Burned, Starved, and Beaten: The Murder of Baby Tristin That Changed Nevada Law | Rayshaun Coleman

What started out as a tragic case of neglect quickly unraveled into something more horrifying

M. He was just six weeks old, fragile and struggling. But when paramedics found baby Tristan, the truth was even worse than anyone could have feared. What looked like a tragic case of neglect quickly unraveled into something far more horrifying. And what came next has established new precedents for how courts handle witness testimony and heresy evidence in criminal cases. Welcome LaMs. Welcome to Love and Heartbreak to Homicide, your midweek mini edition. Take a seat, take a listen, all the way to the end, and if you like it, don’t forget to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our Patreon either for free patreon.com loveandmurder where you do get some benefits of being a free subscriber to our Patreon or you can become part of the LaM Patreon Fam where you can get ad free episodes and actually extra cases.

Clarence Martin Jr. who threw his newborn off balcony gets life sentence

Patreon.com/loveandmurder now this case came up when I was doing research for last Wednesday’s case and as usual, that case link, since I mentioned it in this episode, is in the show notes below. The case of Clarence Martin Jr. Who threw his newborn off of a balcony. But everyone involved agreed that he was completely not in his right mind, even the mother of the baby. Regardless, the judge wanted to paint him as an example of what I don’t know and sentenced him to life in prison. So I told y’all that I would do this episode so that y’all could see the differences in both the cases and you can see why I was baffled at Clarence’s outcome. So by the end of this case, I want to hear from you and I want to hear between Clarence and this case. I just want to hear your thoughts on it. On March 8, 2009, a 911 call came in from a home in Henderson, Nevada. The caller, later identified as Rayshaun Coleman, reported that a six week old infant had stopped breathing. The dispatcher, uh, immediately instructed Rayshaun on emergency CPR procedures while sending first responders to the scene. When paramedics arrived at the apartment, they found baby Tristin Michaels Hilburn laying motionless on the floor while trying to revive the infant. Medical personnel noted concerning signs beyond respiratory distress. The baby appeared severely underweight, with visible marks across his tiny frame. Emergency responders transported Tristan to University Medical Center’s pediatric unit where doctors pronounced him dead shortly after arrival. The scene the emergency personnel was in would kick off a homicide investigation, one that revealed horrifying abuse, serious neglect, and a household environment no child should ever be in. Let’s go back to the beginning. Tristan was Born a seemingly healthy baby. But his mother, Christal Hilburn Gaynor, quickly noticed something wasn’t right. He had trouble breathing, a weak cry, and he wasn’t gaining weight like he should have. This is all according to her, but because she didn’t have health insurance, she never took Tristan to a doctor. So you think that he’s basically in medical distress constantly and you’re just like, well, don’t have health insurance. At the time of his death, Tristan lived in a small home with his mother, his five year old half brother Devin, his uncle Brian Harris, and Crystal’s boyfriend, uh, Rayshaun. The environment inside the house was chaotic, to say the least. Brian was reportedly using meth every day. People were consistently coming and going, buying or using drugs. Brian functioned as a neighborhood drug middleman, getting meth for acquaintances in exchange for money or drugs. Brian occasionally took care of Devin, but never Tristan. That responsibility, for whatever reason, ended up on Rayshaun. And here’s where things get even more complicated. Crystal was in jail that weekend. A, uh, misdemeanor domestic violence charge. She had turned herself in around 8am on Saturday, March 7, 2009. So once again, Tristan was left in Rashawn’s care. In fact, Rayshaun had looked after Tristan, uh, during three separate weekends, including this last one. But rather than using the crib in the house, he kept the baby in the master bedroom with the door locked. Tristan, Tristan would often sleep between couch cushions. Now back to the present. On Sunday evening, that’s when Rayshaun made that 911 call. When officers arrived, Rashawn led them to the back bedroom where they found Tristan laying on the floor. He was unconscious, not breathing and cold to the touch. Red blotches and burns covered the baby’s face and body. Skin was peeling. CPR was performed, but Tristan was already gone. Investigators also found pieces of Tristan’s skin and blood throughout the house. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers secured the scene. Known in sparsely furnished apartment and minimal baby supplies. Now you don’t have to have a completely furnished apartment. I remember when my daughter was born, I didn’t really want a lot of furniture because it was easy for the baby to get, you know, hit hurt on the furniture. Plus you don’t need a lot of furniture, so that’s nothing. And minimal baby supplies. It just depends on what you’re talking about. If you think they don’t need a high chair, they don’t need, need a high chair. We want a high chair. Um, but if you’re talking about you didn’t see, like, I don’t know, diapers, I guess. But again, still, that’s. That’s relative because maybe they didn’t have disposable diapers, but they did have rewashable diapers. You don’t need a lot of those. You just need to clean, uh, what was dirty and you know what I’m saying. Or maybe they’re saying there wasn’t a lot of baby food. Well, some people just cook up food, regular food, and mash it and feed that to the baby so you wouldn’t see jars of baby food. So again, that whole sparsely furnished apartment and minimal baby supplies. I totally wouldn’t judge somebody on that. The apartment showed signs of disarray with drug paraphernalia partially hidden from view. Now, that I would drudge a person on. Officers documented the bathroom where Rayshaun claimed to have bathed the infant shortly before the emergency call. The coroner’s report painted a picture of prolonged abuse and extreme neglect. Tristan weighed less than he did at birth. He was severely malnourished. His brain was swollen and damaged, and he likely didn’t have the strength to cry or feed. There were signs that he hadn’t been getting enough calcium either, which may have affected his bone development. But it was the injuries that told the story. First to second degree burns covered 36% of his body. He had two skull fractures, fresh bleeding in the muscles on his back, and multiple broken ribs, all of it consistent with blunt force trauma. The Clark county medical examiner, Elaine Olson, determined that the cause of death was inflicted head injuries and burns. Starvation also contributed the manner of death. Homicide. During preliminary questioning at the scene, Rayshaun told detectives that he had been caring for Tristan while the child’s mother was away. He described giving the infant a, uh, bath before noticing the baby had stopped breathing. When pressed for details, Raishawn’s account contained several inconsistencies about the timing of the events. I just gave him a bath. He was fine, and then he wasn’t. However, detectives, uh, noted that the bathroom was dry with no signs of recent use. And the infant’s body temperature suggested death had occurred hours earlier than Rashawn’s timeline, said. The detective assigned to the case, Sergeant Maria Rodriguez, documented Rashawn’s shift in explanations about who had been in the apartment during the previous 24 hours. His statement about the infant’s injuries, claiming that they were, quote, already there when he began caring for Tristan, contradicted physical evidence at the scene and raised immediate red flags for investigators. Rashawn was arrested on that same day, March 8, and charged with one count of first degree murder by child abuse, two counts of child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm.

