Episode 221: The Murder of Jarrell Cuyler
7-year-old Jarrell loved Greek mythology, reading and playing his cello. He lived with his baby sister, 2-year-old Lindsey, and their mom Tammi in her Windsor, Connecticut home. The children’s father, Arnold Cuyler, was very involved in their lives despite him and Tammi no longer being together. Arnold had been romantically involved for the past three years with 23-year-old Chasity West, who was a licensed practical nurse at the Connecticut State Prison and lived with her parents in their Windsor, Connecticut home. She was also Tammi’s younger cousin. Arnold and Chasity began their relationship shortly after Lindsey was born while Arnold and Tammi were still married, resulting in strained family dynamics and a divorce in March of 1996.
Despite the circumstances, Tammi and Arnold’s co-parenting relationship was amicable with Tammi keeping a spare key to her home in Lindsey’s diaper bag so that Arnold could let himself in when he needed to. It seemed that the only one who had an issue with this arrangement was Chasity. She was incredibly jealous of Arnold spending time with his children, especially when he would bring them to Tammi’s home, so she often followed Arnold to Tammi’s house on what she called “missions” to secretly watch him and make sure he “wasn’t getting too comfortable.” Chasity brought her two younger cousins with her on multiple occasions, and the girls would report back on the layout of Tammi’s house at Chasity’s request. This behavior escalated to Chasity being openly resentful of not only Tammi, but Jarrell and Lindsey as well as Arnold repeatedly shut down Chasity’s requests to get married because of his children and that their families did not approve of the dynamic of their relationship.
In the spring of 1998, Chasity reached out to 18-year-old Alexis Grajales, the boyfriend of one of her cousins who would accompany her on her “missions,” to let him know about a job opening she had heard of. While talking to Alexis, Chasity asked him if he knew anyone who was familiar with explosives. Alexis continued to receive phone calls from Chasity asking if he knew anyone she could pay to kill someone and if he knew where she could get a gun. She then offered to pay him $4,000 to help her break into Tammi’s home, vandalize it and scare her to get back at her. Chasity reassured Alexis that she only wanted to hurt and scare her, not kill her, because that would mean she would have to take care of Tammi’s children.
On June 7th, 1998, both Chasity and Alexis went to a store in East Hartford and bought two pairs of dark blue coveralls and a flashlight. On June 11th, Chasity asked another cousin who would also go on “missions” with her to go to their grandmother’s house when she was babysitting Lindsey and get the spare key to Tammi’s house out of the diaper bag. Chasity was able to get the key and make a copy of it. Several weeks later, Alexis also acquired a box cutter at Chasity’s request. On July 8th, Chasity and Alexis talked on the phone and Chasity told Alexis that they should carry out the plan that same night. Chasity then went over to Arnold’s apartment at around 8:00 p.m. before leaving at 12:30 a.m. From the time she left Arnold’s apartment at 12:30 a.m. to 1:10 a.m., Chasity called Alexis six times. On one of the calls, Chasity told Alexis not to forget the flashlight, coveralls and box cutter they had previously purchased, and she asked him to bring an empty container like an empty soda bottle. Also on the call, Chasity reassured Alexis that Jarrell and Lindsey were at their grandmother’s house for the night so they wouldn’t be home when they broke in.
Both Chasity and Alexis were seen on video surveillance footage at around 2:00 a.m. buying gas to fill the empty soda bottle with before driving off, heading to an apartment complex within walking distance from Tammi’s house. Here they put on the blue coveralls as well as face masks made from nylon stockings before walking to Tammi’s home. Using the spare key to enter, Alexis and Chasity were quickly confronted by Tammi who had woken up when she heard noises in the home. Alexis tackled and restrained her while Chasity immediately ran upstairs to Lindsey and Jarrell’s bedrooms. Despite her claiming that the children weren’t home, she was searching for them. Jarrell and Lindsey as well as their baby cousin Daniel were all asleep in Tammi’s bedroom on the first floor. It was not uncommon for Jarrell and Lindsey to sleep in Tammi’s room. When Chasity ran into Tammi’s bedroom, the children had woken up. Tammi heard her children and began desperately fighting off Alexis, successfully pulling off one of the gloves on his hands and a wrist watch as well as his hand over her mouth. She began begging him not to hurt her children, and Alexis then realized with horror that Chasity had lied to him about the kids being with their grandmother and that they were home. He jumped off of Tammi, yelled out to Chasity that he was leaving and ran out the door.
