in. courts. Just hearing it, man. Makes my stomach squeezy. Yeah, I get that. I get that. But just imagine if you're a juror hearing this type of testimony. How powerful would that be? Pretty powerful. Alyssa Allen testified that she found Antron naked in the street around noon. He had blood on his chest, stomach, and mouth. And she said that he was looking up at the sky. She flagged down a police

officer and Antron was arrested. The LA Times wrote that Alyssa went to Tanish's apartment and found her on her bedroom floor. She testified she was cut up really, really bad. Thomas Moore testified that he and Antron smoked PCP on the night of April 9th. But Antron's attorney, Milton Grimes, said that Antron was in L.A., recording an album. On June 13th, Antron Singleton pleaded not to... guilty by reason of insanity. His defense argued that he was insane at the time of the murder because he was high on

PCP. And obviously that's going to be the crux of this case. Oh, yeah. They're not saying he didn't murder this woman. He's saying that he was legally insane or legally not responsible because he was high on PCP. Yeah, the PCP did it, not me. So his murder trial began in L.A.

County on June 16th, 2003. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty. His defense attorney's main argument was that he was insane at the time of the murder. Defense attorney Milton Grimes didn't deny that Antron cut Tinesia's chest, didn't even deny that he chewed on her cheek, but said that he committed the crime in a psychotic state brought on by a five-day PCP bend. The LA Times wrote that Grimes told the jury PCP affects the brain to where people go back to their primal state.

You can do the acts of a beast because you don't have the conscience of a human being. And that's where this man was when he took this woman's life. Yeah, it definitely seems like you went back to primal state to be able to do that to somebody. Yeah, I mean, I won't argue. with you on that. But again, I think as we're talking about this trial, you know, I'm kind of looking

at it through the lens of a juror. Right. You're not disputing the fact that your client did all of these horrible things. What you're hanging your hat on is saying that he wasn't legally responsible because

he was on a five-day PCP binge. Right. Now, I've got away that. Sure. along with my fellow jurors, and we're going to have to make a decision. Maybe he did know what he was doing. Well, that's exactly what the prosecution argued. They said that Antron was fully competent at the time of the murder, and he waited until he and Tynisha were alone before he began torturing her.

Deputy D.A. Drew Jostfen said that Tynisha was alive while this was happening to her. She was alive when Antron Singleton bit her cheek, and she was alive when he cut her chest. It took him four cuts to break through her chest, and that fourth cut was fatal. So now we have the chess match, right? That's the kind of the way I look at a lot of these trials, the prosecution versus the defense, moving pieces around the board, trying to counter each other. okay, the defense is going to say that he's not responsible. The prosecution is saying he knew exactly what he was doing because he waited until he was

alone with her. Yeah. He didn't do that while her boyfriend was in the room. He didn't do that when Drew Christopher was in the room. So he had awareness. That's what they're arguing. Yeah. The defense stated that.

Antron had a history of mental health issues due to drug abuse. He had been hospitalized three times for PCP psychosis. And during these psychosis episodes, he became delusional and had hallucinations. So if you know, in the past you went to the hospital because PCP calls psychosis. Why would you keep doing it? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a tough argument to make, though, because.

I think you could say that about a lot of people who use drugs. It's not that they don't know that bad things happen, are happening, could happen. I think it's just hard to stop. But doesn't that shift some of the responsibility back on to you? You've been in the hospital three times because of this drug. And you chose to do it anyway? So you've got to say maybe you're responsible for your actions. Well, if you were a juror, I could see kind of where you were leaning.

Yeah. Dr. Casual Sharma testified that Antron Singleton suffered from a mental impairment caused by habitual use of PCP. He examined Singleton and reviewed his case documents. He testified that Antron tested positive for PCP twice in 1999. He was sent to a mental hospital after the second positive test and there he claimed he was got. Three months later, he was sent to a mental hospital again because he claimed he was God and people were trying to kill him. He tested positive for PCP and was psychotic at that time. In March 2002, he tested positive for PCP again and made similar delusional claims. Sharma said that Singleton had a series of psychiatric problems directly related to paranoia thinking people were trying to do him harm. He stated that at the time of the murder, Singleton was so impaired, he was so psychotic.

