▶ Watch Video: What the Cameras Saw
It was Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, and a small strip mall in Huntsville, Alabama, was teeming with police activity.
The frantic scene was captured on police body cameras and dashcam video in the moments after police discovered 37-year-old Savannah Tolbert shot dead in the front seat of a red Tesla.
Moments before police arrived, her husband David Tolbert was captured on video from security cameras in the store where he had been working — after he found her lifeless body. He appeared shocked and upset and is seen walking briskly with his hand covering his mouth.
Moments later, David Tolbert is seen crouching on the floor. When police arrived at the scene, the store’s owners said they observed David with tears in his eyes and his hands in his pockets.
Red flags appear early in Savannah Tolbert’s death investigation
Jeff Kreiter and Greg Hayden, investigators with the Huntsville Police Major Crimes Unit, were assigned to the case.
Investigator Greg Hayden: We wanna know … who saw what happened … because … information is the most important thing that … we can get out there.
When Hayden arrived at the scene, it appeared that Savannah Tolbert had taken her own life.
Investigator Greg Hayden: She’s sitting up … in the passenger seat with her head tilted … to the left side …
Anne-Marie Green: Where is her hand and where is the gun?
Investigator Greg Hayden: The gun is in … her right hand. And it’s actually laid across her lap.
First responders said they had found Savannah Tolbert’s fingers curled around the gun when they got there. It was a red flag for investigators.
Investigator Greg Hayden: It didn’t match up to a suicide … her gun was in her right hand … and the bullet hole was on her left side in the back of her head.
None of it made sense to Savannah Tolbert’s sisters, Holly and April Hancock.
April Hancock: No way.
Anne Marie Green: — your sister did this to herself.
April Hancock: Never. No.
Anne Marie Green: Why so sure?
April Hancock: She wouldn’t do that. …
Holly Hancock: She wouldn’t leave her daughter.
April Hancock: She knows – she — no.
In addition to the gun that police determined belonged to her, authorities discovered a shell casing on the rear seat, behind the driver. The Tesla was seized as evidence and taken by police for testing.
Anne-Marie Green: Who do you want to talk to next?
Investigator Greg Hayden: Our most important person is … her husband.
Anne-Marie Green: David is handcuffed and put in a patrol car. … he’s a grieving spouse. Why was he handcuffed?
Investigator Greg Hayden: Our policy … is that whenever we transport somebody, if they are in … a scene, we always handcuff … for officer safety.
David Tolbert, 47, hadn’t been arrested, but he was a person of interest. He was taken to the police station. Once the handcuffs were off, investigators began questioning him.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: What we had to work with at that point is — who was around her.
Kreiter was joined by Investigator Julian Johnson, who had met David Tolbert at the scene.
INVESTIGATOR JULIAN JOHNSON (police interview): Hey David.
DAVID TOLBERT: Hey.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Remember me?
DAVID TOLBERT: Yes, sir.
On that day, David Tolbert, a retired corrections officer, was helping the owners of a new store prepare for a health inspection. After investigators read David his rights, he started talking.
Anne-Marie Green: What does David tell you happened that day?
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: He was at the store … Savannah shows up, wants to talk to him.
DAVID TOLBERT (police interview): I didn’t know she was gonna come up there today. And I told her I had to go into work.
The store had four security cameras.
DAVID TOLBERT (police interview): We were going over the stuff for the inspection and she came in and …
Police say Savannah Tolbert had driven her blue Kia Sorento to the store that day. She was sporting a new, short hairstyle and is seen on camera arriving at the store shortly before 2 p.m. David Tolbert, wearing a black baseball cap and a hoodie, greets his wife with a hug. Moments later, they leave the store together.
You can’t hear the audio, but you can see David and Savannah talking outside the store.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: He tells her to wait. It’ll be about 30 minutes before the inspection is done.
David Tolbert walks back to the store, alone. Then, one of the cameras from inside the store captures a glimpse of Savannah Tolbert walking across the parking lot. Investigators believe she was walking to the Tesla and that it was the last time Savannah was seen alive.
