BATH — The Augusta man acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of a Richmond man was sentenced earlier this month on a witness tampering charge.
Tyon Shuron listens during his murder trial at the Sagadahoc Superior Courthouse in Bath on Nov. 21. A jury acquitted him of murder and felony murder charges but convicted him of tampering with a witness. He has been released from jail on bail. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file
At the conclusion of a trial in November that spanned three weeks, a Sagadahoc County jury found Tyon Shuron, 46, guilty of witness tampering for trying to convince his girlfriend, Chanda Lilly, to change her account of the night that Andrew Sherman was shot and killed in his Richmond home on the night of Sept. 28, 2019.
On Dec. 20, Shuron was sentenced to three years and nine months with credit for time served.
Shuron, had been jailed at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset since his February 2020 arrest for Sherman’s murder. He was released on bail after his trial.
The sentencing caps off what was the state’s longest pending murder case.
Shuron was indicted in August of 2020 on charges of knowing and intentional murder, felony murder and witness tampering. His attorneys initially did not seek bail. When they requested bail earlier this year, Superior Court Justice Daniel Billings said it wasn’t merited, given the murder charges and evidence that had been gathered.
Lilly, 34, arrested the following month in Augusta, was indicted in August 2020 on a charge of felony murder.
The witness tampering charge stems from notes that were passed between Shuron and Lilly while they were both at Two Bridges Regional Jail.
In March, Lilly pleaded guilty to a robbery charge and agreed to testify against Shuron.
During the trial, prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Office portrayed Shuron as being angry over a photography session between Sherman, a photographer, and Lilly, a model, during which explicit photos were taken. His anger resulted in a fatal confrontation, prosecutors argued.
Shuron’s attorneys capitalized on inconsistencies between what Lilly told investigators in the months after the murder and the testimony she gave at Shuron’s trial. She disclosed that she has schizoaffective disorder bipolar type.
The jury deliberated more than 13 hours over three days before delivering its verdict.
A friend of Sherman found Sherman’s body in his Kimball Street home in October 2019 when he became concerned that he hadn’t heard from him in more than a week.
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