Snapped: Women Who Murder - Tameshia Shelton

Episode Date: July 17, 2022

A young hunter ends up dead while hunting his own predator. Was this the case of an accidental shooting, or was there a more sinister explanation?Season 22, Episode 5Originally aired: December 17, 2017Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Tamisha Shelton came from a close-knit southern family. Her mother, both of her sisters, her nieces and nephews, lived right behind her.

But she was closest to her little sister, Katina. She counted, felt like she was protecting her. So she was thrilled when her sister met Danielle. They were talking about getting married and everything. He really loved her. This was gonna be the one. But the wedding wasn't to be. The car come out over the radio.

Accident shooting. You get your teeth in the background screen. Know what happened, what happened, what happened, no. He's not dead, he's not dead. Was the shooting simply a tragic accident? They said he was hunting and the bullet ricocheted and came back and shot him. With the evidence, suggest another explanation.

Maybe it was a self-inflicted gunshot. Or did Tamecia and Danielle share a scandalous secret? He had come in for she would be on a couch in London. And what it calls Danielle, his life. It was Chelsea. It had to be. West Point, October 16, 2009. It was a typical Friday night in this town of 11,000 in rural Northeastern Mississippi. It's a nice little small, friendly town.

Hardworking people, it's a sports town. We love football teams. And like every other Friday night in the fall, most of West Point was packed into the stadium at the local high school, cheering on the home team. This is the south, we do football. That's just sort of where you'll find everyone on a Friday night.

Including the on-duty deputies from the Clay County Sheriff's Office. A lot of local law enforcement go to the games and provide security and want to support the team. But at around 9 o'clock, the deputies rooting for West Point High were suddenly interrupted. Me and the other investigator were at the game. The call come out over the radio. Accidental shooting. The caller was 31-year-old Tamecia Shelton. There's obvious concern and fear in her voice.

She's very, very agitated. Tamecia told the operator that she'd heard a shot, gone outside to investigate, and found her friend, 21-year-old Danielle Young, lying at the foot of a tree outside her trailer. She told 911 that he's making sounds. It looked like he's bringing so this fast tell, to me, she's not to touch it.

All thoughts of football forgotten. The first responders race to the scene, but would they get there in time? Moon Valley is a very rural area of a very rural community. A lot of dirt roads, gravel roads, and that, in that vicinity. You can get out there and feel like your loss, even if you're not.

Tamisha stayed on the line and did what she could to help. She was trying to describe where the house was and giving the address and explaining where they were located. And she was still on the line, giving directions to the first responders when Tamecia's little sister, Katina, arrived at the scene of the shooting. On the phone with 911, you could hear a car pull up and hear someone get out and start basically screaming,

I'm calling out for Danielle. I mean, really hysterical. But how did Danielle end up outside of Tamecia's trailer? Was it simply a tragic accident? Or would a scandalous secret about Tamecia and her sister's boyfriend reveal that there was more to the shooting than she had let on? Born in 1978, Tamecia Shelton had spent all her life around West Point.

The Shelton's our large family here in Clay County. They're a close-knit family and they're hard-working people. And Tamecia appeared destined to become another hard-working member of the family. But after graduating high school and getting her associates degree at the local community college, a sudden illness derailed those plans. She had a seizure when it to the hospital and for a long period of state. To me, she recovered, but the episode

had lasting effects. She was on disability and wasn't working. But while her disability kept her from working, it did little else to impede her life. And while she never married, she did give birth to a son. Her baby dead was back and forth with her. Luckily, Tamecia could count on the support of her close-knit family. Her mother, both of her sisters, her nieces and nephews, lived right behind her, kind of

on the same plot of land. They looked out for Tamiya and she looked out for them, especially her sister Katina. Tee, to her family and friends, she was 10 years younger than Tamiya. Katina was the baby's sister, so she kind of felt like she was protecting her. Although Tamiya couldn't always be there for Katina. After high school, Katina actually left West Point and went all the way to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a graphic design degree, which is how she met Danielle Young. Danielle saw this, he met her at the art college down there.