Then, about 20 minutes later, David Tolbert grabs a Yeti-style coffee mug and is seen leaving the store.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: He goes out to the … Kia that … she drove there in, she’s not there. He says she must have went to the Tesla maybe to watch a movie.
DAVID TOLBERT (police interview): My car has a screen. You can go in and watch TV on it and stuff like that. … I went over there and hit the thing to get in my car and just sat down and looked over and she was there.
Investigators quickly learned everything they could about the couple. After almost two years of marriage, they had been living apart for several months. And according to David, Savannah had been struggling with mental health issues.
INVESTIGATOR KREITER (police interview): What is this she is diagnosed with?
DAVID TOLBERT: She had depression, anxiety.
Investigators had been told by first responders that the gunshot wound was in the back of Savannah Tolbert’s head, near the left side, but the gun had been discovered in her right hand.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (police interview): Is she right-handed or left handed?
DAVID TOLBERT: She’s right-handed.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: She’s right-handed. OK.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Did you see a gun on her when you got in the car?
DAVID TOLBERT: I saw it in her — in her lap.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: If she was right-handed … why would she do this to shoot herself?
DAVID TOLBERT: Why would she shoot herself to begin with?
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: That’s what we’re trying to find out.
Investigators started talking to David and Savannah’s friends and soon learned about a woman named Chelsea Finch.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: In talking, uh, to everybody … David himself, Chelsea’s brought up.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (police interview): Who is Chelsea?
DAVID TOLBERT: Chelsea is one of my friends. I installed a Tesla charger at her house.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: We end up calling her … and she agreed to come up and meet. And it just so happened she ended up being there at the same time … David was in the interview room … ‘Cause we kind of wanted to see that reaction when she got the news.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (police interview): … we’re here to talk to you about David and his — his wife, um, Savannah.
CHELSEA FINCH: OK.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Well, she’s deceased.
CHELSEA FINCH: Gotcha.
Investigators say Finch, an aerospace missiles engineer, appeared calm when she learned Savannah Tolbert had died. She told investigators she had met Savannah a few times at a vape shop where David Tolbert worked.
CHELSEA FINCH (police interview): And then I — he was my go-to person for Tesla because he had a Tesla and I was given no tutorial on how to operate my Tesla.
Investigators soon learned David Tolbert and Finch had been doing a lot more than talking about their Teslas.
CHELSEA FINCH (police interview): We said I love you and stuff like it’s — it was definitely —
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Intimate.
CHELSEA FINCH: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: OK … you understood that he was still married. Did you press him to get a divorce?
CHELSEA FINCH: No.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: … she said that they were in love, uh, that David was gonna leave, uh, Savannah for her …
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (police interview): Do you — do you love him?
CHELSEA FINCH: Yeah, I do.
Police say it is unclear whether Savannah Tolbert knew her husband was having an affair. Finch revealed in her police interview that David had told her his wife might be moving back to their home.
Chelsea Finch: So, if she moved back in, in my mind, that’s my hard cutoff.
Even if Savannah Tolbert had moved back home, David Tolbert, it seems, had already decided to end their marriage. He had given her divorce papers, but she had not signed them. Three days later, those papers were found in the red Tesla where Savannah was discovered.
Savannah Tolbert’s husband says she was depressed; her sister says she was scared
After Savannah Tolbert’s death, her sisters were still reeling from the devastating news they had learned from investigators: their sister may have taken her own life.
Holly Hancock: it really wasn’t a question in our mind. We knew she didn’t kill herself.
April Hancock: We know Savannah wouldn’t do something like this.
Savannah was the eldest of three sisters in a close-knit southern family. Holly Hancock is the middle sister.
Holly Hancock: Growing up we were thick as thieves until somebody stole a hair bow or a T-shirt … when you think about the kind of family dynamic with sisters, I would say we fit that to a T. We always had each other’s backs unless we were at each other’s backs.
Savannah and her sisters suffered a life-changing loss as children when their mother took her own life.
Anne-Marie Green: What sort of impact did that have on your family?
