Ex-Hart city councilman sentenced in bathtub murder of wife

[Dave]

Sentencing is in for the former Hart City Councilman and it looks like he'll be in prison for at least the next 13 1/2 years, up to 75 years. I can only imagine that the family of the victim is relieved that the trial is over and that he will be gone for a long time.

HART, MI – Former Hart city councilman Timothy Nathaniel Shannon is headed to prison for at least 13 ½ years and maybe as much as 75 years for the deliberate bathtub drowning of his wife, Lee-Ann Shannon.

Oceana County 27th Circuit Court Judge Terrence R. Thomas imposed that sentence Monday in Hart. Shannon, 34, pleaded no contest June 3 to second-degree unpremeditated murder.

It will be up to the Michigan Department of Corrections parole board whether Shannon serves the minimum, the maximum or something in between.

Oceana County Prosecutor Joseph Bizon asked for a minimum sentence of 20 years, which would have been at the top end of state sentencing guidelines. Those guidelines, which govern the minimum sentence, were between 12 and 20 years in the case of Shannon, who has no prior criminal record.

“Mr. Shannon is a man who took the life of the mother of his two children,” Bizon said. He said the pre-sentence investigation noted that Shannon was “deceitful throughout this entire process ... He took great steps to cover up his actions,” initially telling investigators his wife had died by suicide or accident while drunk. “Much of his own account of this is bogus.”

In addition, Bizon said, the pre-sentence investigation showed Shannon has “little or no remorse” for his actions.

Shannon’s attorney, Douglas Springstead, disputed that, and Shannon denied it in court before sentencing. “I cried myself to sleep just about every night in jail,” Shannon said.

Bizon said allowing Shannon’s second-degree murder plea, rather than going to trial to try to prove first-degree premeditated murder, was the legally correct decision.

After closely studying the evidence, Bizon said, “we came to the conclusion that there was no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt premeditation.... It was a crime of passion or opportunity,” thus second-degree murder.

The judge said he was imposing a minimum sentence closer to the low end of state guidelines -- while leaving it to the corrections department to decide whether to free Shannon that early or keep him for up to 75 years -- largely because of the high cost to taxpayers of housing a state prison inmate.

Lee-Ann Shannon, who was 34, died Dec. 29 in a bathtub in the couple's home in the 200 block of Courtland Street in the city of Hart. The death was reported initially as an accidental drowning.

When the case turned into a homicide investigation, the Hart Police Department turned it over to the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office because Tim Shannon was a city council member. He later resigned his seat on the council.

Lee-Ann Shannon

Lee-Ann Shannon’s drowning came around mid-morning of the day she was due to leave home at her husband’s insistence, to be replaced by Tim Shannon’s young lover, who actually did move in that day, according to testimony at Tim Shannon’s preliminary hearing Jan. 22.

According to police testimony at that hearing, Tim Shannon told detectives he pushed his wife under water and held her there for a long time after she angrily pulled him into the tub with her and he lost his balance, hitting his head.

Bizon, in an interview with MLive and the Muskegon Chronicle after the sentencing, said that account wasn’t believable, either. He believes Shannon held his wife, whom toxicology reports showed to be highly intoxicated, under water deliberately as a “crime of opportunity.”

The couple’s daughter and son, ages 3 and 4, are in the custody of Tim Shannon's parents.

Lee-Ann’s mother, Irene Chaffin of Shelby, spoke to the judge about her daughter’s relationship with Tim, and his relationship with the much younger Jamie Hathaway. The younger woman had lived in the Shannons’ home earlier for about a year after Lee-Ann invited her in when she was homeless.

“Her and Tim had what I thought was a loving marriage,” Chaffin said of her daughter. “(They had) many problems, because Tim was what I thought was a very controlling young man, but they just seemed to love each other so much.” She said the two met in school, at Spring Arbor College, and kept in contact for five years before Lee-Ann finally agreed to marry him.

But then, after the Shannons took in Hathaway in 2011, “a relationship developed (between Tim and Hathaway). You can imagine how heartbreaking this was for Lee-Ann,” Chaffin said.

Chaffin spoke of how much she misses her daughter, whom she said was highly intelligent, well-traveled, compassionate and a committed Christian.

She said she has forgiven Shannon and hopes he puts his time in prison to good use.

The same is not true for Lee-Ann’s brother, Tom Chaffin of Dallas, Texas, or her cousin, Deborah Lariviere of the San Francisco area.

Lariviere read a statement from Thomas Chaffin and one of her own. Both expressed anger at Shannon and said they will never forgive him.

"May Lee-Ann rest in peace and Tim burn in hell," Lariviere said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2013/07/ex-hart_city_c...

[Willy]

It's hard to believe that someone can kill their wife, admit to it and may only be in prison 13 years. I don't know if they re instituted "good time" in Michigan prisons but if they did he could be out long before 13 years is up, if he's a good boy. 

[XLFD]

I'm sure he'll be the loudest proponent of term limits in his cell block.  Our councilors and mayor can only serve twelve years tops.  I hope the best for their kids.