Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, May twelfth, and a man
Speaker 1: in Michigan was just sentenced to decades in prison for
Speaker 1: killing his best friend and his best man on his
Speaker 1: wedding night. And with that, welcome to this episode of
Speaker 1: Amy and TJ. To be clear, this guy who is
Speaker 1: dead was the best friend of and the best man
Speaker 1: of the groom. The groom who is now going to
Speaker 1: prison for killing him on wedding night robes. This is
Speaker 1: some Sometimes we talk about headlines that are written to
Speaker 1: get you to click. This one is what it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can't even believe it.
Speaker 3: You click on it thinking no way, this can't have
Speaker 3: actually happened, but it did, and it's just beyond tragic.
Speaker 3: Even some of the photos from the courtroom just all
Speaker 3: sides the groomsman, the best man's family, and certainly the
Speaker 3: groom himself and his family and his bride is.
Speaker 2: Also implicated in all of this. It's horrific.
Speaker 3: It is not the way anyone would have pictured a
Speaker 3: wedding night's celebration to have ended.
Speaker 1: This is awful. This is a time, you know. I
Speaker 1: love weddings and new beginnings and the idea of families
Speaker 1: coming together and blending families and blending friends. And just
Speaker 1: to think of what we all. We've all been to
Speaker 1: a wedding. We've all been to the celebration after a wedding.
Speaker 1: Now imagine at that celebration the groom kills his best man. Now,
Speaker 1: this didn't happen. We'll explain here. This wasn't some physical fight.
Speaker 1: He actually hit him with a car. We're going to
Speaker 1: get into the incident. But this just happened Ropes yesterday
Speaker 1: in court. But this was up in Michigan. We're talking
Speaker 1: about a guy up there. This is just outside of
Speaker 1: Detroit's and Flint Flint. It's Flint, Michigan. Yeah, it's where
Speaker 1: this took place. But he was in court yesterday. And
Speaker 1: the guy we were talking about Robes is James Shira,
Speaker 1: and he's such.
Speaker 2: A young guy, twenty four years old.
Speaker 3: And by the way, this happened in August of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four, so he might have been as young as
Speaker 3: twenty two twenty three.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's how.
Speaker 3: Old we were when we got married. So, yeah, a
Speaker 3: young groom and his best man. The man who was
Speaker 3: killed Terry Taylor, twenty nine years old. So these are
Speaker 3: young folks who were out celebrating, and it should have
Speaker 3: ended beautifully, of course, And I like what you said.
Speaker 3: Weddings are new beginnings. It's a fresh starts. You're excited
Speaker 3: to begin your life. And now it's over. His life
Speaker 3: is over, and so obviously was his best friends in
Speaker 3: that moment.
Speaker 1: Due you know, it's this is tragic any day of
Speaker 1: the week, and he did know nobody can be any
Speaker 1: more dead than any other moment. But there's still something
Speaker 1: about the circumstances, Robes, that this just hits so terribly
Speaker 1: when you think about what was supposed to be taking place.
Speaker 1: Now his friend you mentioned, Robes, twenty nine years old.
Speaker 1: He's actually a a.
Speaker 2: Father of three, yeah, with one on the way.
Speaker 1: On the way when he died, so a father of four.
Speaker 1: I guess ply at this point, just an awful story there.
Speaker 1: But what happened yesterday again, Robes, you mentioned August. We'll
Speaker 1: get into the incident in the actual wedding, but the
Speaker 1: update now is that he was in court yesterday and
Speaker 1: this was not a trial, Robes. He did plead guilty
Speaker 1: to second degree manslaughter, a second degree murdered.
Speaker 2: Have second degree murder. Correct.
Speaker 3: He initially had open murder charges because he agreed to
Speaker 3: plead out in this case, it was reduced to second
Speaker 3: degree murder. Yes, but he had no prior felonies, no misdemeanors.
Speaker 3: And we'll get into what the judge told him too.
Speaker 3: But he professed incredible remorse in court yesterday. He said
Speaker 3: I will forever be sorry, and he has maintained that
Speaker 3: it wasn't intentional. The judge said, BS didn't believe him,
Speaker 3: but look, he said, that was my best friend. I
Speaker 3: accept full responsibility for my actions that night.
