WEST POINT – Freedom was almost too much to hope for a year ago for Tyler Edmonds.

The West Point youth had been in jail more than four years after his arrest and conviction for the shooting death of his half-sister’s husband, Joey Fulgham of Starkville.

On Oct. 27, 2008, he got another chance to prove his innocence, thanks to a Mississippi Supreme Court order stating that his first trial contained sufficient errors to deserve a second look.

One year after he heard a jury say, “Not guilty,” Edmonds has made a new life for himself.

He’s traveled.

He’s working and training to become an emergency medical tech.

And he’s moved with his dog, Bud, to his own place in Columbus.

Now, his biggest worry isn’t life without parole, it’s his Dec. 11 final exams at East Mississippi Community College and passing the national EMT certification.

The 20-year-old, who still looks younger than his years, admits he’s traded one kind of stress for another.

“This semester’s been pretty tough,” Edmonds said. “I feel like I’m burning both ends of the candle with work, class, my clinical internship.”

“But, I love it – it’s fun and there are no dull moments.”

His day job offers some personal solace and isn’t something he’s likely to give up soon.

He tends to Columbus auto dealer Carl Hogan’s greenhouses and exotic plant collection, koi fish pond and yard.

“It’s just so different,” Edmonds said. “It’s a beautiful place, and I like being outside.”

Likes helping others

He said he’s found his EMT internship “interesting and fun.”

“It really keeps you on your toes,” he reflected, saying he’s got one more emergency-situation ambulance run to meet for his training.

He said he studies or otherwise occupies his time at the ambulance station near West Point’s branch of North Mississippi Medical Center.

“But when the tone goes off, you run and jump into the ambulance, and you go,” he said with emphasis.

Some days, nothing happens. Some days, it’s back-to-back demands for help.

“This is what real life feels like,” he said, “and it’s scary, but I love it.”

This date last year, jury selection got under way in Oktibbeha County as Edmonds sat accused of helping his half-sister, Kristi, kill her husband.

Five days later, he heard the words that set him free.

It was almost surreal, he recalled, truly being out from under the total control of someone else.

“I really just didn’t know what to do,” he remembered. “Now, I have my life back.

“Now, I have direction and something to be proud of.”

As the weeks and months passed, Edmonds said he began to consider his future and knew more education was important.

Now that he’s completing his EMT training, he said he thinks he may undertake two years more to become a paramedic.

“Paramedics really can do more to help patients than EMTs,” he explained. “They really do it all.”

He also said he likes the camaraderie of the emergency medical personnel.

On Friday, he sat on the back of an ambulance with his paramedic mentor, Corey Fowler, and talked about enjoying the guidance from his on-the-scene teacher.

Before his EMT schooling began, Edmonds had his own adventure, traveling to California to be on the “Dr. Phil Show” and seeing the sights.

“I’m free now, and I could go wherever I wanted,” he remembered telling himself.

Meanwhile, he’s taking legal steps to secure money the Legislature approved for victims of wrongful incarceration.

At a payment rate of $50,000 per year, Edmonds will be entitled to $200,000.

But he says he isn’t “spending” any of that money in his head. It will pay legal bills racked up across those four years before his acquittal.

Meanwhile, Edmonds is taking his newfound life one day at a time.

He likes living in his Columbus house, playing with his dog – an English bull/boxer mix from the shelter – and just catching up on sleep between job and school.

He terms himself a “neat freak” with the way his home is organized.

“I like my space – it’s all mine,” he said.

Comparing his personal situation in 2008 with today, he said, “I don’t have this big weight on my shoulders any more.

“I use to sit and think about what it would be like when it’s all over.”

It feels like a long time ago, he said.

“I’ve come such a long way in a year. I’ve kind of gotten the hang of what life is about.”

Contact Patsy R. Brumfield at (662) 678-1596 or patsy.brumfield@djournal.com.