Born in 1987, Danielle was a Mississippi native from a town two hours south of West Point. Who's raised in Forest Mississippi? Is the small country town very quiet? And much like Tamisha and Katina, he'd grown up surrounded by his immediate family as well as numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was starting of us, and my brother David and Edith Feiyong.

They have five children and the last two was the twin Dominique and Danielle. And all of them lived within a mile or so of one another. It's our family land. We was on a farm, we grew up working hard, learning how to work hard. We didn't have no silver for us, spoon-and-on in our mouth. You know, we basically living off the land. What we ate, we grow our parents grow. When they chicken crow, we gonna get up, we gonna be in the garden, we gonna break that ground.

Growing up Danielle had two passions. One was hunting. All my brothers they loved to hunt. I used to go with them sometimes, but they liked to hunt that, because my dad, he has all type of rifles. And when they weren't hunting or working on the farm, Danielle and his brothers would typically be under the hood of a car.

They always little work on cars, just that was the favorite thing they'd do. Like, they'd work on cars all the time. And he planned to turn it into his career. He would say, when I graduate, I'm going to be an auto mechanic. After graduating high school, it appeared that Danielle was destined to realize his dream. He went straight to Tennessee, to NADC, National Auto,

D. Soc. They're everybody were proud of. Like, young man, leave leaving, and fulfilling his goals. It was while attending school in Nashville that Danielle met Tamecia's little sister, Katina. Well, Calda T, they had a relationship. He brought her home. We met her.

She was a nice young lady to me. And she was obviously taken with Danielle. If you meet him, you're just something about him, I'm sure it's about him. Everybody just loved Danielle because he make you smile. Even on a bad day, he made someone smile. If you see something wrong with someone, he would go to them and ask them, is they okay?

You know, he would joke or make them laugh or something, you know, make a person feel better. And once he brought Katina home to meet his family, it was obvious what Danielle saw in her. She was a nice girl. She was a good person. She was kind of quiet, but she was sweet. And it wasn't any mystery why Danielle had brought Katina home to meet the family, either.

They was talking about getting married and everything. They was talking about getting my house together. Whenever he graduated, he was talking about come home and find them job. So they could get started on what they was trying to do with themselves. He really loved her. This was going to be the one.

That's all he always say. This is going to be the one, mom. By 2009, Danielle had finished school. He come out like second in the class, you know, with four was great. He pushed itself. He really did. And while Katina finished up her education in Nashville, Danielle focused on setting himself up in his career. He went to Louisiana, and he'll look his brother. And he was working at our shop down there. But every chance they got,

Katina and Danielle would both return to Mississippi to spend time together, mostly at her sister Tamisha's trailer in Moon Valley. Her parents didn't allow the man standing in the house with the girlfriend. So that's why Danielle and T stayed at the sister's house. And since she'd recently given birth to a new baby, a daughter, 31-year-old Tamisha was more than happy to have her sister Katina and her future brother-in-law

around to lend a hand. He's working on a call Tamecia, you know. So that's just go back to show you the type of guy he was. You know, I'm up here for one thing, but I help you out. Still, while Danielle didn't hesitate to help Tamecia when she needed it, it was her sister, Katina, he came to see. And on the weekend of October 16, when Danielle made the long drive to Moon Valley,

he was more anxious than ever to see his fiance. He actually came up here for her birthday that weekend. But the celebration would take a tragic turn. Coming up, Tamecia says the shooting was a freak accident. She said he was shooting a red comb and the bullet ricocheted. But something about the scene seems off to the investigators.