Speaker 1: And these are the two guys who've known each other
Speaker 1: for a long time, and so you know they knew
Speaker 1: the same friends and family, and to have I means
Speaker 1: that relationship is just ruined. So this is an awful story.
Speaker 1: But yesterday he wasn't courting. He was he was crying,
Speaker 1: He was tearful, he was remorseful. But again Robes, he
Speaker 1: has maintained this was an accident. The judge, the prosecutors,
Speaker 1: and by video they have they completely Robes say, that's
Speaker 1: just not a theory that's going to hold up. You
Speaker 1: can say it all day long, but it's just not
Speaker 1: what happened. So let's go back to August thirty of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Of all places, what was a Flint
Speaker 1: pizzeria is where they had their wedding. That's where the
Speaker 1: where it all started.
Speaker 2: With the pizza party after the wedding, right there you.
Speaker 1: Go, so they get they actually get married at the
Speaker 1: pizzeria and then leave to go have a party. Now
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure. I think it was a house.
Speaker 1: It was a house party, so is where the celebration
Speaker 1: was supposed to take place.
Speaker 3: And it was described as there was a lot of
Speaker 3: drinking going on, a lot of alcohol.
Speaker 2: But that's pretty much the case that a lot of
Speaker 2: wedding receptions, regardless of where they.
Speaker 1: Are, see a lot of all. Pretty much the.
Speaker 3: Most weddings that I've attended have a lot of alcohol flowing.
Speaker 3: And so yes, somehow, some way during that celebration, a
Speaker 3: fight broke out between the two and it was described
Speaker 3: in one publication that it was a fight between the
Speaker 3: couple and the groomsman or the best man. So I
Speaker 3: don't know if his new bride was somehow involved in
Speaker 3: this argument, which could have led him to get angrier.
Speaker 2: I don't know what was said. We don't know what
Speaker 2: the fight was about. Did you ever, No.
Speaker 1: One ever said what the fight was about, and again
Speaker 1: we say fight. From what I understand, Robes, this was
Speaker 1: just heated argument. We're not talking about rolling around the ground, fiscuss.
Speaker 2: They were just a verbal altercation.
Speaker 1: They were they got heated.
Speaker 3: And so apparently Shiro leaves in a vehicle and it
Speaker 3: was described as a large suv I believe.
Speaker 2: So he leaves because he's.
Speaker 3: So angry and then reportedly comes back one minute later
Speaker 3: and hits his best man, hits his best friend, his
Speaker 3: groomsman with the suv at a high rate of speed.
Speaker 1: So this is now where everybody's story starts to go
Speaker 1: in different directions. So he claims this was an accident,
Speaker 1: he did not mean to do it when he did
Speaker 1: come back, that's his story. The other side, Robes is
Speaker 1: key to this. They said that one minute, like you
Speaker 1: had time to de escalate, like you this wasn't a
Speaker 1: spur of the moment. Oh my goodness, I can't believe
Speaker 1: I did that. He said you had time, and they
Speaker 1: were key Robes in there in their case and then
Speaker 1: making their case that that was evidence and they have
Speaker 1: video as well, but that was evidence for them that
Speaker 1: you had time to take a beat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And he fled the scene, correct.
Speaker 1: You left the scene afterwards.
Speaker 2: That also is not a good look after you.
Speaker 3: Mow down your best man because you're angry at him
Speaker 3: with your large suv and you just keep going.
Speaker 1: So you so imagine now wedding night robes, this is
Speaker 1: now what happens. Everybody in the wedding party is aware,
Speaker 1: people are upset, the guy is dead and the groom
Speaker 1: is missing. He does not show up again to the
Speaker 1: next day and does not speak to police. So the
Speaker 1: next day, no roes. It could have been. Yes, he
Speaker 1: could have been traumatized, he could have been upset, but
Speaker 1: also was not a good look.
Speaker 2: No, not at all. Yes, for an innocent person.
Speaker 3: That's always the point there, because obviously, if he didn't
Speaker 3: mean to do it, he would have almost certainly jumped
Speaker 3: out of the vehicle, tried to attend to his friend,
Speaker 3: see if he was hurt, or if he could be resuscitated,
Speaker 3: what the damage was, all of that.
Speaker 2: He didn't. He kept going, and he.
Speaker 3: Still maintained even yesterday during sentencing that it was a
Speaker 3: horrific accident. But apparently they can actually show the acceleration
Speaker 3: that took place.
