By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, MANCHESTER, CT, Tues. May 25, 2021: Tahj Hutchinson, 22, the husband of a Jamaican immigrant, has been remanded to jail after being slapped with first-degree manslaughter charges Monday.
Court documents show that Hutchinson allegedly confessed to killing his wife, Jamaican-born, South Windsor-based Jessica Edwards, during a fight that turned violent.
A Manchester Superior Court judge set Hutchinson’s bond at $1.5 million. He is to have no contact with the family and will be back in court on June 1 when he may face additional charges after the results of the autopsy report.
The Office of the Chief State’s Medical Examiner said the cause of death was asphyxia due to compression of the torso and neck and ruled the death a homicide.
South Windsor Police Sgt. Mark Cleverdon said Hutchinson’s own cooperation in the case ended up being key in helping solve her disappearance.
According to the arrest warrant, Hutchinson initially denied knowing what happened to his wife, yet in conversations with police days later, he told officers that the two got into a verbal argument on Mother’s Day weekend.
The affidavit said Hutchinson purchased guinea pigs for his wife as a Mother’s Day gift. He said she was upset about the gift and they fought over the purchase.
Edwards then spent time with her family on Sunday before returning later that evening.
Hutchinson said an argument between the two turned physical that evening, with them wrestling on the ground for a kitchen knife. According to Hutchinson, he pinned her to the ground, eventually flipping her on her stomach and kneeled on her back and neck, the court documents said.
Edwards, 30, the mother to a 7-month-old baby boy, went missing after Mother’s Day on May 10th. Her body was found on May 21, 2021 in a wooded area in East Hartford in the area of Chipper Drive, not far from Hockanum River Linear Park. Her body was found in a wooded area beyond the end of Driver Road, according to police.
Edwards-Hutchinson, at the time of her disappearance, was attending the Manchester Community College in Connecticut and was aiming to become a respiratory therapist.
