Tiffany Cole

On July 8, 2005, American married couple Carol and Reggie Sumner, both 61, were robbed, abducted and murdered by four acquaintances: Alan Wade (18), Michael Jackson (23), Tiffany Cole (23), and Bruce Nixon (18). After being taken from their home in Duval County, Florida, to Charlton County, Georgia, the Sumners were buried alive by Wade and Jackson in a pre-dug grave.

The perpetrators were arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping, and robbery. In 2008, Wade, Jackson, and Cole were sentenced to death for first-degree murder while Nixon was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment for second-degree murder. Cole, aged 26 at conviction, was the third youngest woman on death row in the United States.

In 2022, the death sentence of Alan Wade was reversed and changed to life imprisonment. In 2023, the sentence of Tiffany Cole was also reduced to life imprisonment. In 2024, Michael Jackson was resentenced to death.

Background Carol Alford Sumner was born on February 19, 1944. From her first marriage, she had a daughter, Rhonda Alford. Following her divorce, Carol remarried and experienced domestic violence from her second husband, with whom she had a son, Frederick Hallock. In February 1987, she survived a murder-suicide attempt, during which her husband shot her several times before killing himself. Throughout her life, Carol worked as a civil servant at The Citadel and the Charleston Air Force Base, a store worker for Belk, and a call center worker for Comcast Cable, as well as a registered nurse, paralegal, and private investigator.

James Reginald "Reggie" Sumner On June 14, in preparation for the murders, Cole rented a Mazda RX-8 in South Carolina. Two weeks before the murders, Wade told his childhood friend, Bruce Kent Nixon Jr., of Jackson's plans and agreed to involve him. While Jackson, Cole, and Wade bought gloves, duct tape, plastic wrap, Nextel phones, and a toy gun, Nixon stole four shovels from neighbors, which were then used by Nixon, Jackson, and Wade to dig a hole, measuring long and deep, in Charlton County, Georgia, from the border with Florida. The group then spied on the Sumners for several days. Jackson initially told the others that they would kill the couple through an overdose of medication after breaking into their house before deciding that they would abduct them and kill them elsewhere.

After driving back to Florida, the group wiped down the Sumners' car, which contained the shovels, leaving on a road near Sanderson, around from the grave site. Upon arrival in Jacksonville, Jackson withdrew more than $1,000 in cash from the Sumners' bank account by using their ATM card. The group rented a room at a local motel, where Jackson distributed the money. Wade and Cole later returned to the Sumner home to steal a personal computer, which they then pawned. Nixon split from the others during the night and returned to his home in Baker County, Florida. On July 9, Nixon attended a party, where he told those present that he murdered a couple by burying them alive, showing off a bag of their prescription pills as proof. They voted 9-3 for her to receive the death penalty. Evidence included photos of Cole and two co-defendants in a limousine, celebrating with champagne and hands full of cash.

Five months later, a judge handed down two death sentences for the murders, and a sentence of life in prison for the kidnappings. Cole awaited execution at Lowell Correctional Institution Annex.

Cole was one of three women on Florida's death row, the others being Margaret Allen and Tina Brown, each sentenced to death in unrelated murders. Of the previous 14 women ever sentenced to death in Florida since the 1976 Gregg v. Georgia ruling, two were executed (Judy Buenoano in 1998, and Aileen Wuornos in 2002).

Wade and Jackson also received death sentences. Nixon, who had led police to the bodies and testified against the others, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 55 years in prison. A 2016 U.S Supreme Court ruling, Hurst v. Florida, found that Florida's prior law permitting non-unanimous jury verdicts in death penalty cases violated the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prompting Florida to resentence more than 150 convicted felons under death sentences. In June 2022, Wade was resentenced to life in prison. In August 2023, Jackson was resentenced to death. Cole was resentenced to life imprisonment on August 23, 2023, after the jury voted 10-2 in a three-hour deliberation to spare her life.

Documentaries Due to the brutality and notoriety of the case and the fact that one of the perpetrators was a young woman later sentenced to death, the case has been the subject of several TV documentaries, including the third episode of the second season of Your Worst Nightmare, an hour-long interview of Tiffany Cole and Emilia Carr with Diane Sawyer for 20/20 in 2015, and an episode of Wicked Attraction, "Good Deeds Punished", in 2010.

This story is also recognized on Deadly Women's second episode of the fifth season, "Loathe Thy Neighbor", and the subject of a 2024 episode of the podcast Sword and Scale.