Speaker 1: Correct, Yes, it was almost they said the car was
Speaker 1: aimed at the guy and accelerated. So they just say,
Speaker 1: there's just no way, no other way to put it.
Speaker 1: You just made me think robes of the case. I
Speaker 1: can't remember what state it was, but the high school
Speaker 1: teacher that was killed in the prank, Oh, yes, and
Speaker 1: you remember that was an accident. Kids were out there,
Speaker 1: they toilet paper in his house. He comes out, he's
Speaker 1: and it was slick at the time.
Speaker 2: I think he tripped and fell.
Speaker 1: Into the street. They hid and killed him. He just
Speaker 1: made me think of it because they immediately stopped and
Speaker 1: they got out and tried to help. Yes, that's what
Speaker 1: you do when you have an accident.
Speaker 3: When you don't mean to do something, you do everything
Speaker 3: in your power to try and help make it better
Speaker 3: or fix what you just screwed up. But it was
Speaker 3: interesting because Shira's attorney in saying that it was an accident,
Speaker 3: and I just it's for me, this just kind of
Speaker 3: belittled what happened. He's like, there was a fight, there
Speaker 3: was an argument with alcohol involved. This is a situation
Speaker 3: where you have friends, lifelong friends, best friends, and things
Speaker 3: get out of control. Okay, yes, we can all imagine
Speaker 3: that scenario, but it doesn't end with someone getting behind
Speaker 3: the wheel of a large vehicle and deliberately running over
Speaker 3: your friend because you're angry at something he said.
Speaker 1: What could that fight have been about? Well? How much
Speaker 1: alcohol could there be? I mean, it's dangerous to get
Speaker 1: behind the wheel like he did anyway, and Robes, even
Speaker 1: if this had been an accident, he would have gotten
Speaker 1: charged with manslaughter, I'm sure because he's drinking and driving behind. Well,
Speaker 1: what could that fight have been over? That a guy
Speaker 1: that was enough to you in your life that you
Speaker 1: want him standing next to you when you get married,
Speaker 1: that you go from that ceremony to wanting to kill him?
Speaker 1: What happened?
Speaker 2: I can't imagine that.
Speaker 3: And the fact that they haven't said what it was
Speaker 3: over is interesting as well. I think the omission of
Speaker 3: that detail is because everyone does want to know the motive.
Speaker 2: They do want to know why.
Speaker 3: So it's interesting that that was not discussed or released
Speaker 3: in any way.
Speaker 2: And also just it's so it's so awful to think
Speaker 2: that this young man.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he had a violent pass in anyway,
Speaker 3: but it certainly doesn't seem like he did, and certainly
Speaker 3: criminally he didn't have anything to point to in terms
Speaker 3: of violence. But members of Taylor's family got up and
Speaker 3: gave victim impact statements, and that certainly was part of
Speaker 3: the reason why the judge gave him the sentence that
Speaker 3: he did.
Speaker 1: You know what, I thought they might, Robes honestly did
Speaker 1: thought the because the families had known each other, they
Speaker 1: known each other for a long time. I thought they
Speaker 1: would go easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we don't want two lives to be lost.
Speaker 1: They did not.
Speaker 2: They did not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the direction no.
Speaker 3: So in fact, a cousin of Terry. This is his quote.
Speaker 3: When I got to him, all I could see was blood.
Speaker 3: And then he turned and looked directly at the groom
Speaker 3: and said, I hope they throw the book at you.
Speaker 3: So that is where the family was yesterday in court.
Speaker 3: They want him to pay for what he did.
Speaker 1: And the judge pretty much did throw the book at him.
Speaker 1: There was an announcement initially as the judge was trying
Speaker 1: to explain and we've seen this plenty before, right, Robes,
Speaker 1: you can't just go on the first thing, he says,
Speaker 1: you got to let the judge finish because some of
Speaker 1: this legal lees is confusing and mapping it all. But
Speaker 1: he'd started out and was talking about thirty to forty
Speaker 1: five years for something, and the guy just broke down
Speaker 1: immediately crying, just broke down crime.
Speaker 2: You think he was hoping for a much lesser sentence.