He was so bizarre that his mind was not rationally functioning at all. So no doubt, this is positive for the defense because basically this doctor is saying his mind's not working correctly. All of these different times that he was on PCP. And more specifically, he's saying at the time of the murder, he was a. He was impaired. He was psychotic. His mind was not functioning rationally. According to the LA Times, the defense also said that when the police questioned Antron on April 10th, he growled like an animal. And according to Milton Grimes, his delusions and hallucinations came from his own rap lyrics.

He acted out these thoughts. As bizarre as they were, he was out of his mind. Now, of course, as a defense attorney, you're going to want to say that as many times as possible. Of course. You're trying to get that point across to the jury. But Deputy DA Jossopin countered that based on a state law from the 90s, a defendant cannot plead insanity if the mental illness is caused by drug addiction or drug use. And that's huge. It's a gigantic problem for the defense.

Yeah, because, you know, I think as, you know, going back to the mind of azure, You have doctors saying he was psychotic. His mind wasn't working correctly. I could see how some jurors would take all of this information and kind of boil it down to, well, there's no way that he really knew what he was doing. Now, what they make of that or what they would make of that, there's no way to be certain. But I could see where that would really plant a seed in some people's minds. that, well, maybe he's not completely responsible for what he did. But if the law says you can't use that

as a defense, well, then it kind of completely throws it out the window. You have to wonder why the defense used that knowing or they should have known that it's not allowed. Well, and they may have known, but what other defense were they going to make? I think it was going to be pretty hard to say he didn't do it. Right. With the evidence kind of pretty much point. to the fact that he did, Antron Singleton was convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of inflicting torture in aggravated mayhem on June 25, 2003. The jury deliberated for less than an hour. Not all that long. It's not typically good for the defense. Yeah. It means they've kind of already predetermined what they're going to do when they get to the

room. Well, if not predetermined, it didn't take them long to vote and come. And to a consensus. And maybe it had a lot to do with this state law, you know, saying, you know, hey, defense, I don't care what you say. I don't care how many doctors you bring up here. You cannot use the insanity defense if the mental illness is caused by drug addiction or drug use. It could have been as simple as that. And the judge actually ruled that Antron's use of PCP at the time of the murder does not diminish his responsibility for committing that crime. So again, going back to the jury, you hear the judge say that that's probably why, you know, this thing kind of became pretty open and shut, I think, when it came to time to deliberate.

The L.A. Times wrote, the decision was based on a California law that states that a person suffering from the psychotic side effects of drugs cannot be found, leave. legally insane. So basically echoing what the deputy DA said. Yeah. On November 7th, 2003, Antron Singleton was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and a second consecutive life sentence. Well, he's definitely going to be locked up there for ever, ever life or for the remainder of his life is what it sounds like. On April 11th, 2003, Tyneesh's mother Carolyn Stinson filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Antron Singleton's record label, Black Market Records, Antron Singleton, death row records, the row records, owned by Shug Knight,

stress-free records and two employees. So she filed this wrongful death lawsuit, wrapped up a lot of people in it. The suit alleged that black market records provided Antron's singleton with drugs, to encourage him to act out in an extreme violent manner so as to make him more marketable as a gangster rap artist. In the suit, it was alleged that part of what makes a gangster rap artist marketable is the fact that the artist is a current ongoing participant in violent gang activities. Singleton met this criterion was even more marketable because his songs were as violent, as his lifestyle and included rape, murder, and ended with him eating his victim's body organ.

That's rough. That's rough. That's also a devastated mother trying to hold a bunch of people accountable for what happened to her daughter. Now, you talk about street cred a lot, normally in the context of prison, but there is street cred when it comes to rappers. I think. Yeah, there is. I think that's pretty well known. Now, whether the allegations in this lawsuit were true or not, that's something that we'll have to figure out. The lawsuit alleged that Antron Singleton used a sharp object to remove body organs from Tyneisha's body and eat them. These acts were performed within the course and scope of his employment with the other defendants. Okay. So, now we're getting into kind of a strange area. You know, on the one hand, he's doing a bunch of PCP, right? And you could argue that being under the influence of this very powerful drug, I don't know if you want to use the word made, but caused him to, you know,

do something very, very horrible. But this lawsuit is basically saying that it was done on purpose to make him more gangster, give him more street cred. It literally says within the course and scope of his employment. Yeah. Meaning as part of his job, he did this. For the marketability aspects of him, right? Yeah, that's a pretty tough one.