If I see a red comb, the 22 is not my weapon of choice. At a little after 9 o'clock on October 16, 2009, Sheriff's deputies and EMTs raised out to a remote, rural home on the outskirts of West Point, Mississippi, responding to a 911 call that had come in moments earlier. That initial 911 call stated there had been an accidental shooting out on Moon Valley Road. According to the caller 31-year-old Tamecia Shelton, she'd heard a shot, gone outside, and found her sister's boyfriend, 21-year-old Danielle Young, lying at the foot of a tree.

The 911 operator at Tels, Tamecia, not to touch the body or to do anything to the body until EMT's arrive. She, at some point, starts talking to someone else who's who's walked up. It was Tamecia's sister, Katina, also known as T. She'd been dating Danielle since college. And there was talk about getting married so much she finished her all schooling. But would their wedding day ever come? You could hear T how she like, no, what happened, what happened, what happened, no, he's

not dead, he's not dead. When the deputies and EMTs arrived on the scene, they found Danielle exactly as Tamecia had described, lying at the foot of a tree face down. They found a handgun that was located where Danielle had been laying face down. It was a 22 caliber revolver and appeared consistent with the single gunshot wound to Danielle's chest. It was a small gunshot, a little spec.

But it was enough. The EMT tried to resuscitate him, but all their attempts were futile. They wasn't getting a pulse from him. Danielle was dead. And the Clay County Sheriff's Office had a mystery on their hands. Maybe this was an accident.

Maybe it was a ricochet, or maybe it was a self-inflicted gunshot. We didn't know exactly what we were doing with, just the fact that somebody has been shot, where they were self-inflicted or not. You know, it's a great concern for us. And until Sheriff's investigators figured it out, only one thing was certain.

Every case that involves any type of shooting whatsoever, they treat as if it may be a crime. So mere minutes after the EMT's pronounced Danielle dead, the work of preserving the scene was already underway. They collected all of the evidence. Danielle's body was preserved by the corner that it arrived. They backed his hands up as well, so it could be tested for gunshot residue at a later time.

And while they worked, the lead investigator got a brief statement from Tamisha. The initial statement that she gave to Chief Deputy Williams was that she was laying in bed watching TV. She had her newborn daughter with her in bed. Tamisha said that Danielle and her sister had gone up the road to her mothers, but then, at a little before 9, there had been a knock on her bedroom window. She stated that Danielle came to her bedroom window,

knocked on the window, and say he's seen a red pool in a tree. And then, according to Tamecia, Danielle had passed to borrow a gun. According to Tamecia, she said, well, come around to the door and I'll go get the gun. She goes and get a 20-ton pistol. And she tells him when he shoots the raccoon with a brain so she can see it.

Tamecia told the police that Danielle had said sure, taken the pistol and headed off toward the tree. She said once she gave the gun to Danielle, that she closed the door and stayed inside. She said it may have been two or three minutes, and she heard a gunshot. Tamiya said she'd looked out the door and called Danielle's name, expecting Danielle to reappear with the dead raccoon.

But when he didn't respond, she'd started to worry. She called Danielle, Danielle. He never asked. So then, to me, she said she went outside, and that's when she seen him, Danielle laying on the ground, going to make him let him know. So she called 911. The investigators also spoke to Tamicia's sister, Katina,

but she had little to tell them. Katina was at the home with her mama that night. Apparently, they heard you had a police scanner that they had missed them, a shooting out on Moon Valley. So that's how they initially found out that something had happened, just right down the road from them. Katina said that she had rushed down to her sister's trailer, while Tamisha was still on the phone with the 911 operator.

You can hear her on the phone. Highly any screaming. With Danielle's distraught girlfriend unable to add anything, the deputies widened their investigation. But when they can't miss the handful of nearby houses, they found that the neighbors were equally in the dark. Some of the neighbors told them that they had heard a gunshot, but they really didn't hear anything else.

Which meant that the closest thing the lead investigator had to an eyewitness was Tamecia. He wanted to take her back to the sheriff's office and do a longer interview at that time, and she said she didn't have any problems doing that. I told the dentist to take her on to the station. I noticed she had on a house code. I told her family.