Crystal was charged with one count of child neglect resulting in substantial bodily harm

They also charged Crystal with one count of child neglect resulting in substantial bodily harm. Both of them pled. What lambs? What did they plead? I’m listening. Not guilty. Their trials were performed separately, and the state filed notice that they’d be seeking the death penalty for Rayshaun. Eventually, they amended the charges against him to just one count, murder by child abuse. Before the trial, Rayshaun’s defense team tried to introduce what could have been a game changing piece of testimony. Crystal’s cellmate, Erica Antolik and Dawn Macropoulos would later provide statements claiming that Crystal had a meth cooking operation in her apartment. Dawn, who described herself as Crystal’s friend, noted seeing scabs on Crystal’s chest while in jail. When questioned, Crystal allegedly told them about an incident of a meth explosion. Quote, her brother was Bach meth and she was feeding the baby and the pot exploded over the stove. That resulted in the burns to both herself and Tristan. Separately, Erica said that she overheard Crystal say that, quote, while cooking methamphetamine with her brother. The mixture exploded and Tristan was splashed. The defense argued it was a statement against interest and should be allowed. The prosecution objected. The court held a hearing and decided that the statements weren’t reliable enough. Judge Michael Villani ruled that although the statements were exculpatory for Rayshaun, they were, quote, so lacking in any indicia of trustworthiness that they could not be admitted as statements against penal interest under NRS 5.345. So that evidence never made it in. So keep that in mind. This is going to come up later. Rayshaun’s attorney also objected to some of the jury instructions, specifically the way the court explained the term, quote, accidental in the context of felony murder. They argued it was misleading since under Nevada law, child abuse in this context has to be non accidental. The judge allowed the instruction anyway. Now, Rayshaun’s trial was originally set for October 25, 2010, but it was pushed back to April 4, 2011. The prosecution said that Rayshawn abused and ultimately killed Tristan. The defense tried to raise the possibility that Crystal, her brother, or even the chaotic drug environment in that home could have caused some of, uh, Tristan’s injuries, or at the very least, introduce doubt about the timeline. Throughout the proceedings, Rayshawn maintained his innocence, insisting that Tristan’s injuries were inflicted by others. Rashawn said that on that night he’d bathed Tristan and put him to bed. The same thing he told police, and then he fell asleep. When he woke up, he said Tristan was unresponsive and his skin was peeling. For the prosecution, uh, testimony revealed negligence towards Tristan’s health, which is what I told you before. Crystal admitted that the infant had experienced breathing difficulties severe enough that he had stopped breathing and turned blue on multiple occasions. But she never sought medical attention, saying that she didn’t have health insurance. Like I told y’all, his weak cry and small signs were warning signs that should have prompted immediate medical intervention, and she just didn’t do that. Now my question is, she said she doesn’t have insurance, but did she apply for, like, Medicaid or any government aid? Did she search out and reach out to hospitals that work on donations? Did she try anything? Or she was just like, well, I don’t have health insurance. I know my son, you know, stops breathing a couple times a night so he and she’ll be okay. Like, did she try anything? Then the medical examiner testified, and it’s the same medical examiner that we talked about. She was actually, uh, the veteran Clark county medical examiner. So Dr. Olson’s examinations reveal that six week old Tristan weighed only five and a half pounds, which was significantly less than his birth weight. Now, I did look up his birth weight and there was no actual number for his birth weight. It always just said significantly less. The infant’s brain, like I told y’all, showed damage. What it showed was swelling, it was abnormally small, and it had portions of dead tissue. Due to the damage to his brain, Tristan may have had problems crying and feeding. The skull revealed two distinct fractures resulting from blunt force trauma. Additionally, multiple fractured ribs were discovered, some appearing to be seven to 10 days old and beginning to heal. Fresh bleeding in the muscles of his back indicated recent trauma. Quote, I noticed a red discoloration during the autopsy and later discovered