It is tough. To think that anyone connected in the music industry with Antron would say, you know what would be really good for your marketability? To kill a woman? and remove her body organs and eat some of them. That's a tough sell. It's a really tough sell. Shug Knight denied that the Roe Records provided drugs or any type of encouragement to Antron Singleton that would cause him to commit violence.

He also denied any connection to Singleton. He told Reuters in 2003, I don't know this guy. Nobody from our company knows this guy. I never even heard the guy rap. A lot of people out there want to have a production deal and think they have a production deal even if they don't. He also said that he had never heard of stress-free records. So not only is he saying he doesn't know Antron Singleton, he's saying he doesn't know these other record labels either. Right.

That he was associated with. Are you pulling me into this suit? Stenson's attorney Winston McSan said that they would continue investigating and drop death row from the suit if there was no connection. Entertainment reported that Shug Knight said, they're just looking to get paid. It's not only just slander, it's fraud.

It sounds like he's got a little bit of a leg to stand on there. You know, when the attorney comes out and says, all right, we'll continue investigating and if there's no connection, we'll drop you from the lawsuit. Well, you said there was a connection. And now you're saying, if there's not, we'll drop you.

Why don't you figure that out ahead of time? Well, because I think on some on the part of some of these attorneys, there's a rush to name as many people as possible. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but it sounds like it is maybe in this case. Shug Knight's a big deal. He's a big name. Yeah. Death Row records or the row records, whichever one you want to say. It's a big name, big label.

So if there's any connection to Antron, we'll name them and see what happens. I'm speculating. Yeah, but if you want to pay out, add some big names to the list. On April 16, 2003, Billboard Bulletin reported that the Roe Records was removed from the wrongful death lawsuit. And again, Shug Knight claimed that there was never any association with Antron Singleton. And it sounds like there wasn't.

Carolyn Stenson's attorney Winston McKesson told Billboard Bolton, we did our reinvestation, We did our re-investigation into this matter. And it seems that our information we received earlier was wrong. Death Row and the row had no part in this. And we're filing a dismissal with respect to them today. So it does sound like, now he's saying they got some bad information. Yeah. Maybe that's true.

Maybe that's not true. But why not bet it out? I think that's that argument could be made or that, that question should definitely be asked. billboard reported that a the row spokesperson said every time there are problems on the west coast people always try to involve shook what's unfortunate about this is that it's difficult to unring a bell and that i definitely agree with it's a true statement man it's very easy to make accusations they make headlines they get people's names in the paper it's much harder to undo things like that

Yeah, you've seen in the newspaper when they print something they shouldn't. The retraction is never on the front page. No, it's small. It's somewhere way back in the back. Who reads that? We've seen that, you know, a lot of times. Just think about all the people who have been wrongly accused of a crime. Yeah. You can remember a lot of people's names. But can you remember the details of when it came out that, oh, they figured out it wasn't them. You know, like the Atlanta. Park bomber. Man, that guy's name got dragged through the mud for a very long time. It really did. And then it came out that he didn't do it. But, and I'm sure a lot of people know that, but it, when you hear his name, you can't help but think Atlanta Park bomber. Absolutely. Now, they did keep their suit against stress-free records, Antron's bodyguard, as well as Tyneesh's boyfriend. In 2004, Stress-free and black market records released a solo LP on behalf of Antron Singleton. The title was changed from the puppet master to its all bad. And the record label even released a documentary called Drugs Made Me Do It.

And they did all of this without his permission. So they said they're doing it on behalf of Antron. But are they really? Or are they doing it to capitalize and make money? It's a business. They're trying to capitalize. In 2004, Milton Grimes lost a malpractice suit and was ordered to pay $1.2 million to a mother after her son was shot. On March 24, 1989, Dexter Herbert was shot in the head by a police officer during a drug rate. A jury found that Milton Grimes failed to properly litigate the case.