Holly Hancock: I would say that brought us closer together as sisters and it really put Savannah in the spotlight for that older sister role who also assumed kind of the lead female in the family.
And Savannah shared her story on social media.
SAVANNAH TOLBERT VIDEO: Today is, um, world suicide prevention day … this is a really personal topic for me. As some of you, most of you probably know, my mom passed away by suicide when I was 16 …
According to her family, Savannah had a keen sense of awareness and understanding when her family and friends were going through a rough patch. April Hancock is the youngest sister.
April Hancock: She’s always a listening ear. … If you’re having a hard time, if you’re going through something talk about it … Don’t bottle it up, don’t hold it in. Like, I’m here. I’ll take the time.
And time with her family was a priority for Savannah. She doted on daughter Avery, from a previous marriage.
Avery Foster: She loved to craft. She got me into crafting, um, she liked to go on walks. She liked to spend time outside.
Anne-Marie Green: She liked to make videos too …
Avery Foster: … she just liked to video everything …
Anne-Marie Green: What do you think Savannah saw in David?
Holly Hancock: I think that he knew how to say the right words.
David Tolbert told investigators he met Savannah in 2013. The couple got married in 2020.
Holly Hancock: She did a 1920s — roaring 20s-themed wedding … she had down to the tiniest little detail planned out …
Anne-Marie Green: What was David like at the wedding?
April Hancock: Cloud nine.
Anne-Marie Green: Were you all happy that she was getting married?
April Hancock: We were happy that she was happy.
After the wedding, the newlyweds started a food truck selling mac and cheese. The business fizzled out after seven months.
In May 2022, April and Holly Hancock, who lived in Tennessee, noticed a change in Savannah Tolbert’s demeanor in their phone conversations.
Holly Hancock: She seemed a lot more flighty to me …
She didn’t seem like herself, they say, but they didn’t know why.
April Hancock: … more on edge.
Holly Hancock: Skittish. Yeah, on edge … she didn’t have as much to say.
Savannah’s ex-husband Andy Foster, Avery’s dad, knew Savannah’s mom had taken her own life. He gave Savannah his word that he would keep an eye on her mental health.
Andy Foster: I always made her a promise … if I ever noticed any shifts that I would step in and intervene … and I did that …
He lived in the Huntsville area and when he observed Savannah was struggling —
Andy Foster: I called her sister and I called her dad … and I’m like hey, this is what I’ve noticed with Savannah. Something needs to happen. She needs to go somewhere. I’m — I’m not related to her, so I can’t send her anywhere. I need help from you guys.
Savannah’s sisters later learned she had voluntarily checked herself into a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital around July 2022. They say they don’t know why she was admitted, but she stayed three days. It was something David claims Savannah didn’t want to share with her sisters.
Anne-Marie Green: David’s not calling you?
Holly Hancock: No. … We proceeded to call Dave after that and asked him for well-being and also why he hadn’t told us any of this and his response was that Savannah wanted him to keep it a secret, um and that he was trying to honor her wishes.
At the time, Savannah’s daughter Avery was living with her dad. After Savannah was discharged from the hospital, she was readmitted to another hospital in early September for a longer stay.
Holly Hancock: Dave brought her to Nashville where I live and I met him at the hospital to help check her in together,
Anne-Marie Green: What was she like at that point?
Holly Hancock: Very childlike, very timid. … She was scared. She did not want to stay there.
David Tolbert told investigators during his police interview about Savannah Tolbert’s behavior at the time, including how, he says, she avoided going anywhere near their home.
DAVID TOLBERT (police interview): … she thought there was black mold at the house and the house was haunted, and uh, there was a lot of stuff wrong with the house and she couldn’t stay there … with me not being there because it was either too loud or too quiet and both of them were terrible for her.
Savannah was discharged from the hospital, moved out of the marital home, and moved in with her grandparents. On Nov. 15, 2022, the day she died, investigators learned Savannah had an appointment with her therapist.
Anne-Marie Green: Was Savannah depressed?