I said, she's going to need some clothes to put on. Because the clothes to Misha was wearing, we're all taken into evidence so that the investigators could test them for gunshot residue and rule her out as a suspect. From her statement, she was in the house. She wasn't around the gun when it fired. She didn't touch him so she touched his foot. There shouldn't be any gunshot residue on your hands or on your clothing. The residue test was a routine matter. As was the record check that the investigators ran on Tamiya.

We didn't find any criminal background on her. I can't recall in the 20 years I've been at this department calling out to the shelters, uh, residents for, for anything. Her formal interview didn't add anything either. He asked her to describe what had taken place. Her story was consistent with the 911 tape, as well as the initial statement. And once again, she explained that she hadn't seen how Danielle had been shot.

One of the things that she was asked about specifically was, were you outside when the gun was fired? And she said, no, I wasn't. So according to Tamiya, all she could do was speculate about what had happened. She said it was raining and he had a gun in his hand and he didn't feel anything went off. Or maybe he had fired at the raccoon and missed with fatal results.

That he was shooting a red cone and the bullet ricocheted off the tree and it hit down your chest and it killed him. But were those the only possible explanations? In the early hours of the morning, after Tamecia finished her statement and went home, there was something about the incident that definitely bothered the investigators. I'm going out, you know, and shooting a cane in the middle of the night.

It just didn't feel right, you know, to us. And there was one thing in particular that struck the investigators as odd. When we start sitting down looking at everything, you know, trying to kill a raccoon with a 22 pistol, it's not a common thing, you know. My brother's a hunter.

He's not going to use a revolver or a pistol to shoot an animal. Of course, Danielle hadn't really been hunting, just taking a pot shot at an animal that had wandered into the yard with the only weapon available. She gave the 22 pistol to Danielle, because that's the one at the house. However, even if Danielle had shot at the raccoon

with the 22, what were the odds that the bullet would ricochet and hit him square in the chest? Sometimes a scene would tell you a story, and we just felt that this particular scene we were looking at was not telling us a whole story. There's something just one quite bad enough. And according to Danielle's family, a suicide didn't appear too likely either.

He had dreams. He wanted to be a family man. He wanted to start his own business one day. He had worked hard to get to where he was at. He was making plans. He just wanted to take a purse. But if it wasn't an accident or a suicide, one possibility remained. That believed this was a homicide.

Coming up, Danielle's family reveals a possible motive. It was jealousy. It had to be. And to me's family reveals a possible motive. It was jealousy. It had to be. And to me, she changes her story. That threw up a flat. Why are you going to say something like this? Hey, listener, it is me Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast gold in our new episode with David Letterman available four weeks early on one

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quite possibly contemplating growing a beard like letterman's I know I have you can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on wundry plus find wundry plus in the wundry app or on apple podcasts. By the morning of October 18, 2009, it had been barely 24 hours since 21-year-old Danielle Yang had been shot dead in West Point, Mississippi. The victim of what police were initially told was an accidental shooting. It was told that he was trying to shoot a red cone, it was up in a tree, and he shot itself. At least, that's what the woman who lived in the trailer, 31-year-old Tamisha Shelton, had told the investigators.

Danielle Young was dating Tamisha Shelton's sister. But was Tamisha telling the truth? The investigators had some doubts. From a person to hunt myself, you know, I'm looking at if I see a raccoon, the 22, it's not my weapon of choice. So that kind of, kind of threw up some flags for us. Their suspicions were reinforced

when they talked to Danielle's family. I said, you know, hunt with the pistol. Danielle, know how to hunt. And he was about to hunt. And I said, I don't believe with the pistol. Daniel had no hideout hunt. And he was bought up hunting. I said, I don't believe he had tried to kill no cone in no tree with no 22 pistol. The family also insisted that there was no chance that Danielle had intentionally killed himself,