Tristan had suffered second degree burns. So that’s what I told y’all. He had the first and second degree burns on 36% of his body. The burns wrapped around his torso from front to back, making a pattern inconsistent with accidental injury. The medical evidence directly contradicted Rashawn’s, uh, versions of event. Dr. Olson’s analysis established a critical timeline. It was not possible for the lethal burns or skull fractures to have been inflicted before 10am on Saturday, March 7, 2009, because there was no evidence of healing. This timeline placed a fatal injury squarely during Rashawn’s care of the infant. And the combination of fresh injuries alongside partially healed wounds suggested an Ongoing pattern of abuse rather than a single incident. This is why Dr. Olson said that she ruled Tristan’s death a homicide, citing, quote, inflicted head injuries and burns, with starvation contributing to the death. Crime scene analysis provided additional evidence that undermined Rayshawn’s accounts. Investigators discovered that the hot water temperature in the apartment reached a, uh, dangerous 131 degree level, which for my non US listeners, is 55 degrees Celsius. This temperature is capable of causing, uh, severe burns within seconds of exposure. Even more critically, a crime scene analysis documented that the hot and cold water faucets in the bathtub were reversed, a fact that supported the prosecution’s theory that Rayshawn had scalded Tristan during a bath. Still, it’s worth noting the coroner did say that, quote, Tristan’s immune system appeared to be inactive at the time of his death due to stress and inadequate nutrition, and that it could have impacted how the injuries appeared or heal. But this side note failed to outweigh the dammin timeline established by the forensic evidence. Then there’s what Rayshawn did while being interviewed. When police first questioned him, he gave a fake name. After days of deliberation, the jury found Rashawn guilty of first degree murder by child abuse. The jury’s decision came after considering the timeline established by medical evidence and whether Rashawn’s actions constituted child abuse severe enough to trigger the felony Murder rule. The felony murder rule is a legal doctrine allowing first degree murder charges when death occurs during certain felonies, including child abuse, regardless of intent to kill. Ultimately, they found him guilty of first degree murder by child abuse. However, during the penalty phase, one or more jurors found several mitigating circumstances, including an absence of intent to cause death and, quote, involvement of others in injuries to Tristan. The jury determined that mitigating circumstances outweighed the single aggravated circumstance, which was the victim’s age, resulting in a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 20 years, rather than the death penalty prosecutors originally sought. Meanwhile, Crystal faced substantially lesser consequences for her role in Tristan’s death. She received only probation for child abuse, but her probation was later revoked for drug use, and she is serving three to seven and a half years in prison, which means she probably is out, because even if she did seven and a half years, she would have been out in 2021, 2022. So then, on April 3, 2014, the Nevada Supreme Court did something you rarely see in a child abuse murder case. They overturned Rayshawn’s conviction and ordered a brand new trial. The court found that Rayshawn had been denied his constitutional right to present a full, full defense. So basically what happened is ran appealed and said that I wasn’t able to provide a full defense. And it went all the way to the Nevada Supreme Court, and they overturned his conviction. Rashawn said that his defense argued that Tristan’s injuries didn’t happen under his watch, but were the result of a meth explosion involving the baby’s mother and her brother. The defense said that the testimony of Crystal’s cellmates would have supported Rayshawn’s case and cast real doubt on who was actually responsible. But Judge Villani wouldn’t allow the testimony in. On October 14, 2013, Rayshawn’s appeal, which was docket number 60181, was argued in front of the Northern Nevada panel. Jonelle Thomas represented Rayshawn. Giancarlo Pesci represented the state. Then on April 3, 2014, the justices issued a unanimous decision. They reversed Rayshawn’s conviction. Justice Michael Cherry, writing for the court, said excluding the jailhouse testimony violated Rayshawn’s constitutional right to a complete defense. The court made it clear that those statements from Crystal, while hearsay, were admissible as, quote, statements against interest.