Holly Hancock: Honestly, I would say no. What … I observed from her was not depression. It was — she was scared.
Back at the police station, David Tolbert was tested for gunshot residue, known as GSR, in the interview room .
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (police interview): You told me you didn’t wash your hands, right?
When investigators got the results –
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Those GSR tests, they pop blue for GSR on your hands.
DAVID TOLBERT: I don’t know what GSR is.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Gunshot residue.
DAVID TOLBERT: Oh.
While investigators waited for Savannah’s autopsy report, they learned there was no gunshot residue found on her hands.
David was free to leave after his interview. But before he left the police station, investigator Kreiter presented a hypothetical scenario.
INVESTIGATOR JEFF KREITER (police interview): So there’s — the investigator that is out there right now, looking at the cameras, the surrounding buildings, not gonna find footage.
DAVID TOLBERT: Not a bit.
INVESTIGATOR KREITER: Of — of you —
DAVID TOLBERT: Doing nothing.
INVESTIGATOR KREITER: — shoot — shooting your wife.
DAVID TOLBERT: I did not shoot my own wife.
Investigators Kreiter and Hayden showed us what they had discovered — another valuable clue to learn what really happened that day.
Anne-Marie Green: So you’re looking for some camera, something to see what happened with Savannah. What do you guys discover as you look around?
Investigator Greg Hayden: We searched the entire area … and luckily we were able to find this camera right here on Valley Pools.
The security camera was perched near the roof of the Valley Pools store – about 100 yards away from the scene.
Anne-Marie Green: The Tesla is parked all the way over there.
Investigator Greg Hayden: That’s correct … The camera’s pointing directly at us in front of the business right there.
Investigators believe David Tolbert didn’t know about that camera. It was far away, but close enough to capture video of his red Tesla.
Multiple cameras provide clues. What will the Tesla tell investigators?
In the days following Savannah Tolbert’s death, her sisters Holly and April Hancock, continued to cope with their grief. But David Tolbert never reached out to them. Their relationship with their brother-in-law was strained from the beginning.
Anne-Marie Green: How did David kind of interact with your family?
April Hancock: Very boastful … always bigger and better and can outshine and outdo …
Holly Hancock: He did always have a better story. He had a better car than you.
Avery Foster: So, I never really saw him a lot … unless it was like, like a weekend and it was really late.
Savannah’s daughter Avery first met David Tolbert when she was about 5 years old. She said her new stepdad was somewhat strict – especially about what she watched on TV.
Avery Foster: … and he’d be like … “well this is not a kid show. You can’t watch it with us. You gotta go to bed” … and I was like alright … feel like I’m being pushed off because I don’t — like I don’t get to hang out with y’all. … I feel like a family is supposed to watch TV together, even if it’s a little late on a Saturday night or something.
The family says David Tolbert made an impression, wearing three-piece suits and carrying a wad of cash.
Anne-Marie Green: Was he wealthy?
April Hancock: … no. I think he just liked to portray that.
He also liked luxury cars — especially Tesla, says investigator Jeff Kreiter.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: He- — he loved that Tesla … probably — it was probably his prized possession.
And that Tesla – where David said he found Savannah’s body – would become a focus for investigators, as would that parking lot security video from the Valley Pools store.
Investigator Greg Hayden: I went back to when he first pulled that Tesla up and we watched from when he got there …
Anne-Marie Green: The thing with this Valley Pools video is that it’s far away and it’s really grainy and even kind of … when you zoom in, it almost becomes more obscured.
Investigator Greg Hayden: It pixels out.
Despite the poor quality, investigator Greg Hayden had a hunch it could provide another valuable clue – adding to the video police had gathered from the store where David worked.
Investigator Greg Hayden: You can clearly see his face, what he has on which is a dark sweatshirt …
When the store video was synced up with that grainy parking lot footage of David’s car —
Investigator Greg Hayden: An entire scene is put together.
— it provided a video timeline for investigators to follow from the moment Savannah arrived at the store.
