BATH — A request for bail has been denied for the Augusta man charged with murder in the state’s longest pending homicide case.
Tyon K. Shuron, who is accused of fatally shooting Andrew Sherman in Sherman’s Richmond home in 2019, was denied bail Wednesday after prosecutors argued it wasn’t merited.
At the same time, Justice Daniel Billings granted a motion to hold separate trials for Shuron and one other person indicted in connection with Sherman’s murder.
While many documents in the case remain sealed, including the police affidavit that provides details of the allegations against Shuron, some details about Sherman’s murder were made public for the first time Wednesday.
Shuron, 45, who was arrested in February 2020 and was indicted in August that year on charges of intentional or knowing murder, felony murder and witness tampering, has been held at Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset for three years since his arrest.
Chanda Lilly, 33, was arrested in March 2020, and was also indicted in August 2020 as a co-defendant on a charge of felony murder. She was also held at Two Bridges Jail, but was admitted to the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor in April 2022.
Under Maine law, a person is guilty of felony murder if the person commits or attempts to commit a felony — murder, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, gross sexual assault or escape — that causes the death of another person.
Sherman’s body was discovered in his Kimball Street home on Oct. 11 by a friend who was concerned when 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 had been deemed a homicide.
“What’s before the court today is a murder charge with substantial evidence,” Billings said.
In reviewing the factors to be considered, Billings said the court found that granting cash bail was not appropriate and that Shuron will continue to be held without bail.
During the hearing in Sagadahoc County Superior Court, defense attorney Ron Bourget described Shuron as a homeowner and father of two who was honorably discharged from the military more than a decade ago.
“He’s never had a criminal record and he’s never been involved in anything like this in his life,” he said.
Bourget said the factors and nature of this case make it different from other cases. The co-defendant (Lilly) charged with felony murder was involved in interactions with Sherman in “gross, risqué films and other things,” which he also referred to as “fetish shoots.” He also later referred to them as pornographic.
He said evidence at the scene is devoid of fingerprints, blood or DNA evidence linked to Shuron, but Lilly had admitted to being in Sherman’s home two or three times.
“There is blood that is found that is not tied to my client whatsoever,” he said. “It may be part of the clandestine nature of the victim’s work and there could be other people involved in accessing this premises.”
Bourget said the state’s case depends on statements by the co-defendant who is now a potential witness and who has shown anger and bias that may undermine her credibility.
He also cited the COVID-19 pandemic in referring to progress of the case, noting that it has limited his access to Shuron to videoconferences during that time and created a backlog of cases in the state.
And, he noted, the joined cases made the situation more complex.
“For three years, we’ve been joined to someone that we don’t know a lot about in circumstances we don’t know a lot about, dealing with a lady who’s gotten herself in a lot of trouble,” he said.
Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam drew a different picture of Shuron based on evidence at Sherman’s Kimball Street home and statements the witness made before an arrest and before pre-trial investigations began.
“She reported that Mr. Sherman was shot in the arm while on his bed,” she said. “The crime scene shows a substantial amount of blood on the bed. She said at Mr. Shuron’s direction, she placed him against the wall where Mr. Shuron shot him in the head. Pre-arrest, pre-discovery, she made a gesture to her forehead. That, in fact, is where the victim was shot.”
Elam said bullet casings and one bullet “of a very particular type” were found at the crime scene and they were identified as coming from “a very particular gun.” And while the gun has not been recovered, an empty gun box for that kind of gun was found under a seat in Shuron’s car.
A gun also figured in notes that Shuron and Lilly exchanged while they were both at Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset. Elam said they communicated by leaving notes in books in the jail’s library; that resulted in the witness tampering charge against Shuron.
Elam said those notes described to Lilly how to recant her statements and give Shuron’s attorney permission to contact her. Among the notes, she said Shuron wrote that he had told his lawyers he had thrown his gun away in the middle of July, more than two months before Sherman’s death.
She noted that Bourget’s characterization of Sherman’s photography business as nefarious and bordering on illegal was not true, and further had no bearing on the decision whether to grant bail to Shuron.
Shuron’s ties to the community, Elam said, consisted of two children of his former marriage to a relative of Chanda Lilly; Shuron and Chanda Lilly were having an affair during his marriage. His Augusta home had been listed for sale in the fall of 2019, she said, and was taken off the market several months later after a series of price reductions.
She said Shuron had been charged with domestic violence and later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
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