Speaker 1: He got up in there, he begged, I hadn't seen
Speaker 1: this roe well since it was a plea. But they
Speaker 1: brought him in. He was shackled, but they the judge
Speaker 1: swore him in like standing, just as at a podium
Speaker 1: right before the judge he swore him in. He told
Speaker 1: the two holds you and then started asking would you
Speaker 1: have something you want to say? And he went through
Speaker 1: this thing and he didn't say much, and he said,
Speaker 1: I asked for leniency. You don't hear that a lot.
Speaker 1: He used that word. I'm asking for leniency. I don't
Speaker 1: know how lenient. It ended up being robes.
Speaker 3: Not very, not very because he was sentenced to thirty years, correct.
Speaker 1: He has to do that at least can't he even
Speaker 1: discuss parole before thirty years is out?
Speaker 3: So thirty to forty five is what the official sentence was.
Speaker 3: But at least thirty without the possibility of parole, that
Speaker 3: is all I mean. Look, I think about where you
Speaker 3: were at twenty four and now where I am at
Speaker 3: fifty three. I mean that's when he will be getting out.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to have his whole life ahead of him,
Speaker 1: just got married, thinking about family, and what happened on
Speaker 1: his wedding day ends up being the thing. He's going
Speaker 1: to be in prison for thirty years for it. But
Speaker 1: stay here. There was something that stood out and probably
Speaker 1: stood out to you as well, Robes. We've heard a
Speaker 1: lot of judges speak to criminals in court. This judge
Speaker 1: said something that jumped out but also took me a
Speaker 1: second to try to piece together. We'll explain what that was.
Speaker 1: And also Robes mentioned a short time ago the wife
Speaker 1: of this man who's now going to prison, well she
Speaker 1: might end up in prison herself. Will explain.
Speaker 3: Stay here, Welcome back to everyone to this episode of
Speaker 3: Amy and TJ where we are describing and people talk
Speaker 3: about wedding day nightmares. This truly is that, and then
Speaker 3: some This is a story that really is hard to
Speaker 3: get your head around that this could have happened. But yeah,
Speaker 3: in Flint, Michigan, a twenty four year old groom James Shira,
Speaker 3: has just pleaded guilty to killing his best man, his
Speaker 3: best friend, his groomsman, twenty nine year old Terry Taylor,
Speaker 3: who I think, yeah, it is important to point out,
Speaker 3: was a father of free with a fourth on the way,
Speaker 3: had a fiance, had his whole life in front of him.
Speaker 3: They get into a heated alcohol fueled argument. We don't
Speaker 3: know what it was about, and James Shira made a
Speaker 3: decision to come back after taking off in his suv
Speaker 3: and ran over mowed down his best friend, who it
Speaker 3: was described he actually went airborne, that's how hard he
Speaker 3: was hit in this moment. And so the judge when
Speaker 3: he's asking, please judge leniency, the judge didn't go there.
Speaker 3: Sentenced him to at least thirty years behind bars, and
Speaker 3: what he had to say to him was what it
Speaker 3: sticks with you?
Speaker 1: Well, I've never heard of judge quite put it this way. Quote.
Speaker 1: I believe, mister Shira that you are not a criminal.
Speaker 1: You are, however, a killer.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, damn, it's almost I am conceding that you're
Speaker 1: not this monster, this thing. However, the fact remains you
Speaker 1: made a choice in this moment that was interesting and
Speaker 1: I was surprised mister Shira in court, James Shira, when
Speaker 1: the judge said it, he was already sitting back down
Speaker 1: on a bench, shackled, not at a microphone. When the
Speaker 1: judge said, you are, however, a killer, he responded, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not certain, just a bad set of circumstances, and
Speaker 1: was trying to kind of shout out and explain it
Speaker 1: wasn't being rude. But he reacted to being called a
Speaker 1: killer in.
Speaker 3: Court, you know, he he and we mentioned this obviously, yes,
Speaker 3: because he believes that it was an accident, that he
Speaker 3: didn't mean to actually kill his best friend. And so
Speaker 3: I'm curious, given the sentencing, which is pretty tough, was
Speaker 3: he thinking that by pleading guilty to a lower charge,
Speaker 3: a lesser charge, he would get significantly smaller amount of time.
Speaker 3: And now I'm wondering if he wishes he had gone
Speaker 3: to trial, if he had tried to prove his case
Speaker 3: that this wasn't some premeditated act, This wasn't some planned
Speaker 3: decision or some murder. It was, in fact, just a
Speaker 3: tragic accident. I'm surprised if he firmly believes that that
Speaker 3: he wouldn't have taken this to trial.
