Jury gets case in Tyson trial

By Marc Barnes
Staff writer
Lawyer Coy Brewer Jr. resurrected an old advertising slogan during closing arguments Thursday in Shanon Tyson’s murder trial: Where’s the beef?

“The procedures and trappings of a first-degree murder case creates the impression of a big fluffy bun, a big formal proceeding with witnesses going to the stand and sitting down and saying something,’’ Brewer said. �� I contend to you that what you have is a big, fluffy bun and there’s just not any beef.”

The jury deliberated about 11/2 hours before court adjourned for the day without a verdict.

Tyson, who is 18, is on trial in Cumberland County Superior Court on kidnapping and murder charges. She is accused of convincing Matthew Myers to kidnap and murder Chris Eggleston, 16, who was found bound and strangled in a swampy area behind Westover High School in June 1997. Jury deliberations will resume when court reconvenes at 9:30 a.m. today.

The state contends that Tyson convinced Myers to act amid tensions between two rival groups at the high school.

Tyson, Myers and Eggleston were involved in The Kindred, a group bound by an interest in fantasy, science fiction and the paranormal. A second group, called The Vampire Hunters, poked fun at The Kindred.

Eggleston befriended members of The Vampire Hunters and was accused of telling The Kindred’s secrets to them and to school officials. Tyson took the stand in her own defense and denied wrongdoing.

In his closing argument, Brewer said there was never any testimony of direct contact between Tyson and Myers, no discussion of a conspiracy, a kidnapping, a murder. What happened, Brewer said, was that a fairly normal set of circumstances turned horribly wrong.

Brewer said a group had a dispute with Eggleston, which prompted some loose talk, which he said is not unusual among high school students.

“None of them meant anything by it,” he said. “But what none of these people knew was that one member of their group, that they thought on a minor note was a bad boy, was actually a profoundly, psychotically disturbed, violent, dangerous young man.”

Brewer said Myers took the talk literally, and with his inability to control his anger and his violent impulses killed Eggleston.

“Either all the rest of these people are guilty or none of them are guilty and the reality is that none of them are guilty, including Shanon Tyson,” Brewer said. “None of them knew Matthew Myers was going to do what he did. He did what he did for his own reasons and it wasn’t because of what anybody else did.”

Prosecutors see the case much differently.

“This is every student’s and every parent’s nightmare in our society today,” Assistant District Attorney Calvin Colyer told the jury. “Every student’s because you can’t go to any school in this community, any school in this country, and be safe. It is every parent’s nightmare because you send a child to school in the morning expecting them to come home at night and they don’t.”

Colyer said Tyson’s action in reporting what she knew early on was a sign that she was manipulating others, which he said began with Myers and her other classmates and continued with school and law enforcement officials.

He said that although Myers didn’t contact Tyson directly, he told two people to tell her that the job was done.

Colyer said the manipulation extended to the courtroom, as Tyson testified. He urged the jurors to consider which witness looked to the audience or counsel table for signals, to determine whether the carefully rehearsed party line was being followed.

“The law holds us responsible for unintended consequences when we enter into criminal activities,” he said. “Did we get everybody? Will we get everybody? Probably not.”

Colyer also referred to the way Tyson became upset during his cross-examination. If a person is telling the truth, he said, no lawyer, juror or judge can make that person scared or nervous.

Colyer urged the jury to deliver the same message to Tyson that Myers had.

“Tell Shanon that she’s guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping, guilty of solicitation to commit first-degree kidnapping, accessory before the fact to first-degree kidnapping and first-degree felony murder. You have heard it all. Tell Shanon it’s done.”