Shawn Windsor

Case details

Shawn Windsor (DOB 11-29-63) was sentenced to death on November 17, 2006.

The offence

Shawn Windsor beat and stabbed his wife, Betty Jean Windsor, and his 8-year-old son, Corey Windsor, in Jefferson County on December 28, 2003. At the time of the murders, there was a valid domestic violence order in effect that required Shawn Windsor to remain at least 500 feet away from Betty Jean Windsor and to commit no further acts of domestic violence.

After killing his wife and son, Windsor fled to Nashville, TN, using his wife’s car. He left the car in a hospital parking garage.

A judge ordered Shawn Windsor to stay at least 500 feet away from his family after a prior domestic-violence assault. When Betty filed for divorce several months after Windsor was found guilty, Windsor refused to accept a summons mailed to his apartment, leaving the divorce in limbo.

Investigation

Law enforcement discovered Betty Windsor’s Corsica in a hospital parking lot. The car was covered in dust and had obviously been there for some time. Police said the car had been abandoned there seven months before.

Investigators later relied on information obtained through media coverage associated with “America’s Most Wanted.” A viewer recognized Windsor’s photo and placed him in a local homeless shelter a few months earlier. U.S. Marshals followed up and found that Windsor had used his real name and birth date. Marshals learned that Windsor had been transferred to a shelter in Shelby, North Carolina. The shelter told authorities that Windsor had left the program with another participant named Wesley. The shelter provided an address for Wesley’s parents.

When Marshals arrived at Wesley’s parents’ door, they were told Windsor had been living in their home for the last four months. The parents also said where Windsor was working. Windsor had been working at an auto parts salvage garage. Marshals identified Windsor at the garage and arrested him without incident.

Arrest

Shawn Windsor was captured in North Carolina in July 2004. He was arrested in the late afternoon of July 15, 2004 in Shelby, North Carolina. The arrest followed the discovery in Nashville, Tennessee on July 8.

Trial

Windsor walked into his sentencing hearing Thursday morning to await judgment. At the hearing, Windsor said:

“Enough is enough, I've admitted to it, I've accepted responsibility, and I'm willing to take the punishment, and I've asked for the harshest punishment possible, which is the death penalty,” Windsor said to Judge Martin McDonald.

Windsor admitted to killing his estranged wife, Betty Jean Windsor, and 8-year-old son, Corey nearly three years earlier.

Windsor’s plea to be put to death was at odds with his own attorneys. Defense attorney Jay Lambert said:

“There's a moral component that comes into this, Judge,” Lambert said.
“If you're going to kill this man, you've got to know who he is.”

Lambert described Windsor as enduring an abusive childhood and argued that physical abuse and Windsor’s troubled upbringing should not have been excluded from consideration. Lambert said:

“Lambert paints Windsor as a man who endured an abusive childhood.”
“There's physical abuse and this court apparently is more than prepared not to hear that. I don't know what else to say.”

Lambert argued that the abuse culminated on December 28, 2003 when he beat and stabbed Betty Jean and Corey to death. A defense witness took the stand, describing documents outlining Windsor’s mental state and his mother’s.

Windsor reacted during the testimony. He said:

“It's like my mother's on trial instead of me,” Windsor said at one point.

Windsor addressed the period of his mother raising the family and said:

“The 60s and 70s were not an easy time for anybody, especially for a single mother. They (defense attorneys) make it sound like she's the worst person on the planet Earth, when she made sure we went to church, she made sure we were clothed and fed, and we had a roof over our head.”

Several members of Betty Jean and Corey’s family members were at the hearing. They and Windsor wanted judgment as soon as possible. Windsor said:

“It makes absolutely no sense to me to put through these individuals back here that have been through enough already through even more pain,” said Windsor.
“It's ridiculous to me. I've accepted responsibility, I think the court needs to rule, and the court needs to rule now.”

Windsor’s hearing was set to resume Friday, when prosecutors were expected to call their witnesses to the stand.

Sentencing

Shawn Windsor was sentenced to death on November 17, 2006.

Appeals

No appeal information was provided.

Background

In the early 1980s, Shawn Windsor met and married his first wife, Angela. Angela was 15 at the time, and her family disapproved of the union. Angela said Shawn encouraged her to leave home, and that they slept by railroad tracks and occasionally stayed with friends because they had no money. Angela said they stayed with a friend of Shawn’s who was a tattoo artist, and she said that was the day Shawn got the letters “S” and “A” tattooed on his arm, promising her they would be together forever.

Angela said she and Shawn had two sons and one daughter. Angela said Windsor’s abusive behavior began when he was drinking and that it worsened over time. Angela described yelling at her, calling her names, pushing her, and smacking her. She said he began punching her. Angela said Windsor’s reaction to her inability to hold the lawn mower steady involved taking the wrench and cracking her on the knee with it, and that she could not walk for several days.

Angela said Windsor began abusing their two sons. She described beating one child son so badly that he could hardly move, after which she said Windsor made him sit cross-legged on the floor. She said when she tried to interrupt the beating, Windsor turned his anger on her, hit her with a nylon dog leash, and threatened to kill her if she ever tried to leave him.

In 1990, Angela’s 15-year-old cousin Betty had problems at school. Betty asked if she could move in with Angela and her family. Angela agreed to let Betty move in. Police said Betty became romantically involved with Windsor, and shortly after, Betty became pregnant. Angela said Betty saw the situation as her chance to escape from Windsor, and Angela said Windsor agreed to divorce her and that she moved out with her children.

Betty gave birth to a baby son named Corey. Windsor asked Betty to marry him. Windsor took a new job working security at a grocery store and persuaded the store manager to let the wedding take place inside the grocery. Angela attended the ceremony. Windsor and Betty tied the knot in the middle of the bread aisle. Angela said the honeymoon did not last long and that Windsor soon returned to abusing Betty.

Family members said Betty was apprehensive about driving a new car with a manual transmission because she could not drive a stick shift. They said Windsor promised to teach her. Police said that in July 2003, while driving around with Betty in the driver’s seat, Windsor became increasingly frustrated and struck her in the face while their eight-year-old son watched from the back seat. Police said Betty decided to press charges, and Windsor was found guilty of a domestic-violence assault. A judge ordered him to stay at least 500 feet away from his family.

After Betty filed for divorce, Windsor refused to accept a summons mailed to his apartment, leaving the divorce in limbo.

Outcome

Windsor was convicted of Murder—2 counts and Theft by Unlawful Taking over $300.

In December 2003, Betty and her son Corey were staying with Betty’s mother during Christmastime. Betty’s family said Betty began to feel guilty that Corey had not spent Christmas with his father. Police said Windsor called Betty on December 28 and asked to see Corey again and invited Betty and Corey over for dinner. Over the family’s protest, Betty reluctantly agreed.

Police said that after Windsor got Betty and Corey inside his home, he stabbed his son in the heart and then beat both Betty and Corey to death with a barbell. When police discovered their bodies, they said a detailed written confession signed by Windsor was found and was covered in blood. After the murders, Windsor disappeared.

Other details

The information included the name “Wesley” as another participant from the shelter, and an address for Wesley’s parents was provided to authorities.