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EAST ST. LOUIS, Illinois (AP) -- A judge on Monday ordered a psychological examination for a woman accused of killing a pregnant acquaintance and her fetus.
Tiffany Hall, 24, looked sullen as she appeared at an arraignment hearing via video conference from the St. Clair County Jail, where she is being held on a $5 million bond.
Prosecutors say she killed Jimella Tunstall, 23, and her fetus, which had been cut from Tunstall's womb.
St. Clair County Associate Judge Heinz Rudolf entered not guilty pleas on Hall's behalf on charges of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child.
Each charge carries a penalty of 20 to 60 years or life in prison, prosecutors said. The murder count could be punishable by the death penalty.
According to authorities, Hall told police she also drowned Tunstall's three children -- ages 7, 2 and 1 -- and stuffed them into a washer and dryer at the apartment they shared with their mother.
"It's going to be some unspecified time in the future before any additional charges will be added," St. Clair County's State's Attorney Robert Haida said after Hall's arraignment.
Motive not disclosed
Haida declined to discuss a possible motive in the slayings, saying doing so would involve airing facts of the case.
Hall has not been charged in the children's deaths.
Rudolf asked Hall whether she planned to hire a private attorney or needed a public defender. She replied simply: "I don't know."
Rudolf then appointed public defender Randy Kelley as her attorney. He granted Kelley's requests for a psychological evaluation and that Hall be segregated from the rest of the inmates for her protection.
"Any time you've got a charge of this nature that has some volatility, I just think it's in her best interest that she be protected from the influence of other inmates or possible harm to her," Kelley said after the hearing.
After keeping her gruesome secret for days, Hall told police she drowned the children and stuffed them into a washer and dryer, authorities say.
Preliminary autopsies on the children appeared to show they were drowned, said Ace Hart, a deputy St. Clair County coroner.
According to the autopsies, there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children -- ages 7, 2, and 1 -- and toxicology tests were pending "to see if they were poisoned or possibly drugged," Hart said.
Suspect maintained routine
In the days after authorities say she killed Tunstall and her fetus, Hall went about everyday life, chatting with her daughter's elementary school teacher and helping her daughter with homework, Hall's mother, Beverly Cruise, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Authorities suspect Tunstall was slain on or about September 15.
That day, Hall summoned police to a park, saying she had given birth to a stillborn child, Hart said. She was arrested after she told her boyfriend during the baby's funeral that the baby wasn't his and that she had killed the mother to get it, authorities said.
Tunstall's body was found Thursday, and authorities began a furious search for her children. Police said the children were last seen with Hall on Monday.
Authorities had visited Tunstall's apartment Friday but noticed nothing amiss while looking for photographs of the children for media outlets to publicize in their search, Hart said.
Mourners left stuffed animals outside Tunstall's apartment, its door crisscrossed with white evidence tape. There was a white teddy bear, and a stuffed race car with DeMond's name.
An autopsy showed that Jimella Tunstall bled to death after sustaining an abdominal wound caused by a sharp object, believed to be scissors, Hart has said. Authorities believe her womb was cut open after she was knocked unconscious.
Relatives say Tunstall grew up with Hall and had let her baby-sit her children. Hall has two children of her own. Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Koehler said they are "safe and sound."
DNA tests should determine definitively whether the baby was the one Tunstall was carrying, Hart said.
Funerals for Tunstall and her children were scheduled for Friday.
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