FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: JULY 10, 2012
RE: PRESS RELEASE –
PEOPLE V SHAWN TYLER
Shawn Tyler, age 35, formerly of Hurley, New York, was
sentenced to a maximum term of life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years for
Murder in the first degree. The sentence
was handed down in Ulster County Court by the Honorable Donald Williams. Tyler had been indicted by an Ulster County grand
jury for Murder in the first degree for the bludgeoning death of Ann Gaffney
while in the course of robbing her.
The victim was killed in her home where Tyler and a partner
rented a room. On December 21, 2011 the
defendant went to the basement of the home where Ms. Gaffney was sleeping, woke
her and then struck her, repeatedly, from behind with a sledge hammer that he
had taken to the basement for that purpose. Tyler had smoked crack earlier that evening.
After bludgeoning the victim he stole $270.00 in cash and an ATM credit card
which he used to buy more crack.
According to the autopsy the victim died as a result of
multiple rib fractures which pierced her lungs.
According to a statement made by the defendant to the police
he had intended to hide the victim’s body the next day but when his partner
learned what he had done she called 911.
The New York State Police immediately responded and apprehended the
defendant within a mile of the crime scene.
The defendant admitted to State Police investigators that he murdered
Ms. Gaffney and forensic evidence corroborated the details of his admissions.
“I was in my bed thinking about getting
high. I knew she had a stash of money on her.
She was down in the basement where nobody would know. So I went downstairs to the kitchen to find,
to look in the drawer, look at a knife. Um, I didn’t want to use a knife so I
decided to look in another drawer and I decided to use a sledge hammer. I went downstairs, knocked on Ann’s door in
the sauna and asked her to come out and talk to me…………..I walked over to the
side of the sauna before she got out.
She started heading toward the stairs and I struck her with the sledge
hammer, in all about 15 times. Um, she
probably died and hour later and that is it”.
Two of the victim’s sisters spoke at the defendant’s
sentencing. Each speaker remembered the
victim as a loving, caring, devote woman and spoke of her faith, commitment to
family and community. They went on to
describe to Judge Williams the devastating effect that the horrible brutality of
this crime has had on their family.
In handing down his sentence Judge Williams stated to the
defendant “the way in which you took the life of Ann Gaffney is beyond brutal,
it is, in a word, inhuman.”
