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