that he and Tamisha sister Katina had big plans for their future. They were going to get married. She finished her degree. Then they were going to talk about marriage. And there was no way that his relationship with her had turned deadly, either. The family said, yeah, they would have have arguments occasionally, but they were the typical arguments of kids that were 21 years old. However, while the family said there was nothing unusual about Danielle and Katina, they

did have some concerns about Tamisha. One of the things that came up was in conversation with Danielle's family. The young family, multiple people had told us that Danielle had told them in the past that Tamisha had made advances upon him. I definitely believe that Tamisha had a crush on Danielle. She was trying to get him to get in the bed with her. And if what Danielle had told his sister was true, Tommisha hadn't been shy about it, either.

She was getting naked and stuff, walking around the house. You know, coming up, she would be on a couch in lingerie. You know, she would be as bold on herself. According to the family, Danielle swore that nothing had happened between him and Tamecia. He said that he never touched her. He wouldn't do that because him and T is gay married. And now the family wondered,

had Danielle's rejection angered Tamecia enough that she'd taken her revenge by murdering him? It was jealousy. It had to be. He didn't want her. You could tell that she was obsessed with Danielle. She really was. Danielle's family was convinced that Tamecia had killed him,

but the investigators would require more evidence, especially the results of the gunshot residue tests on Tamisha's hands and clothing. At that time, all indications were that Tamisha had been inside during the entire shooting. The gunshot residue tests could reveal whether or not Tamisha was telling the truth, but getting the results from the crime lab would take time.

We have one crime lab would take time. We have one crime lab that serves all 82 counties, and we frequently have to get in line and just wait our turn for our evidence to be processed. So while the investigators waited for the results of the residue test, they asked Tamecia to come in and take a polygraph. And while she agreed, when she came in to take the test, it appeared that Tamecia was having second thoughts before she was even hooked up to the machine. It's a polygraph examiner. When he spoke with Tamecia, for the first time, we hear her mention that she had in fact fired a gun. According to Tamecia, she had shot the gun

on Wednesday, two days before Danielle was killed. She said that there had been a dog in the area chasing her son or nephew or somebody there in the area. She said that she fired the gun trying to scare the dog off. Tamecia said the fact that she had fired a gun had previously slipped her mind during the turmoil that followed Danielle's death.

She started telling the story again of exactly as it matched up with the 911 tape that she heard the gun shot and that she ran outside to check on Danielle and that he was groaning. However, as Tamiya wrapped up her preliminary interview with the polygraph technician, her story changed again. She tells him that she had, in fact, handled the gun and shot that gun on Friday.

And according to Tameesh's new story, she'd fired it just a few hours before Danielle Don. That threw up a flat. Why are you gonna say something like this, you know? Was it because she was worried about what the gunshot residue test might reveal? It was our interpretation at that time that the timing of those changes in her story were extremely relevant. The investigators hoped that the polygraph would reveal the truth,

but would the stress be too much for Tamecia to take? We set up for the polygraph and right before the photograph, she had a seizure. She had some health issues, she had had seizures and various things. The investigators called an ambulance. She was taking to the emergency room. And when she was evaluated and released within an hour, the investigators were left wondering had Tamecia really been overcome by stress or was the timing of her seizure just a little too convenient?

I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell you what brings them on or what not, but this particular day when you go on to take a polygraph that when I ask you questions where you did this murder or not, you have a seizure. It was the same thing. day when you go on to take a polygraph that won't ask you questions where you did this murder or not, you have a seizure. Who's the saying? However, by then, the investigators

did know one thing for certain. The medical examiner had ruled out any possibility that Danielle's death might be a suicide. The autopsy confirmed that Danielle had died from a single gunshot, but that wasn't all it revealed. The autopsy gave us the trajectory on the bullet at the end of the body. And according to the medical examiner, the bullet had entered Danielle's body from dead ahead,

almost a perfect 90-degree angle. She's seen hundreds of suicides, and her explanation was in every suicide that she's ever seen by gunshot, there's always some deviation. She's never seen one in a suicide go straight through the body at a 90-degree angle. How you gonna try to turn your wrist

to shoot yourself, you know, right here, you know, and that's a aqua position. to turn your wrist to shoot yourself right here. And that's an awful position. But if Danielle hadn't fired the fatal shaw, did that mean Tamecia was the killer? For the authorities, it was still too soon to say. It took a while until we had sufficient evidence which meant getting everything back

that we had from the crime lab. It was a frustrating time for Danielle's family. I mean, it's times I did call there to the sheriff's apartment and speak with Mr. William. He himself and he would constantly tell me that they were still working on the case. And when, after months of waiting, the test results finally came back from the crime lab, one thing immediately stood out to the investigators. In addition to testing the samples swall from Danielle and Tamiya's hands, the crime lab also tested their clothes, Tamiya's for gunshot residue, and Danielle's to determine where the gun was fired in relation to his body.

You can request that they make a determination based on the stippling on the clothing, whether or not there are burn marks from the flash of the muzzle. And according to the crime lab, the scorch marks on Danielle's clothes were revealing. He was shot with the gun pressed into his chest, into his clothing and

Tess of the clothing to me. She had been wearing the night of the shooting were just as telling She had gunshot raised on upper jambals Which meant she couldn't have been in the trailer when the shock was fired You have to be in the air when they're gonna is fired to get this much arrested on you. And that wasn't the only place Tamecia had gunshot residue, either. It was in the palm of her hands, on the back of her hand. All the evidence pointed to Tamecia as Danielle's killer. Chief Deputy Williams at that time thought he had enough to go to the grand jury.

But an actual arrest would take time. I'll grand you around a week twice a year. And with the next meeting still months away, their prime suspect would remain free. Tamecia just went on living her life. She stayed in the same house, lived there close to her family. Meanwhile, Danielle's family's frustration grew. There was times I felt like his case was going to go unstopped.

What I was feeling was concerned for my auntie, the look that she told it, that she buried upon herself, that it wasn't something that you would wish upon anybody. It wasn't until April of 2011, a year and a half after Danielle's murder, that the moment the family and the authorities had been waiting for finally a ride. The grand jury returned a true bill, which basically meant that there was more than probable cause that she committed to crime. Once she had been indicted, a warrant is issued at that time. From my understanding, she was told that it was there

and came and turned herself into the sheriff's office. Tamecia was finally in custody, but could the prosecutors make the charges stick? Coming up, Will Tamecia's case ever go to trial? I thought they would probably let her go. Or will the investigators uncover shocking new evidence? We actually did a DNA test on her young baby. On July 14, 2015, Tamecia Shelton finally went on trial for murder at the Clay County

courthouse in West Point, Mississippi. The 37-year-old was charged with killing her sister's boyfriend Danielle Young, who'd been shot dead almost six years earlier in October of 2009. You watch TV shows and it's like the crime happened in next day, no, they're in court, and the person is convicted. When it comes to life, it don't work that way. Which wasn't much consolation for Danielle's family.

I know they were frustrated and we had a lot of conversations with them that were not pleasant to have, that were difficult to have, but we wanted to make sure that we were confident in what we were putting in front of the jury and that we could strengthen our case in any way possible. We was told that if they went ahead and she would not found it, we could never have another trial. That's why I took him so long. Justice frustrating for the family.

Tamisha had spent almost the entire four years since her arrest out on bail. The bond was set at $75,000, I believe, and shortly thereafter, she and her family were able to make bond and she was able to stay at home awaiting trial. Not only was she in her own home, the mother of two went on with her life as if she'd never been charged with murder.

She was dating somebody and after this happened, she had two more children. Which only added to the delays in bringing the case to trial. Every time it was time for us to go to court for it, they would change it. Either she was having a baby or something else would go on all. Danielle's family had almost lost all hope. I thought they would probably let her go.

