Guy Heinze Jr. | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Guy HEINZE Jr.

Classification: Mass murderer

Characteristics: Killed the first victim in a dispute over a bottle of prescription painkillers he wanted to steal, then killed the others to avoid getting caught

Number of victims: 8

Date of murders: August 29, 2009

Date of arrest: September 4, 2009

Date of birth: 1987

Victims profile: His father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45; Rusty Toler Sr., 44, and his four children: Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15; Toler's sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, and Joseph L. West, 30, boyfriend of Chrissy Toler

Method of murder: Multiple crushing blows to the head from what police believe was a shotgun barrel. The murder weapon was never found

Location: Glynn County, Georgia

, USA

Status: Sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on October 30, 2013

photo gallery

Ga. man gets life sentence in beating deaths of 8

By Russ Bynum, Associated Press

Thursday, October 31, 2013

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Spared from a possible death sentence by a deal between lawyers, a Georgia man convicted of beating his father and seven others to death inside the mobile home they shared was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Guy Heinze Jr. was sentenced less than a week after a jury found him guilty of malice murder for the Aug. 29, 2009, slayings. Prosecutors dropped the death penalty as an option for 26-year-old Heinze last week as part of a deal with defense attorneys that allowed them to avoid a hung jury.

Relatives of the victims told reporters as they left the courthouse in Glynn County on Thursday that they had been opposed all along to Heinze receiving the death penalty.

"That's the easy way out," said Diane Isenhower, whose ex-husband and four children were among those slain. She said she's satisfied knowing Heinze should spend the rest of his life in prison. "It's a relief. Now I just pick up the pieces and go on."

Under Georgia law, Heinze faced an automatic life sentence once the death penalty was off the table. The only thing Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett had to decide was whether the defendant would ever be eligible for parole.

Heinze's attorneys, who have insisted he is innocent, presented no witnesses and said little to try to persuade Scarlett before he imposed his sentence. Newell Hamilton Jr., Heinze's lead defense attorney, declined to comment after the hearing.

"There are people who believe in Guy and believe he's innocent," said Heather Teston, who said she has been a friend of Heinze's since high school. "Maybe they should have moved the trial somewhere else. After four years, everybody here has been set in their opinions on the case. I think ultimately he was railroaded by the justice system."

In a frantic 911 call made the morning the bodies were discovered, Heinze cried out: "My whole family is dead!"

Heinze's trial almost ended with a hung jury last week on the third day of deliberations. But prosecutors last Friday dropped the death penalty in a deal with Heinze's lawyers to allow the trial judge to dismiss one juror and replace him with an alternate. A guilty verdict was returned four hours later. Afterward, prosecutors said only that there had been "a situation" with the dismissed juror that contributed to the deadlock.

Jurors were unaware that prosecutors had ruled out a possible death sentence until after they returned with a guilty verdict.

Prosecutors said Heinze had been smoking crack cocaine when he killed his father and the other victims, all members of an extended family. They said he killed the first victim in a dispute over a bottle of prescription painkillers he wanted to steal, then killed the others to avoid getting caught.

Each of the victims died from multiple crushing blows to the head from what police believe was a shotgun barrel, jurors heard. Autopsies showed they suffered a combined total of more than 220 wounds. The murder weapon was never found.

Although the attack happened in the middle of the night and most of the victims were found in bed, defense attorneys argued a single assailant couldn't possibly have inflicted such carnage. They insisted that Heinze would not kill loved ones over a bottle of weak prescription pills and that police ignored evidence and alternate suspects in a rush to accuse him.

Heinze had told police he found the victims' bodies after returning from a late night away from home.

The dead included Heinze's father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45. Rusty Toler Sr., 44, was slain along with his four children: Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. Also killed was the elder Toler's sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, and Joseph L. West, the 30-year-old boyfriend of Chrissy Toler. Her 3-year-old son, Byron Jimerson Jr., ended up the sole survivor but suffered severe head injuries.

Heinze told police his father went to live with the elder Toler's family when they were both teenagers. The suspect said he considered Rusty Toler Sr. to be his uncle, and the man's children were his cousins.

"Guy grew up in this family," said Hazel Sumner, who described herself as a cousin to the Toler family. "It was just greed and drugs that did this."

Guy Heinze Jr. guilty of eight counts of murder

Deal over troublesome juror removes death penalty as sentencing option, prosecutor says

By Terry Dickson - Jacksonville.com

October 25, 2013

GBRUNSWICK - Guy Heinze Jr. was found guilty Friday of eight counts of murder in the brutal beating deaths of his father and seven others, six of whom he called family though he was unrelated to them.

The nine-woman, three-man jury, with a replacement member seated at 10:30 a.m., deliberated about four hours before returning the guilty verdicts on the eight malice murder counts, an aggravated assault with intent to murder charge and two drug charges.

The previous jury, with one juror that prosecutors had asked the judge to remove since Monday, had deliberated two days without reaching a verdict.

Heinze sat down and appeared to exhale deeply but did not otherwise react as the verdicts were read. But his younger brother, Tyler, shouted vulgarities as he left the courtroom with bailiffs beside him.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett thanked the remaining jurors for their service in what had been a long and difficult trial.

In order to get the juror replaced, prosecutors, with the agreement of the victims’ families, agreed to remove the death penalty as a sentencing option, Assistant District Attorney John B. Johnson said.

Under Georgia law, Heinze will receive a life sentence, but Scarlett must decide once sentencing is held whether it is life with or without the possibility of parole.

“Both sides agreed it was an impediment to getting a verdict,” Johnson said of the juror who, it now appears, had prompted a deadlock.

When court opened Monday, a bailiff told Scarlett the juror said on the second day of the two-week trial he couldn’t find Heinze guilty. The juror also was overheard talking with his wife about the trial Sunday during a closely monitored visit with family members.

As Tyler Heinze left the courthouse grounds, he shouted “That ain’t justice, man,” toward Johnson and Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering as they stood in front of the courthouse.

“You ought to see the smirk on his face,” he said of Doering.

A short time later, defense lawyer Newell Hamilton Jr. left the courthouse hand in hand with his wife, Shannon.

The clearly unhappy Hamilton responded to only one question about the outcome.

“Yeah, I’m disappointed,” he said.

Diane Isenhower, the ex-wife of victim Russell D. Toler Sr. and the mother of some of those beaten to death, left with an aunt and other family members.

“They don’t want to comment,” Lt. William Daras, the lead investigator, said as he escorted them to their vehicles.

Not For Death Penalty

Members of the Toler family told the Times-Union Friday morning they didn’t want Heinze to get the death penalty, that they wanted him “out in the [prison] population.”

The trial had lasted almost 10 days before the full verdict came down. The foreman of the jury had announced Thursday that the jury had reached a verdict on the two drug charges, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor, but that they were deadlocked 9-3 on the eight murder charges and the single aggravated assault charge.

When the trial opened Friday morning, Scarlett did not make the usual statement that the jury was deliberating. Instead, lawyers from both sides kept coming in and out of the courtroom.

About 10:20 a.m., the jury filed into the courtroom and Scarlett told them a male juror had been removed and replaced with a female alternate. But he explained the change constituted a new jury so the two verdicts already reached were void.

“Your deliberations must start anew and cover all 11 counts,” Scarlett said.

Scarlett passed a new verdict form to the foreman and at 10:30 a.m. ordered the nine-woman, three-man jury to begin deliberations. Four hours later, including lunch, their work was done.

Johnson praised the police for doing their jobs so well, especially Daras.

“He helped keep this case together,” Johnson said.

Then Johnson referred again to the removed juror and the deal made to get him off the jury.

“I think all of you know there was a situation that occurred in the last week and a half,” he said.

Although the state had given up the possibility of a death sentence, Johnson said “we got a conclusion instead of coming back in six months.”

Had the jury remained deadlocked, Scarlett could have declared a mistrial and the whole process could have been repeated, including the long procedure of juror qualifying, which alone had taken three weeks.

The missing juror was one who had sat apart from the rest and at times had given only cursory glances at the evidence.

Doering acknowledged it had taken a long time to get the case to trial and thanked the community for its patience.

“It’s been a long process for four years,” he said.

Of Tyler Heinze’s comments, Doering said, “He has his point of view and I respect that.”

Doering said he wanted to be respectful to the families on both sides.

Doering was asked about the testimony of defense witness Michael Knox, a forensic science and criminology consultant, who found numerous faults with the investigation including breaks in the chain of custody of evidence, the discarding of some items that could have been evidence and contamination of the crime scene.

Keep Moving Forward

Doering said some of that was warranted and had been dealt with. He said again that sometimes the department relies on people to do certain things and learns later they weren’t done.

That can’t be changed so the only option is to move forward and make the best case the department can, he said.

“Despite the critique, it didn’t overshadow the facts of what happened,” Doering said.

There was a lot of evidence jammed into the unkempt mobile home where fans were running all over to fight the summer heat.

Police had been alerted to the deaths about 8:15 a.m. Aug. 29, 2009, when Heinze, using the phone of a neighbor, told police he had been out all night and came home to “find my whole family beat to death.”

Heinze was one of 10 people who lived in the single-wide mobile home at New Hope Mobile Home Park off U.S. 17 north of Brunswick, and all but one of the others died of massive head injuries from being beaten.

Police said the weapon likely was the barrel of a broken 20-gauge shotgun. The bloody butt stock was lying on the floor, but the barrel has never been found.

The dead were: Heinze’s father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Toler’s children, Russell D. Toler Jr., 20, Chrissy Toler, 22, Michael Toler, 19, and Michelle Toler, 15; Chrissy Toler’s boyfriend, Joseph West, 30; and the senior Toler’s sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49.

Heinze was charged with aggravated assault with intent to murder in the beating of Chrissy Toler’s son, Byron Jimerson, who is now 7 and lives with his paternal grandmother.

Among the evidence against Heinze:

He had taken a shotgun from the house and put it in the car he was driving before calling for help for the seven already dead and two struggling for their lives.
Inside the car, police found the narcotic prescription medication of Michael Toler and Michelle Toler’s cell phone with West’s dried blood on it.
Beneath a pair of khaki shorts, Heinze was wearing a pair of gym shorts with the blood of three victims and there was also victims’ blood on his flip-flops.

The Drug Factor

The drug charges, a felony and a misdemeanor, arose from the prescription painkillers and a small amount of marijuana police found that morning in the car Heinze was driving. He could get a maximum five years on the felony.

Hamilton and defense witnesses asserted that no one person could have killed all the victims, but Doering said he still believes Heinze alone carried out the killings.

Under cross-examination during the trial, Daras said he believed that Heinze, who admitted smoking crack all night, had wanted Michael Toler’s pills and was rebuffed. He had come back later to get the pills and all the money in the house. If so, he missed some money. Russell Toler Jr. had $61 in his pockets. No one else had any.

Guy Heinze Jr. killed for drugs and money, Glynn investigator says

By Terry Dickson - Jacksonville.com

October 19, 2013

BRUNSWICK - Guy Heinze Jr. beat to death his father and seven others four years ago to get the prescription drugs of a one of the victims, a 19-year-old man with Down syndrome that Heinze called his cousin, the lead investigator said Saturday during Heinze’s death penalty murder trial.

Michael Toler had a prescription for the generic form of Darvocet, a narcotic painkiller, witnesses have testified. Heinze wanted the pills and got into a confrontation with Michael Toler’s father, Russell D. Toler Sr., Lt. William Daras testified under cross-examination on the fifth day of the trial.

“They weren’t going to give him those pills. He was going to get those pills,” Daras said. “It started from there.”

Heinze and his father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45, were among 10 who lived in a mobile home that Russell D. Toler Sr., 44, rented at New Hope Mobile Home Park. Also living there were Toler’s sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, his sons, Michael and Russell D. Toler Jr., 20, his daughters Chrissy, 22, and Michelle, 15, Chrissy Toler’s son, Byron Jimerson, and her boyfriend, Joseph L. West, 30.

Of the 10, the only ones still alive are Heinze Jr. and Byron, who recovered from severe head injuries from being beaten in the house and is now 7.

Daras had been under cross-examination by defense lawyer Newell Hamilton Jr. when he gave his theory on how the deaths occurred.

“What’s the motive for Mr. Heinze killing his loved ones, sir?” Hamilton asked.

Daras responded that he believed Heinze tried once to get the pills and failed.

He returned later, killed the victims, took Michael Toler’s pills “and every bit of money in that house,” and then left, Daras said.

The only money found was the $61 in Russell Toler Jr.’s pockets, witnesses have said.

Also, officers found pills matching Michael Toler’s medication in the car that Heinze was driving that night, Russell Toler Jr.’s Mercury Cougar. Heinze told police he had borrowed the car.

Hamilton asked how Daras knew any of the victims had money since none of them worked.

Daras testified that victim Joseph West must have had money because he was seen making purchases at a convenience store the night before his death.

The fact that nobody worked was no indication that they didn’t have money, Daras said.

“I’m saying people have ways of coming across money. People survive. They do odd jobs. They sell stuff,” Daras testified.

West, whom his family called Little Joe, worked on a shrimp boat that he owned with his father, his family told the Times-Union shortly after his death.

Having been paid $490, Heinze still had $391 on him when he was taken into custody in spite of having bought crack cocaine — Heinze said $100 worth, some on credit — lunch and other items.

In his opening statement, Hamilton asked how it was possible that eight people could be killed by one person. But witnesses have said most of them died where they lay sleeping, and only a couple had a chance to defend themselves.

“It’s your theory that Guy Heinze Jr. committed these murders [alone] with a weapon you have not found,” Hamilton said.

Daras responded that he believed the murder weapon was the barrel of a shotgun.

The butt of the gun was lying near Russell Toler Sr.’s head but the barrel was never located.

Prosecutors also called a witness Saturday who put into doubt Heinze’s statement to police that Russell Toler Jr. had lent him his car.

James Adam “Pee Wee” Davis Sr. testified that he is the half brother of Russell Toler Jr., whom he called by his nickname, Home Boy.

Just before dark on Aug. 28, Russell Toler Jr. and Guy Heinze Jr. brought him a pair of pliers at Fort King George Motel in Darien so he could work on his car.

“They were driving Home Boy’s Mercury,” he said. “He never let nobody drive it. He never let me drive it.”

Heinze asked where he could get some cocaine, saying he had $50 to spend, Davis testified.

Davis said he had a son and refused to help Heinze obtain cocaine, but he did provide some marijuana that the three smoked together.

Throughout the trail, Hamilton has seized on every opportunity to challenge the way police collected and preserved evidence and, in an opening statement, said police were indifferent to procedure.

Hamilton repeatedly asked Daras what he did to ensure that policies were followed in every piece of critical evidence seized and failed to investigate leads.

When asked why police hadn’t investigated other possible suspects, Daras said that the blood of three victims spattered on Heinze’s shorts and other evidence all pointed to Heinze.

As for officers’ handling of the shorts and other evidence, Daras testified, “I work with these guys, I know how they do things. … I have the faith that when they’re bagging up evidence, they’re doing it properly.”

He acknowledged that some investigators of the crime scene had not worn the Tyvek suits that help prevent contamination and that clothes with blood spots in a bathroom that should have been taken into evidence were not.

“The Tyvek suits, the blood in the bathroom, I think that’s fair,” Daras testified of Hamilton’s criticism.

Hamilton did not get such concessions from investigator Shawn Strohl, who testified he processed a lot of evidence in the house and sealed it as evidence for testing.

Of the Tyvek suits, Strohl said, “It’s a good practice. It’s not always done.”

“The Tyvek suit is for my protection,’’ he said, and not to prevent the transfer of blood evidence from one point to another.

Daras had testified earlier that even with Tyvek shoe coverings evidence can be tracked from one room to another.

Hamilton asked Strohl if investigators had established “clean areas’’ in the single-wide mobile home where they could place items without contaminating the crime scene.

“There was not a clean area inside that residence,” Strohl testified. “There was not enough room to put much on the floor.”

Strohl described the interior as “blood evidence, trash, filth.”

Court will resume Monday morning.

Family in Shock Over Arrest in Georgia Trailer Park Murders

By Dean Schabner, Matt Gutman and Bill McGuire - ABCNews.go.com

September 5, 2009

The man accused of the massacre of eight people -- seven of them his relatives -- in a Georgia mobile home "has a conscience" and couldn't have done what police say, his brother and grandfather said today at the funeral of the family members.

Guy Heinze Jr., 22, was arrested Friday night and charged with eight counts of murder in the killings, which were discovered after Heinze went to a neighbor saying he'd found his family dead, and the neighbor called 911 and then persuaded him to get on the phone.

In the 911 call, Heinze was both frantic and heartbroken. "My whole family's dead! My dad and my mom and my uncle, my cousins," he moaned into the phone.

Barely coherent, he said he had arrived at the mobile home that morning, Aug. 29, to find family members dead and bleeding. He said, "It looks like they've been beaten to death, but I don't know, man."

Heinze was arrested a day later on charges of drug possession, tampering with evidence and other related charges, but Friday night police announced that he was being charged with the killings.

At the funeral today for the seven members of Heinze's extended family, his 16-year-old brother Tyler Heinze and his grandfather, William Heinze, both told reporters they cannot believe he is guilty.

"I know my brother didn't do this. My brother has a conscience," Tyler Heinze said outside the cemetery.

"I can say there was drug involvement in the house, and I think somebody ripped somebody off and somebody needed to get their money back," the teen said. "Maybe somebody in the house double-crossed someone. It could've been my brother who double-crossed somebody, and it could be part of his fault that somebody came in there and did this."

Heinze's grandfather said the young man loved his father, who was among the victims.

"He loved his dad. I know in that 911 call that we heard on the news, he was devastated to find his dad dead like that," William Heinze said. "I just can't believe it, unless they really had some proof."

Evidence, Motives Not Revealed After Arrest

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said at a news conference Friday night that two pieces of evidence had come to light late in the day that led to the arrest. The chief declined to provide additional details about the evidence against Heinze or a possible motive.

"This is very much an ongoing investigation," he told reporters Friday night. "Two pieces of information came forward to us. We took those two pieces of information compared to the whole of the all the evidence collected all week long ... and that led us to believe, that Guy Heinze Jr. is the responsible person."

Doering said that the warrants were served to Heinze in jail. Earlier in the day, Heinze had been released on bond after being held for evidence tampering, lying to police and drug possession. That bond has since been revoked.

"There's not much more I can say," Doering said. "I know you have a lot questions."

Heinze was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the killings of seven family members, including his father, and a family friend. He was also charged with attempted murder in the assault of a 3-year-old child, who is now in critical condition and "has improved some," Doering said.

The chilling 911 tape had cast some light on the murky details of the mass killing at the sleepy New Hope Plantation mobile home park.

Chilling 911 Call

Police first learned of the massacre when neighbor Margaret Orlinski made a 911 call Aug. 29 saying Heinze Jr. was "freaking out," apparently arriving home to that gruesome tableau. "He says everybody is dead."

In the recording, Orlinski coaxes Heinze Jr. to the phone. Whimpering, Heinze Jr. relays that "my whole family is dead," and rushes back into the trailer.

Later he yells back that the ambulance "better hurry," because his cousin, Michael Toler, a 19-year-old man with Down syndrome, was alive, but "that his face is smashed in."

Neighbors, including the mobile home park's maintenance man, are overheard responding to the commotion.

After taking the phone from Heinze Jr., neighbor Orlinski tells the dispatcher, "I know there's a little baby. ... Shoot, there's a little baby. I don't know if the baby was in there or not."

The dead include many members of Guy Heinze Jr.'s family: Guy Heinze Sr., 45; his uncle, Rusty Toler Sr., 44; and his aunt Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. Also slain were Toler Sr.'s four children -- Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15. Chrissy Toler's boyfriend, Joseph L. West, 30, was also killed.

In the recording, the 911 dispatcher admonishes Heinze not to touch anything. Moments later Orlinski is overheard telling Heinze not to touch anything, "doorknobs or anything other that what you already touched ... he says they were beat to death."

But Heinze returned to the mobile home anyway and apparently found two survivors. One of them, his cousin Michael Toler, died Aug. 30.

Police later charged Heinze with drug possession and making false statements to police. He is accused of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, tampering with evidence and obstruction of an officer, which is related to making false statements to police.

Jimmy Durben, a director at the Glynn County coroner's office who was at the crime scene, told ABC News affiliate WJXX-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab would determine the cause of death of the victims.

He described the crime as brutal and called it "the worst crime scene I have ever witnessed in my 17-year history in the coroner's office."

Friends remember victims of the Brunswick killings

These are the stories of the eight people who were found slain in a mobile home park near Brunswick, Ga., on Saturday.

September 2, 2009

They were all family, or family friends, who died together in the biggest mass killing in Glynn County history. These are the stories of the eight people who were found slain in a mobile home park north of Brunswick, Ga., on Saturday. (A ninth victim, 3-year-old Byron Jimerson Jr., remains in critical condition in a Savannah hospital.)

RUSSELL TOLER SR.

Friends describe him as humble, hard-working

People who knew Russell "Rusty" Toler Sr., 44, said they were astonished he fell victim to such violence and confident he did nothing to bring it on himself or his family.

"I heard it, but thought it was just rumors," said Jimmy Ginn, a former neighbor of the Tolers.

In fact, said longtime friend and fishing companion Bobby Sumner, Toler always tried to find the good in people.

"Rusty tried to live by the old standard that if you don't have something good to say about someone, don't say anything at all," said Sumner, who runs an RV park in McIntosh County. "He loved his young'uns, and he would go to the ends of the Earth for them."

Sumner and others described Toler, who was living with four of his children, as a humble, friendly, hard-working man.

"Anything that came up to make a dollar, he'd jump at it," said Fred Rowe, a friend of the family for nearly two decades.

Joseph Iannicelli, owner of the New Hope Mobile Home Park and the adjoining Aero-Instant plant where Toler worked for more than 20 years, issued a statement describing him as "a very loyal employee."

The plant, which offers custom drying services to the mineral and chemical industries, is in temporary shutdown mode now, but Toler would definitely have been hired back when work picked up, Iannicelli said.

Called "Mr. Joe" by his employees, Iannicelli added a $10,000 reward Monday to the $25,000 offered by Glynn County police for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever is responsible for the killings.

Court records in McIntosh County show Toler was charged with simple battery against his former wife's husband on New Year's Eve 2004. The charges were dropped a few months later.

Witnesses subpoenaed to testify in the case included Toler's half-brother, Guy Heinze Sr., and Toler's daughter, Chrissy. Both also were victims of the weekend slayings.

But Sumner said Toler and his former wife and her husband generally got along as friends and had lived as neighbors before he moved to New Hope.

Paul Pinkham/The Times-Union

*****

CHRISSY TOLER

She had several run-ins with law enforcement.

Chrissy Toler, 22, died after living a troubled life, littered with several run-ins with the law after she left the Glynn County school system in 2003 at age 16.

County schools Superintendent Howard Mann was interim principal of Needwood Middle School when Toler was a student there. Mann recalls her as a kid who was rough around the edges. She might not have instigated disturbances, he said, but she often was in the middle of them.

Toler got into more serious scrapes as she got older. She was sentenced to 10 years' probation and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty in June 2006 to conspiracy to commit armed robbery in an attack on a couple at a Brunswick motel.

Toler is the mother of the sole survivor of the weekend massacre. Her 3-year-old son is named after his father, Byron Jimerson, who is serving 20 years for the armed robbery, authorities said.

Toler took a plea bargain that required her to testify against Jimerson and Shem Paul, who received a 30-year sentence, records showed.

In 2005, Toler, Jimerson and two others were accused of robbing two men who said Toler and a second woman propositioned and promised to have sex with them, court records showed. Prosecutors later dismissed the charges when the victims could not be found to testify in the case, the records showed.

Toler was charged with misdemeanor simple battery after her mother told Glynn police she was attacked by her daughter in May 2006 during a domestic dispute. Court records list the case as inactive, and additional information about its disposition wasn't immediately available.

Teresa Stepzinski/The Times-Union

*****

RUSSELL TOLER JR.

He worked hard and was slow to criticize.

Like father, like son.

Folks who knew him said Russell Toler Jr., 20, shared his father's humble demeanor, work ethic and love for fishing.

"He didn't care how dirty he got. That boy worked hard," said Fred Rowe, who often worked side by side with the man he called "Little Rusty" in roofing and construction jobs.

Bobby Sumner said he often fished with the father and son, and sometimes just with the son. He said he was a thin-framed young man, slow to criticize, who often kept to himself. Toler Jr. wasn't prone to fighting with his siblings or causing trouble outside the home, Sumner said.

"They were good people," he said. "It's such a tragedy this happened."

Mark Hill of Brunswick was stepfather to the Toler children and married to their mother for a time. He described them all as well-behaved and well-mannered. Hill said he hasn't had contact with the children in eight or nine years.

Paul Pinkham/The Times-Union

*****

MICHAEL TOLER

A teacher remembers Michael as "wonderful."

David Flesch is serious when he tells you Michael Toler, 19, was "the most wonderful child and human being" he's met in 20 years as a special education teacher.

That's why his face lights up when asked about the boy he taught - and who he says taught him even more - at McIntosh County Academy near Darien, Ga., from 2003 to 2007.

But it's also what brings him to tears when reminded that Toler died Sunday from wounds suffered in the Brunswick trailer park home massacre that left a total of eight dead and one critically injured.

What seems so senseless to Flesch isn't only that Toler was a Down syndrome child, but that someone could possibly harm "the nicest human being ever."

"I was hoping they had the wrong child" when news first broke it was his former student who was among the victims, Flesch said.

What always impressed Flesch so much, he said, was that the teen overcame a speech impediment almost by sheer will and despite poverty at home displayed a huge work ethic - he had been training for a job with Goodwill Industries, although Flesch didn't believe he was working at the time.

Toler's family moved around a lot and worked several minimum-wage jobs - conditions that would make it hard for any student to do well at school.

After hearing of Toler's death, Flesch said he went through a cycle of anger and questioning about how this could happen. But that has already passed.

"I have no doubt Michael's sitting in God's lap right now," Flesch said. "I'm OK with that, now."

Jeff Brumley/The Times-Union

*****

MICHELLE TOLER

"She had a big heart," said a family friend.

There was no official announcement Tuesday at Needwood Middle School. Classmates and teachers of Michelle Toler, 15, already knew the worst had happened to the eighth-grader.

Friends and classmates chose to remember her life - not how she died.

Bobby Sumner, a fishing companion of the Tolers, said Michelle loved to fish and spend time with her dad, who also died in the attacks.

"She had a big heart," Sumner said.

Reporters were barred from the middle school because Glynn County schools Superintendent Howard Mann said students and staff deserved privacy to grieve.

"It's such a horrific tragedy. It's going to take some time, not just for our school family but for the whole community to heal," Mann said.

Students continued to trickle in to talk with grief counselors, who have been at the school since Monday.

Michelle was popular with her classmates and teachers.

"Her classmates described her as a person who was always smiling, and said if they were down about anything, she would try to pick them up and raise their spirits," said Jim Weidhaas, a school system spokesman.

No memorial services have been planned at the school because "we're concentrating on maintaining a normal school atmosphere focused on learning," Weidhaas said.

But Michelle will not be forgotten.

"She is going to be missed," he said.

Teresa Stepzinski and Paul Pinkham/The Times-Union

*****

GUY HEINZE SR.

He was remembered as a generous friend.

At first, Jimmy Ginn was calm as he discussed the murder of his friend and one-time fellow truck driver Guy William Heinze Sr., 45, who died with seven others in a trailer park massacre Saturday in Brunswick.

But traces of anger emerged as slowly as the exhalations of the Marlboro Light cigarette he smoked Tuesday in a driveway on Church of God Road in Townsend, Ga.

"I hope they catch those guys," he said of the person or persons who committed the weekend homicides. "When they do, they can bring them out here and drop them off."

Townsend is a rural community a few miles west of Interstate 95 in McIntosh County where Ginn and Heinze used to drive a long-haul truck together, Ginn said. Two other victims, Rusty Toler Sr. and Jr., also once lived there.

"Everybody out here knows them," Ginn said.

What was known about Heinze, Ginn said, was that he kept his nose clean and worked hard.

"He got up early and went to bed early," Ginn said.

Not that Heinze didn't have his a few run-ins with authorities. In 1985, he received probation for forgery in St. Johns County. Records show he also got probation for forgery in Georgia.

Ginn didn't recall any of that, but did remember Heinze's CB handle was "Shaky," because he had the jitters following an incident a few years back when a semi-truck tire he was working on exploded and injured him.

"It messed him up," Ginn said.

Bobby Sumner of McIntosh County said he and Heinze drove trucks together, and Heinze used to watch NASCAR with him. He described Heinze as a generous man who once brought him back a $70 model car from a NASCAR race.

"He had a really rough life," Sumner said.

Jeff Brumley/The Times-Union

*****

BRENDA FALAGAN

She was in a wheelchair following a stroke.

Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, was Rusty Toler Sr.'s older sister and the wife of the late Glenn Falagan.

She and her husband lost their son, Andy, 7, and Glenn's son, Johnny, in a fire about 20 years ago, said Jeannie Asbell, her niece.

She and Glenn's sister, Joyce Stone, said both Glenn and Brenda had suffered debilitating strokes. After Glenn suffered a stroke, Brenda took care of him until she suffered one that left her unable to care for him, Stone said.

"She stuck by my brother until the day he died,'' Stone said. "She was just a good person.''

Brenda lived with another sister, Joann, for five years but when Joann died, Brenda had to leave, Stone said.

"She was in a wheelchair at times,'' as her late husband had been, Stone said.

Asbell believes Brenda Falagan was so dependent on someone taking care of her that she had little choice but to move in with her brother.

"She was my aunt. I loved her to death. She was a very nice lady,'' Asbell said.

Stone's voice was tinged with sorrow when she wondered why so many innocent people were killed.

"Why did they kill the children? Why did they kill Brenda?'' she said. "She didn't bother anybody."

Terry Dickson/The Times-Union

*****

JOSEPH WEST

Despite some problems, "He had a good heart."

Joseph L. West, 30, was Chrissy Toler's boyfriend, devoted to his family and always in a hurry, said his aunt, Joyce Herrington.

Herrington said she talked with him the day before he died and that he never let a week go by without talking with her.

He enjoyed spending time with Chrissy Toler and her young son, Byron.

"When you saw Joseph, Chrissy was in that truck and that little boy was in that truck,'' Herrington said.

She told about a running joke between them.

"He'd say, 'Auntie, you got any money?' and I'd say, 'If I do it's mine,'" she said.

He had some legal problems.

After pleading guilty to possession of cocaine, he was sentenced in September 2000 to five years' probation, $1,750 in fines and court costs and a year intensive probation. His probation was revoked after he tested positive for cocaine in October 2002 and failed to fulfill other conditions of his probation. There was no court record of any jail time.

Other scrapes with the law included forging and cashing a check for $345, theft by receiving stolen property for accepting $2,000 worth of stainless steel and illegal dumping and fighting. Sentences ranged from five days in jail to probation.

"None of us are perfect,'' his aunt said. "He had a good heart."

Terry Dickson/The Times-Union