Speaker 1: Take your chances, right, isn't that what you do? I
Speaker 1: can't imagine being a criminal in that position. This high
Speaker 1: stakes game where your life is on the line, do
Speaker 1: you take Did they know? No, he didn't know ahead
Speaker 1: of time, so he left it in the hands of
Speaker 1: one judge versus twelve jurors. I'm not sure how he
Speaker 1: came to that conclusion, but Robes, you would think some
Speaker 1: attorney out there would say, Hey, I can convince one
Speaker 1: out of twelve people that you may have done this accidentally.
Speaker 3: I wonder now, I mean, I'm imagining he has to
Speaker 3: be thinking that now, Yeah, rethinking his decision to do that,
Speaker 3: but now, especially considering the fact that his bride, his
Speaker 3: new bride, is potentially facing time as well. Now there
Speaker 3: is some sort of deal in the works for her
Speaker 3: potentially to just be on probation rather than go to prison,
Speaker 3: but she is still potentially facing prison time.
Speaker 1: And it's a felony that she was charged with being
Speaker 1: an accessory after the fact, I believe, is what they
Speaker 1: call it. They're not suggesting she was in any way
Speaker 1: active or wanting the guy did. But yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a weird I know you've read it as well, some
Speaker 1: weird legally some weird legal logistics to get her out
Speaker 1: of actually serving time.
Speaker 2: You saw that, Yes, it was confusing.
Speaker 3: So it looks like most likely she won't go or
Speaker 3: won't spend any time in prison, but she will be,
Speaker 3: she will be on probation, and she will have a
Speaker 3: felony on her record. I would imagine if this all
Speaker 3: goes through the way they think it is, and did
Speaker 3: they get into any details. Obviously he fled, so they're
Speaker 3: implying that somehow she helped hide him or was with
Speaker 3: him instead of making him turn himself into police or
Speaker 3: I'm not really sure what she did that was illegal
Speaker 3: to the point where she's being charged with a felony.
Speaker 2: But you know, look, this is tough. Your wedding night.
Speaker 3: You're a groom who you've been so, I'm sure they've
Speaker 3: planned this wedding. We're excited about having their friends with them.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden turns incredibly tragic. Everyone's drunk. I'm
Speaker 3: sure it sounds like everybody was at least and now
Speaker 3: she's being charged as well. This is just this is
Speaker 3: one of the worst stories I have ever heard.
Speaker 1: What happens to that marriage?
Speaker 3: It doesn't, it doesn't last. There's I don't know how
Speaker 3: you look. Possibly I wouldn't imagine it would just.
Speaker 1: Think about that too. It's just it's just a mess,
Speaker 1: just tragic. But but folks, another oh, just another human experience, robes,
Speaker 1: another tragedy, another story to add to it. Man, that's
Speaker 1: just take a beat, right, You just need to take
Speaker 1: a beat in the it split second, something changes your
Speaker 1: life forever.
Speaker 3: That's that's where my head went initially, Like you know,
Speaker 3: obviously I have a twenty three year old. You know
Speaker 3: you have older it's you know that they're adults technically yes,
Speaker 3: but their minds are so they're forming. And then you
Speaker 3: add alcohol to it, you add a motion to it
Speaker 3: with a day like a wedding day, and you just
Speaker 3: feel so sick that if someone would just take a moment,
Speaker 3: if you just take time to breathe.
Speaker 2: I know that's an annoying thing for you, but just
Speaker 2: take a second.
Speaker 3: It just I think it's a reminder to all of us,
Speaker 3: no matter where we are in live, no matter how
Speaker 3: old we are, we can all get really angry, and
Speaker 3: especially if you add alcohol to that mix. Just remind yourselves,
Speaker 3: is this going to matter in an hour? Is this
Speaker 3: going to matter in a day? Just take a beat.
Speaker 3: It could be the difference between life and death.
Speaker 1: Talks well, well, the wife is expected to be sentenced
Speaker 1: later this month. Will keep an eye on that as well.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you, of course, spending some time with us
Speaker 1: just for my dear Amy Robotka on TJ. Holmes. We'll talk,
Speaker 1: so its