Clarence: The Coleman ruling was about fairness, not hearsay

They would have exposed her to criminal liability for child abuse or neglect. And crucially, there were enough corroborating circumstances to suggest the statements had some degree of reliability. The court then clarified how NRS 51.345 should be applied going forward. They said that hearsay rules, while important, can’t be used so rigidly that they override a, uh, defendant’s right to explain what happened. In their words, quote, the hearsay rule may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice. Basically, in plain English, the jury should have been allowed to hear the full story. That I don’t know. I don’t know why they just don’t say stuff like that. The court stopped short of saying that the jury’s instructions were wrong. But the heart of the decision was about fairness. When the defense said the burns on Tristan might have come from a meth lab explosion, that’s not speculation. It’s a theory backed by out of court admissions from the child’s own mother. Yet, like I keep saying, the jury never heard a word of this. The decision didn’t just impact Ran’s case. It changed how Nevada courts have to handle third party conflict confessions. The Coleman ruling reinforced that, uh, the right to present a, uh, defense doesn’t stop at hearsay rule. If the evidence is reasonably trustworthy and Critical to the accused case. The jury needs to hear it. So, like I said, his murder conviction was thrown out, and he was granted a new trial. And for other defendants across Nevada, the ruling set a new standard. You have a right to tell your side of the story, even when the evidence comes from unlikely places. Now, here’s where the tricky part comes in. I searched and searched for the second trial. Look, I searched hours. I’m telling y’all, I couldn’t find anything. But finally, I found his name in the Ely State Prison in Nevada. The records showed that Rashawn was born on September, uh, 15th, 1988, and he is currently 36 years old. It says he’s in prison for murder by child abuse, neglect and endangerment for 20 years and second degree murder with a sentence of 10 years. So I guess his life sentence went down to 30 years in prison. So that is the case of Rayshawn Coleman. I guess he’s still in prison, but that’s like a question mark. I only found this one record, and I’m guessing he’s in prison for 30 years. So let’s see. That was 2011. So I guess he shouldn’t be getting out till 2041, which is in 16 more years. So what do you think about that? I mean, to me, and I guess, too, in his second trial, he was still found guilty. I think, like the medical examiner said, these injuries couldn’t have happened before Crystal went into jail. So it still seems like it happened under his watch. However, other injuries happened before his watch, which still could have been him. I’m not saying it is could have been him, or it could have been Crystal. It could have been her brother, or it could have been whoever they let in the house. So Crystal should have been held responsible. Her sentence probably should have been worse than. Than it was according to U.S. law. And, uh, Tristan was responsible as well, based on what I saw with the evidence. But they only gave him 30 years. They gave Crystal, what did I say? Seven and a half years. But if you go back and listen to the. To Clarence’s case, they gave this mentally ill man, who literally had no clue what he was doing, life in prison because they wanted to set an example. Why couldn’t they set an example here? They had multiple people involved in this child abuse and murder. They had multiple time to set a, uh, to set an example. But no, they didn’t. He got 30 years, she got seven and a half, and that was it. Wipe their hands clean. It’s done. So anyways, if you haven’t heard the case of Clarence. The link to that is in the show notes below. I want y’all to tell me in the comments, what do y’all think about the differences between Clarence’s case and this case?

This episode focuses on child abuse prevention and helps raise awareness

Now, I do want to talk to you about the last two weeks episodes which haven’t been going out on time. Let me explain. I’m currently fighting my brain where I’m trying to stay on schedule, but my brain is like literally laughing at me and telling me you can’t control me. Bi uh, uh. And I’m like struggling 100%. I don’t want to keep telling y’all this whenever I’m going through these mental issues, but I always feel like I need to explain myself. So first of all, thank you so much for being patient with me and my stubborn, annoying at times brain. And trust me, I’m grateful for everything I have. My senses, my life, everything. So I guess I should stop complaining. Huh? Huh? Well, with that being said, again, thank you for your patience with me. And anyway, I do want to say that these stories about child abuse aren’t easy to do or hear, but they’re necessary to get them out. So if this episode moved you, please take a moment to learn more about child abuse prevention or share this case so more people can understand what’s happening behind some closed doors. If you suspect child abuse, call the Child Help National Child abuse hotline at 1-800-4CHILDS or, uh, 1800-422445-31800-422-4453 or go to childhelp.org all calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available 24. 7 in more than 170 languages. And then I want to invite you to join the LaM Patreon fam at patreon.com loveandmurder for bonus contents and to help keep these stories alive. Thanks for listening. Thanks for your patience with me, thanks for being Lambs, and I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye.