Burn victim blames husband before dying

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
Aug. 13, 2003
A Meridian man grieved Tuesday as he described the events that led to his daughter's death.
James Johnson said his daughter, Tonya Redmond, sat in her hospital bed in Greenville and wrote a statement claiming that her husband doused her with gasoline and then ignited the fuel with a cigarette.
The 28-year-old mother died Monday at the Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Center at Delta Regional Medical Center more than a month after she was admitted for burns sustained June 29 in Lauderdale County.
Lauderdale sheriff's deputies on Sunday arrested Redmond's husband, 38-year-old James C. Redmond of Pine Creek Apartments, No. 38-B. He was charged with aggravated assault and remained in the county jail today on $50,000 bond.
Maj. Ward Calhoun, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said interviews are continuing.
Calhoun said sometime in mid-July, while his department was investigating the Lockheed Martin shootings, Greenville police notified deputies about Tonya Redmond's hospital statement.
Redmond's body has been transported to Jackson for an autopsy. Washington County Deputy Coroner Hilton Stokes said the cause of death has not yet been determined.
But, Stokes said, 28 percent of Redmond's body was covered by second-degree burns.
Meanwhile, Redmond's family mourns her death. Johnson said he always knew his daughter and her husband had problems.