BATH — An Augusta man charged with murder in connection with the 2019 killing of a Richmond man is also expected to face one count of tampering with a witness when his trial gets underway in about a month.

The ruling came last week from a judge at Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath, who rejected an effort by lawyers representing Tyon K. Shuron, 46, to have the witness tampering charge dismissed and considered separately.

Defense lawyer Ron Bourget argued the witness tampering testimony about his client could prejudice the jury by introducing evidence or testimony that might not otherwise be admitted into the murder trial in the death of Andrew Sherman, who was found dead Oct. 11, 2019, at his home on Kimball Street in Richmond.

Shuron allegedly tampered with a witness by exchanging notes with her while both were in jail awaiting trial.

Superior Court Justice Daniel Billings denied the motion to dismiss the tampering charge and allowed it to remain joined with Shuron’s upcoming jury trial on intentional or knowing murder and felony murder charges.

That trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection Nov. 6. Shuron is being held without bail in what is the state’s longest-pending homicide case.

Billings said evidence or testimony in the tampering case could also be related to the murder case, but said he could think of no situation in which testimony or evidence could be admitted regarding the tampering charge that would not otherwise be admitted in the murder case.

“The court is clear that evidence of tampering is admissible in the underlying case,” Billings said in a Sept. 29 court hearing attended by lawyers for both sides and members of Sherman’s family.

Billings said prosecutors see evidence in the tampering case as “directly related” to the murder case.

State prosecutors have said Shuron exchanged notes with Chanda Lilly, 34, who was indicted as a co-defendant on a charge of felony murder. That felony murder charge was dropped by state prosecutors as part of a plea deal in which Lilly pleaded guilty to robbery, for which she was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with all but four years suspended.

The plea deal requires Lilly testify against Shuron at his trial.

Prosecutors said the pair communicated by leaving notes in books at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. The alleged notes are the basis for the tampering charges.

Prosecutors said the notes described to Lilly how to recant her statements and give Shuron’s lawyer permission to contact her. Among the notes Shuron allegedly sent, prosecutors said, was one saying he had told his lawyers he had thrown his gun away in the middle of July 2019, more than two months before Sherman’s death.

Prosecutor Suzanne Russell, an assistant attorney general, said it would not make sense to separately try the murder charges and related tampering with a witness charge against Shuron. Russell said doing so would results in two trials, calling many of the same witnesses to repeat the same testimony, putting Sherman’s family through two trials unnecessarily and further adding to a backlog of cases in the courts.

Bourget argued that hearing testimony about two people passing notes in jail in the tampering case could have prejudiced the grand jury against Shuron in the murder case, and could in his trial, too.

In the same court hearing, Billings denied a motion from the state to join a charge of tampering with a witness, for which Shuron was recently indicted in Lincoln County, with the Sagadahoc County murder and tampering case.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman said the state sought to have Shuron indicted in Lincoln County, in addition to the Sagadahoc County indictments, which date to 2020, because that is where the tampering (exchanging of notes with Lilly) allegedly took place.

Billings said previous court decisions indicate the tampering charge could be heard at trial in Sagadahoc County because the impact of the alleged crime took place in Sagadahoc County, even though it occurred in Lincoln County. Sagadahoc County sends prisoners to Two Bridges Regional Jail, which is in Lincoln County.

Ackerman said the state would dismiss the Lincoln County charge after Bourget expressed concern Shuron could be tried for tampering with a witness a second time, once in Sagadahoc County and once in Lincoln County, potentially exposing his client to double jeopardy, a clause in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bars the government from prosecuting a person for the same offense more than once and prohibits multiple punishments for the same offense.

Sherman’s body was discovered Oct. 11, 2019, at his Kimball Street home by a friend who was concerned because he had not heard from Sherman for several days. It was later disclosed that Sherman, then 48, had been killed nearly two weeks earlier, and his death was deemed a homicide.

Shuron and Lilly were arrested about a month apart in 2020, in connection to Sherman’s killing.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.

« Previous

Two men arrested in Sanford stabbing

Next »

Cumberland man arrested after stabbing on Portland Street