So he failed to properly litigate the mother's civil rights. wrongful death case. In October 1995, he took on loring Harris's case from another attorney. In November, both parties agreed to arbitration and a judge dismissed the negligence suit, but Harris opted out of arbitration. And Grimes failed to ask the court to reinstate the case within the allotted time, which essentially ended any legal redress the mother may have had for her son's death. That's a big oopsie. That's a huge upsy on the part of an attorney and to have to pay out $1.2 million. It's a big settlement.

It is. Antron Singleton's appeal was rejected in 2005 and his petition for rid of habeas corpus was rejected in 2011. In 2011, Peter Spire produced the documentary Rhyme and Punishment about hip-hop artists in prison. Antron and Carolyn Stinson were both interviewed. Carolyn Stinson said that she didn't believe Antron killed Tynisha. As far as her boyfriend, he was a gang member. I believe he's the one who set all this up. He was beating on her.

She had all her stuff packed ready to leave the day all this happened. She talked about Tynisha's injuries in the crime scene saying she got hit in the back of the neck with one of the little kid's scooters because a handprint was on the scooter, a bloody handprint. But they said they didn't know who that was, but it wasn't his. And when she said this, she was referring to Antron Singleton. So this is interesting, right? This is years later.

This is after Carolyn had tried to sue Antron Singleton for wrongful death. Now she's in a documentary. saying, I don't even think he did it. I think it was Tyneisha's boyfriend. I wonder what a reasoning behind that was. What made her change her mind? Yeah, I'm not exactly sure because some of these quotes don't really make a lot of sense to me. I'm not sure where she's getting this information that her daughter got hit in the back of the neck with a kid's scooter. And there was a bloody handprint on the scooter, but it wasn't Antrons. Antron said in a phone interview, there was blood on my body, and it was body parts ripped out and all that.

I'm not going to say it wasn't. Do what I know what happened. No, because I really was that high. That might actually be pretty honest. I kind of do think the guy was really, really high on PCP and may not actually remember everything that happened. Well, didn't they say he went on a five-day binge? leading up to the murder. Yeah.

Yeah. But he's admitting that, you know, there was blood on his body. He's admitting that there were body parts ripped out. It's just really kind of hard to say that he wasn't part of this. I mean, I think I'd go back. That's why I'm having so much trouble with trying to understand why Carolyn Stinson believes that he didn't kill her daughter. He had parts of her in his stomach.

Yeah. Why wouldn't it be him? I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the specifics around it. Now, the following is a compilation of Singleton's different statements, which were cut and interspersed with Carolyn Stinson's statements in the documentary. He said, they got me high on purpose to take advantage of me. It's not even no proof that I actually did the murder. My prince wasn't on the weapon. It was a dope house. They didn't find no dope in the dope house.

We on Figaroa, we were heavily armed up in there. We had all kinds of guns up in there. But when the police hit the spot, it wasn't no guns up in there. So evidently, the gangbangers cleaned the spot out. Did I even do the murder, though? I believe he did. Yeah. I mean, what you're saying is not swaying me.

I get it. It was a dope house. There were guns. Then there weren't guns. but you're not explaining to me how this woman ended up mutilated. You had blood all over you. You had parts of her body in your stomach. Yeah, with her blood.

And you're saying there's no proof that I actually did the murder. Well, a jury thought there was. Is he saying he showed up and saw her there and decided to eat some of her? I didn't kill her. I don't know. I don't know what he's saying, man. I really don't. Carolyn talked about the PCP found in Tanish's body and said she didn't smoke the PCP.

It was like somebody poured it down, you know. The bottle was poured down her throat because she had so much in her system. They said, ain't no way she could have smoked that much. She continued talking about the crime team evidence saying there was evidence there like footprints, fingerprints on doors, you know, bloody fingerprints, shoe at the back door. And it's like, where did all this evidence go? It was DNA.

Whose DNA was it? They said the DNA came up lost. According to J.A. Hernandez, the fingerprints found at the house were not matched to anyone and not submitted at trial. But Carolyn went on to say that Antron wasn't covered with blood. He just had a small amount of blood on his chest and beard from eating Tynisha's lung. They sang. he was high, she was high, so they made it look like he did all this work to her.