Within a few minutes Chasity did the same, but she left behind the soda bottle full of gasoline and an absolutely horrific scene. Lindsey had climbed out of bed and was standing in the doorway. She was bleeding profusely from a knife wound to her wrist and she had a slash wound to her throat, though this wound was thankfully minor in comparison to her wrist. Tammi scooped her up, ran upstairs and got a towel to hold pressure to Lindsey’s wrist. When Tammi carried Lindsey back into the bedroom, she called Jarrell’s name and then turned him over to find his throat cut severely. She called 911, telling the operator that two masked men broke into her home and hurt her children. In regards to Jarrell, Tammi said on the 911 call that “they had almost cut his head off.” Baby Daniel was thankfully unharmed in his crib, which investigators felt was likely due to the fact that the attackers knew he wasn’t Tammi’s child and he was spared as this was a personal attack against Tammi.
Jarrell was rushed to Hartford Hospital and was pronounced dead at 2:58 a.m., shortly after his arrival to the hospital. His autopsy showed that his neck was cut in such a way that it severed his trachea, partially severed one of his jugular veins as well as his esophagus. He had also been strangled by some type of ligature, which police felt was most likely the cord from the cordless landline charger in the bedroom as it was found draped across Tammi’s pillows when police arrived on scene. Jarrell’s wrists had also been cut. Baby Lindsey required months of multiple surgeries for the severe wound to her wrist, which had severed nerves and an artery. She had to be hospitalized under an alias out of fear the attackers would find her and kill her.
Police immediately began questioning Chasity’s involvement. Her story changed multiple times, first telling police she left Arnold’s apartment the night before but drove back to her parent’s Windsor home at around 1:00 a.m. without making any stops along the way. She even reassured police that her and Arnold’s relationship was casual and that she and Tammi’s relationship was amicable with no tension towards one another. After a news report was released about the wrist watch left at the scene as well as the bottle of gasoline, Chasity and Alexis began to panic. Alexis, who was devastated that he had been tricked into being involved with such a heinous crime, returned the $4,000 to Chasity and agreed to come up with a story about the night of Jarrell’s murder. Alexis told police that on the night of the murder, he was driving home from Windsor when he saw a man stranded on the side of the road who had run out of gas and was waving him down for help. While he was at the gas station getting gas for this man, he ran into Chasity who had helped him fill up an empty soda bottle of gasoline. When he gave the gas to the man, the man bought his watch off of him for $150.
Police, now having confirmation Chasity had lied to them about not stopping anywhere on her drive home, brought her back in for questioning. This time she was withdrawn, avoiding eye contact and answering questions with minimal answers. She was then shown three autopsy photos of Jarrell and asked who killed him. Chasity stated, “I did,” then stated, “What have I done?” and burst into tears. She then said to police, “Just shoot me. I do not want to go to jail.” She was arrested for Jarrell’s murder. Her car was searched and a small amount of blood that was revealed to be Jarrell’s was found on the top of the windshield wiper control. Her brother attempted to say that the blood got into the car when he borrowed it after helping clean Tammi’s home after the murder. Her mother also gave a false alibi and even accused Tammi of harming her own children in court.
Chasity was charged with first degree burglary, capital felony murder, two counts of risk of injury to a child, criminal attempt to commit murder, and first degree assault. It was then announced that the State of Connecticut would be seeking the death penalty. Alexis took a plea deal, agreeing to a sentence of maximum 25 years in prison for pleading guilty to felony murder, burglary in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree and his testimony in Chasity’s trial as the star witness.
On July 13th, 2001, the jury came to the conclusion that Chasity West killed Jarrell and hurt his sister Lindsey in order to get rid of them be with their father. She was convicted of capital felony murder among other charges and was sentenced to life in prison. She and her legal team attempted to appeal without success. After the verdict was announced, Tammi stated, “I just feel justice has been served. I have a lot of support. I'm hanging in there."
Eastern Connecticut State University has a scholarship in Jarrell’s name that is made annually to a student with unmet financial need who is in good standing with academics and is pursuing a major in social work or sociology. It is called the Jarrell Cuyler and Angelica Padilla Memorial Scholarship in honor of Jarrell as well as 11-year-old Angelica Padilla, who was kidnapped from her apartment building and killed in the wooded area near her Willimantic, Connecticut home by a neighbor the same year as Jarrell’s murder.
Image sources:
facebook.com - “The Vivid Faces of the Vanished”