Investigator Greg Hayden: Right here you’ll see Savannah walking … and you’ll see her walk over to the edge of the counter where she greets, uh, David at and they hug here.
Anne-Marie Green: And then what happens?
Investigator Greg Hayden: Then he’ll eventually walk her back outside, which will be to her car.
David returns to the store. Then, shortly after 2:15 p.m., the Valley Pools video shows an unidentified person standing near the Tesla just as Savannah is seen approaching the car’s passenger door.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: You see this black blur right here … This is Savannah. You see the door open. And then she will get inside the passenger side seat of the Tesla … We know this because … there’s no other blurs or blobs or whatever you want to call it get near that passenger door. You never see that passenger door open again.
The unidentified person walks away, and about 20 minutes later another person approaches the driver’s side of the Tesla.
Investigator Greg Hayden (pointing to security camera video): That’s him right there.
There’s a tree partially blocking the view, and you can’t see a face, but investigators say that’s David Tolbert near the car.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter (pointing to security camera video): … which is this pixel-y type blob at the car.
David Tolbert told investigators when he opened his car door, he discovered Savannah dead in the front passenger seat. But investigators didn’t believe he was telling the whole story.
Investigator Greg Hayden: I think that when he opened that door … pulled out that weapon and she moved away from him and he shot her.
Investigators say David Tolbert moves away from the car. A short time later the Tesla’s taillights flashed on and off.
By now investigators were highly suspicious David had something to do with Savannah’s death, so they called him in for a second interview.
He arrived at the police station with Chelsea Finch. She is by his side, rubbing his back.
Anne-Marie Green: Why was Chelsea there in the interview room?
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: She gave him a ride.
Investigator Greg Hayden: Yeah.
When Finch left the room, the interview started.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (second police interview): Alright Dave, how you been doing man?
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: Trying to absorb everything?
DAVID TOLBERT: I’m lost.
Anne-Marie Green: So what happened in the second interview?
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: That’s when he brought up this, uh, toy cannon or whatever.
After David Tolbert’s car was seized for evidence, authorities discovered a mini cannon, a collectible for hobbyists, in the trunk.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: … It would fire off like small projectile-type stuff. … it’s something that could have — would’ve had gun powder on it.
Investigators already knew the retired corrections officer had tested positive for gunshot residue on the day Savannah died.
Investigator David Kreiter: He was smart enough to know that was … you know, an issue of course he had a law enforcement background, um, so he needed to come up with a way to explain it.
David Tolbert claimed the cannon had fallen off the seat in his car and that he had moved it to the trunk. Kreiter believes David cooked up that story to justify the gunshot residue on his hands.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: The problem would be when we got the video from Valley Pools, you can see him pull in … At no point does he go to passenger side or go to the trunk …
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (second police interview): When did you go to the trunk of that car?
DAVID TOLBERT: I want to say I did it as soon as I pulled up because that’s when it fell.
Police believed David Tolbert’s Tesla could provide additional evidence, especially when they discovered the car’s exterior cameras – a feature known as Sentry Mode – where a series of cameras can record and monitor what’s happening outside the vehicle.
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: So obviously we’re interested in that …
David Tolbert was asked about it during his initial interview.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (first police interview): Does your car automatically record?
DAVID TOLBERT: It does if I had my jump drive in it.
According to investigators, David Tolbert was an ardent user of Sentry Mode.
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: He wanted Sentry Mode to always be active.
We wanted to know how Sentry Mode works, so we asked Rich Benoit an electric vehicle specialist and the host of the YouTube channel “Rich Rebuilds.” He demonstrated on a Tesla similar to David Tolbert’s car.
Anne-Marie Green: So how many cameras are on, say, a Tesla like this?
Rich Benoit: On this specific Tesla, it has eight cameras, but only four are used for Sentry Mode …
Anne-Marie Green: OK, and it’s recording now?
Rich Benoit: It’s recording right now, yes.
Benoit showed us where the cameras are located.
Rich Benoit: This is the first camera for Sentry Mode right here.
Anne-Marie Green: Mm-hmm.