It's no way he could have done that work because the way she was messed up, hatred had to been there. And like he said, he didn't hate her. But he ate her. Well, Carolyn said she suspects that Antron was high, saw a piece of her lung and picked it up to eat it. And she does not think Antron Singleton had a fair trial. Gives, I am astonished. that this mother has kind of flipped her way of thinking. Yeah. And I just can't figure out what it's based on. Because a lot of these statements don't really lead me down kind of a path of fact,

I guess, is what I'm struggling with. Could he have been so high on PCP that he just walked into the room and picked up a piece of her lung and ate it? I guess. You could make that claim. I just wish I knew more about why she became so adamant and switched from believing that he was responsible to believing he wasn't. Antron maintains that he doesn't remember the murder because he was high on PCP. He said that there were dogs at the house and the police should analyze Tynisha's bite marks to see if they were from dogs.

I'm going to guess that when they did the autopsy, they looked into that. Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't in the research. I would think it would be pretty easy to tell the difference between a dog bite and a human bite mark. According to Antron, his lawyer refused to bring up his history of mental illness. He was hospitalized for bipolar disorder. And he said, California law only allows someone to plead insanity if they have a history of mental illness. According to an article by J.A. Hernandez, Antron claims that Milton

Grimes lost his case on purpose to gain favor on another case. It's a big claim to make. Well, here's my thought. You're behind bars. Right now you're looking at never getting out. You can say whatever the heck you want to say. Now, is he making a valid argument that his attorney should have gone away from the high on PCP to he had a history of mental illness? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know the legal wranglings of that. The problem is it was pretty hard to dispute the fact that he was high on PCP.

He said it. Everyone else around him said it. There was a five-day binge. Yeah. His system proved, you know. Exactly. The system showed. So it's easy to say that kind of stuff, but, you know, what did the defense attorney have to work with?

But he has said a lot of interesting things over the years. In an article just this year by J.A. Hernandez, Antron claims that the human flesh found in his stomach was his own. And the police said his stomach acid merged with Tynisha's flesh. And that's why it tested as belonging to him. Makes no sense. No, but I'm struggling, right, with a lot of the things that he has said because a lot of it doesn't make sense. To be honest with you, this whole case doesn't make a lot of sense.

It's a case that's pretty far out there. You'd have to admit that. According to the California Department of Corrections website, Antron Singleton is 46 years old and held at the Salinas Valley State Prison. he's currently serving life without parole. Now, what I will say is that if there's any truth to some of his statements about evidence not being properly tested, then, you know, is it possible that in the coming years he might win an appeal for retrial?

I guess it's possible. Yeah, you can't, you can't say there's no way. No, you can't rule it out conclusively. But probably unlikely. I think it's probably unlikely. What I will say, you know, as we kind of wrap this up, is that we weren't there. So can we sit here and say that we know for sure exactly what happened in that room? And I'd have to admit the answer is no.

No, because we weren't there. We weren't there. What I do know is that a jury of his peers sat through the trial. They heard all the evidence. And they made their decision. And then a judge sentenced him to life in prison with. without parole. That's the facts. That part is definitely a fact. Yeah. Now, he has said a lot of things in subsequent years. You know, one of the questions that I have is, did he try to raise some of this

stuff with his attorney? And his attorney said, no, we're not going that route. Or are these things more of a ploy to maybe try to get a retrial or to get something? And he's just throwing it out there after the fact. I don't know. No. And, we don't you know but he did make a claim that he didn't think his attorney was really looking out for his best interest as has almost every person convicted yeah you're not but you don't have a successful trial who's the first person you can blame your defense attorney yeah ineffective assistance of counsel that's why we see that on almost every single appeal it's it's an interesting case there are some very sick aspects of it my think

thought is there's no doubt that drugs played a major role. Yeah. And what happened in this case. Disturbing. It's a very disturbing case. It is. Now, did PCP cause him to murder this woman, eat part of this woman? It kind of seems as though it may have. I'm going to lean with yes, because if it didn't, it makes it even more disturbing. The alternative that he's, proposed is that someone else murdered Tynisha. He stumbled into the room high on drugs and thought it would be a good idea to eat a portion of her. Yeah, because that would be normal. I don't know, man. I don't know. I've got to rethink everything. Yeah. You know, I've got to rethink everything I've ever know. Yeah. But there's no doubt that people have done some very, very strange things high on drugs.