But finally, after years of waiting, it was time to find out. Did the prosecutors have enough evidence to send the mother of four to prison for murder? On the morning of trial, the last thing that Danielle's mother said was, do the best you can. In his opening statement, the prosecutor told the jury that the evidence proved Tamecia had pulled the trigger.

She had these particles on the palms of her hands, on the back of one hand, and on both her pajama shirt and pants. She had to be in the area of a discharged weapon. And yet, as the prosecutors pointed out to the jury, Tamecia had always claimed that she had been inside the trailer when the fatal shot was fired. At no point did she admit that she was anywhere in the vicinity of that gun being fired.

Although once she realized that the investigators were testing her for gunshot residue, she had started coming up with explanations for why they might find some. We had been told that she had in fact shot the gun on Wednesday, and then that she had handled the gun on Friday, but not shot it. Finally, she had in fact shot the gun earlier that same day. The story, like, basically changed. It would sound like it's out the hurry. And according to the prosecution,

even if she was telling the truth, if she had fired a gun several hours prior to the shooting, it was unlikely that it would have skewed the test results. During the course of those interviews, she also explained that she had cooked dinner for her family. She had taken care of her baby, a newborn, grabbing diapers, using wipes, things like that. Could she really have done all that without washing her hands

at least once? There's no way she had gunshot residue on her from hours before. But would the forensic evidence alone be enough to secure a conviction? We don't have to prove motive, but we also know it's human nature to expect that there's going to be some bow that we can tie this up with

at the end and say, this is what happened in order to satisfy the jury. But why would Tamisha kill Danielle? After all, he was her sister's boyfriend, not hers, which was precisely the problem, according to Danielle's family. They believed Tamisha acted out of jealousy. They just told us that she was coming at him.

She was trying to get with Danielle and things, and he was like, he wasn't gonna do that. And the family was convinced that by remaining faithful to Tamisha's sister, Katina, or T, as everyone knew her, that Danielle further enraged to Misha. I feel like she was jealous of my brother and T relationship because he was a good guy. And he was talking about marrying T.

She didn't have a man like that. They felt like she was, I guess, a spurned lover or somebody that got her feelings hurt in this, and maybe that was the motive. Or was it possible he hadn't been faithful? She did have two children at home with her. One of those was a relative newborn. One of the things that came up,

whether or not that child may have been Danielle's child. Was it possible that Danielle had hooked up with Tamisha only to turn his back on her? It would have made a compelling motive for murder if it were true. We actually did a DNA test on her young baby, but it came back that he was not far from it. The paternity test may have exonerated Danielle, but it left the prosecutors in a bind as far as the rumors that Tamisha had become infatuated with her sister's boyfriend.

We didn't have anything that was substantive. That could prove that. Any statements that the family had were hearsay from Danielle. We didn't have anything that led us to believe there'd been any relationship other than those statements. And since it was hearsay, the jury would never hear it. If we had followed that line and introduced that as a motive, the concern is we lose credibility with the jury.

We don't have something to back up, but we present before them, the case will be over before we even get to closing arguments and we didn't want to risk that. However, that presented the defense with an opportunity when they took full advantage of when presenting their case. The defense's position was why would Tommisha Shelton have killed Danielle Young?

There appeared to be no ill will between the two. After all, she'd let her sister and Danielle stay at her trailer, and he'd been helping Tommisha out, tinkering with a couple broken down cars she had parked in the yard. He was trying to get those up and running. And the lack of a motive wasn't the only thing the defense had to raise reasonable doubt. They also did their best to undermine the forensic evidence that provided the foundation

of the prosecution's case. Their argument was that he, it was self-inflicted that he killed himself. And they had a powerful witness to back up those flames to Misha's sister, Katina. During her testimony, she tried to

say that Daniel had tried to take his life when they lived in Nashville that he had taken pills at some point. Katina's testimony took the prosecution by surprise. That flew in the face of everything that we had learned from Danielle's family.