Rich Benoit: And then we have one at the back where the backup camera would be. So, right there.
Anne-Marie Green: Oh, yeah.
Rich Benoit: Yeah, there it is.
When the camera detects motion, it starts recording.
Anne-Marie Green: How much do the cameras see? Can it — can they see all around the vehicle?
Rich Benoit: You see the entire 360 view around the vehicle. So you see from both sides, you see from the rear, and the cameras in the front.
Anne-Marie Green: Where is the data stored?
Rich Benoit: That’s a very good question. So for this specific car and how this is set up, the data is stored locally on the vehicle on a USB drive.
Prosecutor Ben Gibbons says David Tolbert was known to have his car’s Sentry Mode turned on.
Asistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: He would tell people you know this is to save you, this is to protect you. Keep Sentry Mode active.
But on the day of Savannah’s death?
Investigator Jeff Kreiter: Unfortunately, uh, David, um says he doesn’t have a memory card in, uh, in the car to keep any data on there. … so this car that he was so proud of and has all these features, he was choosing not to use any of them, um, at least on this particular day.
Investigators believed they had a lot of the evidence that could prove Tolbert had murdered Savannah – but what they needed was the autopsy report from the medical examiner.
Anne-Marie Green: When you locate the wound in her head, tell me what’s going through your mind?
Dr. Jonrika Malone | Medical examiner: What’s going through my mind is, this is not right.
Was David Tolbert’s mistress a motive for murder?
The circumstances surrounding Savannah Tolbert’s death were highly suspicious, but to make a case for murder, authorities needed the medical examiner’s report.
Dr. Jonrika Malone: The circumstances were suggestive of a possible suicide based on the fact that she is sitting in the car with the gun in her hand. …
Dr. Jonrika Malone is a state medical examiner for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
Dr. Jonrika Malone: I had to actually find the gunshot wound, which was in the back of her head, in her hairline … and so that did not ring normal to me and made me a little suspicious.
Remember, Savannah was discovered in the front passenger seat with a gun in her right hand. So, the location of the wound, in the back of her head, raised even more questions for Malone.
Dr. Jonrika Malone: It’s very difficult, especially seated in a car, considering there’s a headrest behind you, to be able to get your arm and hand back around there in order to do the gunshot wound to yourself.
Malone learned from investigators that there was no gunshot residue found on Savannah — so her next discovery was telling. There was no imprint from the gun’s muzzle on Savannah’s head.
Dr. Jonrika Malone: The barrel of the gun was not directly in contact with the skin nor was it very close to the skin.
Anne-Marie Green: Could you estimate how far the gun was from her head?
Dr. Jonrika Malone: Well, taking into consideration the different characteristics that you see in a gun .. the lack of gunpowder stippling suggests that …the gun should have been at least three to four feet away from her head at the time of discharge.
That means the gun was fired at a distance and not at close range. Malone determined Savannah had not taken her own life.
The autopsy report concluded Savannah had died from a gunshot wound to her head. The manner of death: homicide.
Anne-Marie Green: Why are you so confident that this is a homicide?
Dr. Jonrika Malone: The reason for my confidence in this is that there is no feasible way that she could have done it.
On Dec. 9, 2022, less than a month after Savannah’s death, David Tolbert came into the station for a third police interview.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (third police interview): You haven’t been back to work?
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: So, you’ve been doing no work?
DAVID TOLBERT: I’ve just been trying to make it.
Just like the two previous police interviews, David was read his rights and agreed to answer questions without a lawyer present.
Investigator Greg Hayden: When we talk to him, David, in my opinion, was all matter-of-fact … I think he was very confident … that I got these guys wooed over. They even let me go twice.
Anne-Marie Green: And what was the purpose of the third interview?
Investigator Greg Hayden: Third interview was we was gonna break a little bad news to him …
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON (third police interview): And we talked to, uh, the district attorney … and we — we told them everything, we — we showed them the videos – we — we did all this stuff, man.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: … and their conclusion was that — to arrest you.
INVESTIGATOR JOHNSON: To arrest you for capital murder.
