LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A infamous Las Vegas homicide case from the Nineteen Eighties is producing a brand new wave of public consideration after Individuals Journal not too long ago profiled Sandy Shaw, a central determine within the so-called “Show and Tell” homicide in 1986.
Shaw was 16 when she grew to become the youngest feminine ever despatched to a Nevada jail, the place she served 21 years for a criminal offense she did not commit.
Anybody who lived in Las Vegas within the 80s probably remembers the stunning headlines and a really fast trial. Nonetheless, what occurred to Shaw after she was shipped away to jail shouldn’t be almost as sensational. She doesn’t declare to be utterly harmless, solely harmless of the crime that despatched her away, presumably for all times.
“I went in as a kid. I came out as an adult,” Shaw mentioned. Shaw was 15 years outdated when she was arrested for her half within the “Show and Tell” homicide of James Kelly, a 24-year-old Canadian customer. At her trial, which happened a mere 4 months later, she was described as a teenage temptress and cold-blooded killer who lured Kelly out to the desert to rob and homicide him with the assistance of two older teenagers.
Probably the most ghoulish allegation was that Shaw supposedly introduced a number of buddies out to see the physique. Shaw was sentenced to 2 phrases of life in jail with out parole, and was despatched away to Nevada’s most safety jail in Carson Metropolis, the place her age and notoriety put a bullseye on her head.
Sandy Shaw displays on Las Vegas ‘Present and Inform’ homicide trial. (KLAS)
“People wanted to be my mom. They wanted to be my dad, my brother, my sister, my lover, you know,” she mentioned. “Then you know some people would say, ‘Hey, little girl, you ready to come out and play with the big girls?'”
From day one, Shaw was a goal and needed to defend herself. She rebelled towards authority and was written up for varied infractions. Lots of of strangers wrote to her each week, some with ulterior motives.
Sandy Shaw displays on Las Vegas ‘Show and Tell’ homicide trial
One in every of her pen friends was Patrick McKenna, probably the most feared prisoner on Nevada’s demise row. McKenna had escaped twice from Nevada’s most jail. He additionally helped inmates in a bloody takeover of a Las Vegas jail.
“Did he say he could help you get out?” Knapp requested.
“Oh yeah, he said, ‘If you ever want to escape, just let me know. I’ll get you out of it,'” she responded. “But yeah, no, he actually gave me a lot of good advice.”
Shaw additionally crossed paths with one other notorious Sandy — Sandy Murphy, who was convicted of killing on line casino kingpin Ted Binion. A conviction that was later overturned.
Was the jail sufficiently big for 2 Sandys?
“We did not get along. I didn’t extend the big, huge welcome or let’s be friends,” Shaw mentioned.
Nonetheless, Shaw did make some lasting friendships. One in every of which was with journalist Dan Gleason, who in 2005 began writing to and visiting Shaw. His thought for {a magazine} piece finally grew right into a e-book known as “Life Without,” which was not too long ago launched.
The e-book digs into Shaw’s turbulent upbringing and examines troubling questions on her trial, and concerning the sufferer, Kelly, a supposedly naïve vacationer. Nonetheless, in actuality, he was a grown man in his mid-20s who had been stalking 15-year-old Shaw for months and had even provided her cash to pose nude. Gleason was appalled by the way in which Kelly was characterised within the trial.
“He even said something like he is the Canadian version of the all-American boy. He would never stalk a woman, a young girl like that, and the jury accepted that because there was nothing that said he wasn’t,” Gleason advised 8 Information Now.
What was withheld from the protection was a report from Canadian regulation enforcement stating that James Kelly was an alias, a made-up identify, that the useless man’s father, mom, and different family had been main narcotics traffickers, suggesting that Kelly was in Las Vegas, not as a vacationer, however to launder drug cash.
One in every of his uncles was later busted in Las Vegas for possession of greater than 800 grams of cocaine. Shaw and her mother had gone to Metro police to report that Kelly was a stalker who wouldn’t go away Shaw alone, however no motion was taken.
So Shaw determined to take care of it herself. She requested a good friend, since childhood, Troy Kell, to assist her scare Kelly into backing off. Kell introduced alongside a good friend, Billy Merritt, for the experience out right into a desert space. One in every of them introduced a gun, and as an alternative of slapping Kelly round, they shot him within the head. Shaw was shocked.
“Setting Mr. Kelly up to be beaten up, I take full responsibility for that. I always have. But I’ve never physically harmed anybody or wanted to harm him. I didn’t want him to lose his life,” Shaw mentioned.
“He didn’t deserve to die for being a pedophile, but he put himself in harm’s way and that is exactly why [the prosecutor] held that exculpatory information back and wouldn’t share it with Sandy’s lawyer,” Gleason added.
Additionally not launched had been statements from each Kell and Merritt that Shaw didn’t know concerning the gun or their intention to kill the sufferer. Their notarized statements, clearing Shaw, weren’t made public till years after Shaw went to jail.
One other witness, Dave Fletcher, was ready to testify that Shaw didn’t take part within the homicide and didn’t deliver classmates out to see the physique. Fletch admitted years later that he was pressured by prosecutors to vary his testimony or face prosecution himself.
One other witness, a former good friend of Shaw’s, testified that she bragged about capturing Kelly between the eyes, reducing his throat and blowing up his automotive, none of which ever occurred. That testimony not solely convicted Shaw, but in addition saved her in jail.
Sandy Shaw in a 2012 interview with KLAS. (KLAS)
“Their main witness, her testimony, it was a complete lie. It is a complete lie that they used as a statement of facts throughout my incarceration of going to the parole board, the pardons board,” she mentioned.
Shaw and Gleason’s new e-book explains how a extra mature Shaw turned her life round in jail, earned a highschool diploma and faculty levels and hoped that she would sometime get out.
After 21 years behind bars, Shaw was lastly paroled and years later obtained a full pardon.
“Going to prison was just horrifying. It was just terrible, but when I look back at it in a mature frame of mind, I say, like, everything happens for a reason, and maybe going to prison probably saved my life,” Shaw mentioned. The prosecutor within the unique case, Dan Seaton, was a ferocious litigator who dealt with many high-profile homicide instances of that period. Final time he spoke to eight Information Now he mentioned that he was robust however didn’t cross any traces within the Shaw prosecution.
Shaw’s new e-book paints a special image and notes two of Seaton’s homicide instances that had been overturned by the state supreme court docket late in his profession.