We mentioned bath salts earlier. Sure. Obviously there's a very famous case of someone eating someone else's face off. Yeah. High on bath salts. Maybe we just stay off of these really hard drugs. Maybe. That's probably the better way to go. Better way to go. I'm with you. But that's it for our case on Antron singleton. I guess it would be interesting if some new evidence comes out, if there is some testing. I mean, something to keep an eye on. But unlike some cases, this is not one that I would say that I'll be holding my breath on. I'll be surprised. I would be very surprised as well. We got some voicemails though. You want to check those out? I do. Let's hear him. My gibby. This is Jared Marks, also from the Buckeye State.

I'm a dairy farmer in Wayne County. Love the podcast, man. I've been listening to it nonstop for weeks now. Love your guys' camaraderie. Man, I was going to be Team Ferg, but looks like I'm going to give you side with my vocabulary. Love the show, man. I just got done watching Anthony's South. Al-all case.

And I'm all for Gibby, but man, he just dogs the Browns and I can't handle that. Love it, guys. Keep your own time taking. See ya. Awesome. Well, we appreciate you calling in. Yeah. Gibby and I are Bingles fans.

Yeah. Because we do live fairly close to Cincinnati. We're also Buckeyes fans. And I know not everybody's down with that. No. But we're holding strong to our convictions. I got a question for him. What's that?

You got milk. You know what is funny about that. And you know this. One of the hardest words for me to say is camaraderie. It is. I mess that up all the time. People probably don't hear it because it gets edited out. We don't let you say camaraderie.

Yeah, we both have trouble to say. Hey, guys. This is Ray from Jersey. I just got done listening to the Paul Bateson. episode and you guys had made a reference something about the days of wine and roses not knowing exactly what it is. I think from my recollection it could be it is a black and white classic movie I think made in the 60s with Lee Remick and Jack Lemon and it's about codependency and alcoholism. It's actually very, very good. But it was called The Days of Wine and Roses and

it's a great film. So anyway, just wanted to help clarify things. I think that might be it. Keep your own time ticking. Thanks for making my commute enjoyable. My son now commutes with me and I've turned him onto it. So we both listen to it on the way back and forth to work. So it's good family time. Thanks, guys. Bye.

Oh, great. Thanks for the voicemail. We actually had a lot of people who either called in or wrote in and he's exactly right. It's the movie. I got it wrong. I thought that saying was more along the lines of like a good time in your life. Yeah. And it's the exact opposite.

I try to tell you. You always say that. Because the movie is, you know, kind of a, things are going very badly. Yeah. So I just thought the saying was different and I was wrong. How cool they could mute together, man. That is very cool.

It is awesome. And listen to Tika. Hey, guys. This is Erica from San Diego. This can just be for you guys. I am just listening to the win. The first time they got caused out. When my dad made me clean, I mean, they bought it.

But even to the day, I always try and stop because I could clean that out. It was disgusting. But I hope you guys take care. All right. Thanks for the voicemail. Yeah, I can honestly say that's one of the most disgusting things that I've had to do over and over. Now, ever since my wife got those, I call them like a mushroom. It looks like a mushroom on the top.

Yeah. But it fits down into the drain. brain and it catches all the hair and I haven't had to do it. You know, one thing you can say is not coming from you. It's definitely not coming from me because I don't have any hair. But my daughters have a lot of hair and they wash it a lot. And so it was always cleaning out theirs. But what are you going to do, man?

That's being a dad. That is part of being a dad. That's right. So thanks for the voicemails. We had mailbag. Sarah Brown sent us in a bunch of jerky. She also sent me a pie. podcasting license.

Really? Laminated. Finally got one. Which is very cool. That's good. I'm going to use it to get into all kinds of places. Yeah. She sent you some dating game questions.

Really? Yep. Okay. Which are very interesting. I don't know if she expects us to play it. Because I'm not really looking forward to that. But the best thing she sent was a DVD case. Okay.

That includes all the die hearts. Yeah. But not only that, the front of the case has Bruce Willis on it and it says the title says it's that one movie with that one guy in it. That's perfect. It literally is exactly what you say all the time. It explains everything. It does. It's all you need to know about what's inside there. Exactly. So we appreciate that, Sarah. Thank you very much. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and give me, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.