District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced today that Tyler Culberson, 31, was convicted of two counts of Aggravated Domestic Violence after a two day jury trial in Madison County Circuit Court.
Culberson is a violent habitual offender, which mandates a life sentence without parole for each offense. Circuit Judge Bradley Mills ordered that Culberson serve those two life sentences consecutive to one another.
On October 30, 2022, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of a car accident on N. Old Canton Road. When officers arrived, they found a car with severe damage to both sides, and a completely splintered power pole. The female driver of the car and an eyewitness to the wreck indicated that her car had been forced off the road by another car. Her car had gone airborne, striking a tree and
then a light pole.
Upon further investigation, the female victim stated she had been trying to escape her boyfriend, Tyler Culberson. Culberson had assaulted her the night before at a home in the city of Madison. The victim had bite marks on her face and arms, bruises on the back of her neck, a black eye, and a broken arm.
She indicated that she had received all the injuries overnight from Culberson.
The Madison Police Department put a BOLO out for Culberson’s vehicle to surrounding agencies. The next night, the Richland Police Department located the vehicle within their city. Culberson gave officers a fake name and ran from them when they tried to take him into custody. He was eventually located hiding behind a daycare in Richland.
During the trial, the victim detailed the months of abuse from Culberson. She stated she was too afraid to leave him or tell anyone. The victim stated that on the night in question, Culberson had become enraged with jealousy and strangled her, bit her, and punched her multiple times. When he went into the bathroom the next morning, she fled the house and jumped in her car. As she was racing towards help, Culberson came from behind her in his vehicle and forced her car off the road.
The eyewitness to the wreck also testified that she saw the car driven by Culberson speed up behind the victim, cross into the other lane of traffic, and push her off the road with his vehicle. The witness further stated that when she approached the victim’s car, Culberson was screaming obscenities at the female. Culberson fled the accident scene when the witness stated she had called the police for help.
The treating Emergency Room doctor detailed the victim’s multiple injuries. He testified the victim’s arm was broken which is commonly viewed as a defensive wound which occurs when someone is shielding themselves from injury. Multiple officers testified, and the body cam footage from the Richland police chase was played for the jury. Finally, the State put on testimony from a former victim of Culberson’s abuse. He previously abused her in a nearly identical manner in 2016, including choking, biting, and beating her. Culberson was convicted of aggravated domestic violence for these events in Rankin County and released from prison only months before the events for which he was on trial.
At the conclusion of the trial, the Madison County jury was instructed to consider two counts of aggravated domestic violence against the victim. The first was due to him strangling her during the night. The second was due to him attempting to cause bodily injury to her with his vehicle.
After a short deliberation, the jury found Culberson guilty on both counts. Immediately following the verdict, the trial proceeded to a sentencing hearing. The State put on evidence that Culberson had previously been convicted of motor vehicle theft and the aggravated domestic violence from the 2016 incident. Based on his prior criminal history, Judge Mills declared that Culberson was a violent habitual offender, and the only sentence allowed by law was life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
District Attorney Bramlett stated, “Tyler Culberson has proven to be a danger to women, and society as a whole. He spent almost four years in prison for assaulting a woman in Rankin County. Less than a year after his release, he did it again. The victim in this case is lucky to have survived both the beating and the car wreck. Culberson has never shown any amount for his any of his actions.“
Bramlett continued, “I want to stress how important jury duty is to the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Without jurors, dangerous people like Tyler Culberson will never be stopped. The jurors in this case were attentive throughout the trial, and applied the law to the evidence that was presented to them by the State. They unanimously determined that Culberson was guilty and, because of that, he will never hurt a woman again. I want to thank those jurors for giving their time to perform this critical civic duty. I also want to thank the multiple law enforcement agencies who worked seamlessly together to not only investigate but capture this man. Oftentimes crimes do not stop at a county line, and the fact that we have agencies that help one another makes my office’s job of prosecuting those individuals possible.”