Tolbert appeared stunned. Madison County assistant district attorneys Shea Keller and Ben Gibbons would prosecute the case against David Tolbert.
Anne-Marie Green: Why is this a capital murder case?
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: So, in Alabama, capital murder is a murder plus something … and there are a whole list of the somethings that can, uh, aggravate a murder into capital murder. … In this circumstance, it was because Savannah was sitting inside of a car … the facts are that she was inside of a car when he shot her so it’s capital murder.
Tolbert was patted down and checked for weapons.
Before investigators left the room, they asked David Tolbert if he had anything to say.
DAVID TOLBERT: I don’t believe this is happening.
DAVID TOLBERT: I tried so hard to get her mental health help for months and months.
Moments later, Chelsea walked into the interview room. She had driven David Tolbert to the police station in his Tesla. Investigators do not believe she had any knowledge or involvement in Savannah’s death.
DAVID TOLBERT: They’re arresting me.
DAVID TOLBERT: They’re arresting me for murder.
CHELSEA FINCH: … I know you didn’t do it.
CHELSEA FINCH: I got you. OK?
Chelsea, holding Tolbert’s hand, continued to comfort him.
CHELSEA FINCH: Babe. Hey.
CHELSEA FINCH: I need you to stay strong, OK?
CHELSEA FINCH: You pinky promised me.
CHELSEA FINCH: I got you. You didn’t do this. I know this.
David Tolbert was handcuffed and taken to jail where he was held until his murder trial.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: So I love trying a case with Ben, because Ben is like science and facts. And I’m like what’s the juice here? … Why did he do this?
Prosecutors say David Tolbert had manipulated everyone around him and wanted them to believe Savannah, who had been struggling with mental health issues, had taken her own life.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: This is not a case about mental health…. This is about a man murdering his wife.
And Tolbert’s motive for murder?
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: He wanted Savannah out of the way so that presumably he could be with his mistress.
No witnesses heard the gunshot the day Savannah Tolbert died and, despite the hours of video investigators had collected in this case, there was no video that could prove David Tolbert had fired the gun that killed her.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: As a prosecutor, your job is to seek justice from the smallest thing on a traffic ticket, all the way up to a capital murder like this case. Rarely do you have a truly innocent victim. … And that’s what Savannah was.
Two-and-a-half years after Savannah Tolbert’s death, a jury would have to decide if Tolbert had killed his wife in broad daylight without a single witness while she sat in the passenger seat of his red Tesla.
The case against David Tolbert
David Tolbert went on trial in May 2025 in Huntsville, Alabama. There were no cameras in the courtroom. We spoke with two first-time jurors selected to decide Tolbert’s fate.
Andrea Mendoza | Juror: My name’s Andrea Mendoza … I am a mom. I’m 26 years old. I’m currently a college student who is studying vet medicine.
John Grzybowski | Juror: My name is John … I’m a retired rocket scientist.
Anne-Marie Green: The setup in the Huntsville courtroom is a little different than it is in a lot of other places … the jury’s kind of like in the middle of the room.
Andrea Mendoza: Yeah.
John Grzybowski: Yes … I had not heard about this shooting previously before the trial, so it was all new to me. So, I was just kind of … surprised that something this tragic had happened so close to where I live.
The case against David Tolbert would be argued by assistant district attorneys Shea Keller and Ben Gibbons.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: This case is about a master manipulator.
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: I think the real him showed himself … in the Tesla when he pulled the trigger.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: David Tolbert was somebody who wanted out of the circumstances of his life. … He wanted out of his marriage … it’s about someone using … the fact that they’re suffering … mental health issues, their darkest days against them, trying to make that the scapegoat for a murder.
The prosecution’s case centered around security camera video — particularly, the grainy footage of Tolbert’s red Tesla.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: Some of the worst evidence we’ve ever put in in a trial …
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: It did what it, you know, what we needed … in showing that the only two people to ever even approach that car … were Savannah, because she never left the car, unfortunately, and David, because he walks to the car presumably to find her body and then walks back in the store.
