NEW ORLEANS — On Wednesday, a New Orleans Criminal Court judge delivered a five-year sentence to the boyfriend of 18-year-old Ty'Shaunda Riles, who was shot and killed in her home in May 2022.
The relatively light level of punishment stunned the victim's family as Judge Benedict J. Willard passed sentence on 20-year-old Shawn May, who was 18 at the time of the fatal shooting.
"I'm shocked," expressed the victim's mother Hishaunda Riles following a sentence that could have been up to 40 years. "But she got a little justice, I got to say. I believe in God and God's gonna work it out for me. I'm okay. I'm okay."
May pleaded guilty to manslaughter and obstruction of justice, and even turned to the victim's family in court and read a statement in which he called the shooting a "terrible mistake" despite the fact that his gun was fired not once – but twice. He continued to say that he fled the scene and discarded the weapon into a canal because he panicked.
He then offered the family an apology.
"I don't wish any bad on him," Riles told WWL Louisiana. "Like I told him, 'just get right with God.' Get right with God. That's all he can do."
May has been in jail since May 2022, and with time already served could be released in approximately three years.
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