CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County judge has sentenced a man and a woman to prison in connection with a 2022 fatal shooting on Charleston’s West Side.
Tyran Gray (WVRJA)
Tyran Gray, 27, of Detroit, Mich., will spend life behind bars with mercy after being convicted on multiple charges including first-degree murder in April.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Carrie Webster on Tuesday sentenced Gray to the maximum time of life in prison in mercy for first-degree murder, five years in prison for wanton endangerment with a firearm to run consecutively and five years in prison for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm to run consecutively.
The judge also imposed five years in prison for use and presentment of a firearm in the commission of a felony to run concurrently, meaning Gray would be eligible for parole after 20 years.
Co-defendant Cortni Ann Stovall, 29, of Charleston, previously pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in Nov. 2023. The judge on Tuesday imposed the maximum of five years in prison with credit for time served and placed her on supervised probation for one year. She’s already served more than 600 days in jail.
Webster said Stovall needs to eventually become a productive member of society.
“I think it’s important that you transition back into the community while you’re under some level of supervision. You have a felony and that’s going to be there for a long time,” the judge told Stovall.
Cortni Stovall Photo/WVRJA
Both Gray and Stovall were involved in a shooting that happened in the 500 block of Wyoming Street in Charleston on Sept. 9, 2022 that claimed the life of Norman Sweeney, 49, of Charleston.
Investigators said Stovall was driving a car for Gray before and after he shot Sweeney in the face. Sweeny suffered a gunshot wound and later died in the hospital.
Gray told the judge on Tuesday despite his conviction, he remains innocent.
“I just want to say that I’m not guilty,” Gray said.
Farrah Wylie had children with Sweeney. She testified Tuesday that her heart breaks Sweeney is no longer here.
“It’s an unbearable pain for anyone who understands what it means to love someone so much you would trade your life with the power that is for theirs. It’s a pain no one should have to carry,” Wylie told the court.
Wylie said Sweeney and Gray are both Muslim and what Gray did was evil.
“You are accountable for your own actions,” she said. “The fact that you killed another Muslim, it’s like killing our whole community.”
Judge Webster said the crime was drug related.
“The only motive that surfaced was that it was in some way drug related,” Webster said. “There was an absence of any other reason why Mr. Sweeney would’ve been shot dead in the middle of the street.”
Stovall offered an apology for her actions Tuesday. She said she’s been using her time in jail to become a better person.
“My actions were criminal and reckless,” Stovall said. “I look at the time that I spent incarcerated as an opportunity for personal growth. I will not let this define me as an individual. I will redeem myself.”