Prosecutors say David Tolbert shot Savannah Tolbert in cold blood before he walked back inside the store. And, because the Valley Pools camera was about 100 yards away from the Tesla —
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: … you can’t definitively say you can see David open a car door on the driver’s side. You can’t tell if it’s the front door or the back door. … I think that he opened the back door and kind of ducked down and shot her.
And they believe David Tolbert had been hiding the gun in the pouch of his hoodie – and that Savannah Tolbert saw it before he pulled the trigger.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: I think she saw, she turned, and that’s why the bullet lodges where it lodges.
David Tolbert’s defense case was based on Savannah Tolbert’s struggles with her mental health. Defense attorneys said she had taken her own life. And they zeroed in on medical examiner Malone’s own words in her report to make that case: that because it was an active investigation, suicide cannot be completely ruled out. Dr. Malone defended her findings.
Dr. Jonrika Malone: At the time that I closed my report, there were ongoing investigations … it’s easier for me to explain it in the courtroom to say, yes, that’s what I said, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a homicide.
Prosecutors also called Chelsea Finch, the woman they believed was the motive for the murder, as a witness. Chelsea told the court David Tolbert wanted a future with her.
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: … he lied to her as well.
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: That’s true.
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: He lied to everyone about everything. She wanted to believe him.
Finch testified that she broke up with Tolbert a few months after his arrest. Prosecutors learned that after David Tolbert’s Tesla was processed for evidence, it was returned to him. Before he was arrested, he took a road trip with Chelsea.
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: He took her to Disney in that Tesla.
Anne-Marie Green: In the Tesla that Savannah died in?
Assistant D.A. Ben Gibbons: Yes.
The defense did not call any witnesses, and David Tolbert did not testify. He did not respond to our request for an interview. After three days of testimony, the jury got the case.
Andrea Mendoza: We wanted to all go through the evidence, but we were all pretty much on the same page.
They deliberated for about 3 hours.
John Grzybowski: We found him guilty.
Guilty of capital murder.
Andrea Mendoza: I made it, uh, a thing to look at him directly as it was happening … they were putting him in handcuffs is when he kinda like … turned a little red and looked like he was a little wobbly in the lip … it’s kind of like he knew it was coming is what it felt like in my opinion …
Savannah Tolbert’s family still struggles with her death. For sisters, April and Holly, her loss is also a life lesson.
Holly Hancock: I think as a family member, a lesson that we have learned is that, like, you should speak up when you’re uncomfortable and things don’t seem right … And even if you’re afraid that you’re going to hurt your family member’s feelings … your intuition is something that you should trust.
Savannah’s daughter Avery lives with her dad and stepmom.
Anne-Marie Green: Do you see Savannah in Avery?
April Hancock: Yes.
Holly Hancock: So much so.
Anne-Marie Green: Tell me what you see.
April Hancock: Man, all her spunk, her intelligence, charisma.
Today, she is finding her way and reaching for the stars.
Avery Foster: I hope to work for NASA and … join the astronaut program by taking that stepping stone of being a Naval pilot. … and I wanna show that there’s women that can go through hard things and still make their dreams come true. … I think that drive really did come from my mom.
For Savannah’s sisters, the jury’s guilty verdict was bittersweet.
Holly Hancock: It wasn’t a positive feeling, you know? … It’s like, it doesn’t bring her back …
Anne-Marie Green: Did you look at David?
April Hancock: Oh, most definitely … pay the piper. May you rot. May you rot.
David Tolbert is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The prison where he’s locked up is a place he knows all too well.
Anne-Marie Green: David Tolbert is a retired corrections officer. … Where is he now?
Assistant D.A. Shea Keller: Limestone Correctional Facility, the exact correctional facility where he was a corrections officer. … justice for the family and justice from our perspective is different. And that is just rich. … that is the cherry on the top for the two of us. Yes.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, contact SAMHSA’S National Helpline at 1-800-622-HELP.
Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the field producer. Michael Vele, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Marcus Balsam are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