But if it wasn't true, why would Katina lie for her fiance's accused killer? Obviously, she's torn in two different directions. She very much cared for Danielle, young. I believe that. However, she also had a sister that she had known her entire life. Katina was probably doing whatever she could to protect and cover for her sister.

On cross, the prosecution did its best to contain the damage, pointing out that the bullet had entered Danielle's body at a 90-degree angle. We argued that the jury seemed far more consistent with someone placing the gun, and pointing it straight ahead, rather than the person shooting, actually turning the gun on themselves and firing the gun into their chest. And while Danielle did have gunshot residue on his hands, the residue on Tamecia was far more damning.

The gunshot residue on Tamecia was on the palms of her hands. It's common to see gunshot residue on the palms of was on the palms of her hands. It's common to see gunshot residue on the palms of the person who actually fires the weapon. Gang-Yel had gunshot residue on the back of his hand. Did Danielle get gunshot residue on the backs of his hands? Because he'd been trying to ward off Tameesh when she pulled the trigger. If there wasn't any on the palms of the hands, it probably meant you weren't the person holding the gun.

That's what the prosecution claimed. But Tamiya didn't appear to be too worried. She just said they're like, you know, just calm and nothing. She wants to say this thing to speak on her behalf. Which meant that when the jury retired to reach a verdict, their decision would depend entirely on how they interpreted the forensic evidence. For both sides, it was, this is what couldn't have happened,

and this is what probably happened. Nobody could say, this is what happened. Coming up, Tempers Flair as the jury struggles to reach a decision. We could hear raised voices. But what will it mean for Tamiya? She was finna get off. Oh, this is my red choice.

On July 17, 2015, almost six years after Danielle Young had died mysteriously outside a trailer, a Mississippi jury announced that it had reached a verdict in the murder trial of 37-year-old Tamisha Shelton. It came down to one of two people pulled the trigger on that gun, and it was either Tamisha Shelton or it was Danielle Young. It had taken the jury two hours to reach a decision. It got heated at times. We could hear raised voices. You can't tell what they're saying, but there is always heightened anxiety

once that jury goes out. You don't know what they're going to do. But for all the prosecutors' anxiety, Tamisha appeared confident. She sit there dismaling, you know, like she didn't have a current award. I feel like Tamisha felt like she was finna get off on this murder charge. But was her confidence misplaced? The jury returned with a verdict of guilty

on the charge of murder. The courtroom erupted at the news. They read that verdict and court has just a study. Pogra. She has kids. She has kids. Although Tamecia took her conviction surprisingly well. We didn't see tears.

We didn't see any cries out or anything like that from the defendant. Danielle's family was an entirely different story, however. There were a lot of hugs and tears in that room after the verdict was read. It's, you know, it's over, you know, he's free. Although after waiting so long to see Tamecia convicted, the family's relief was tinged with more than a little bitterness. No one should have to wait and suffer the length

that our family have had to wait before justice was served. The only question remaining was how long Tamisha would pay for her crime. And on July 20th, she was back in court to find out. She received a life sentence with the eventual possibility of parole. The way she was sentenced, she'll have to serve until she's 65 years of age. Although even then, there's no guarantee she'll get out. If my family has any say so, she won't get it.

Because you took a life. And I feel like she should sit in jail for it, you know? She should never be able to get out. However, despite all the pain Danielle's death caused the family, his mother has tried to forgive Tamecia. My children, you know, they had a lot of hatred. I told my didn't hate the girl I could feel no hate. But even forgiveness won't change what happened.

It's you and that the comfortable is. All she had to do was tell the truth, just so you did it. We knew you did it. In March of 2017, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied Tamicia Shelton's appeal. Tamicia will be eligible for parole in 2043. Tamicia's four children went to live with members of her family. you