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Shawn
WINDSOR
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
- Domestic violence
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
December 28,
2003
Date
of arrest:
July 15,
2004
Date of birth:
November 29,
1963
Victims profile: His estranged wife, Betty Jean Windsor and
their son, Corey Windsor, 8
WINDSOR, SHAWN,
DOB 11-29-63, was sentenced to death on November 17, 2006. Windsor was
convicted of Murder - 2 counts and Theft by Unlawful Taking over $300.
On December 28, 2003, in Jefferson
County, Windsor beat and stabbed his wife, Betty Jean Windsor and 8-year
old son, Corey Windsor. At the time of the murders, there was a valid
domestic violence order in effect which ordered 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 he fled
to Nashville, TN in his wife's car where he left it in a hospital
parking garage. Nine months later, in July of 2004, Windsor was
captured in North Carolina.
Shawn Windsor
Investigators Nab Shawn Windsor
Thanks to the efforts of Americas Most
Wanted viewers, and a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement effort,
accused double murderer Shawn Windsor is in custody tonight. He was
arrested in the late afternoon of July 15, 2004 in Shelby, North
Carolina. Shawn Windsor's arrest is a direct result of the FOX crime
fighting show, America's Most Wanted.
The investigation's big break came in Nashville, Tenn.
on July 8. Police there discovered Betty Windsor's Corsica in a
hospital parking lot. It was covered in dust and had obviously been
there for some time. Cops say the car had been abandoned there seven
months before. They were far behind Windsor, but catching up. The
local media broadcast coverage of the car's discovery in the following
days. This coverage also mentioned that Windsor had been profiled on
Americas Most Wanted.
Tipster Leads Police to North Carolina
One alert news viewer recognized Windsor's photo and she was
able to place him in a local homeless shelter a few months
earlier. When US Marshals followed up, they discovered Windsor
had indeed been there, he had even used his real name and birth
date. But Windsor, they found out, had been transferred to a
shelter in Shelby, N. C.
The shelter told Marshals that Windsor had left the program with
another participant named Wesley. They also provided authorities with
an address for Wesley's parents.
When the Marshals arrived at Wesley's parents' door, they were told
that Windsor had been living in their home for the last four months.
Luckily, the parents knew where Windsor was, too. He had been working
at an auto parts salvage garage. Marshals rushed to the garage,
identified Windsor, and arrested him without incident.
Cops: It Began As Abuse And Ended With Murder
In the early 1980's, Shawn Windsor met and married
his first wife, Angela. Angela was only 15 at the time, and her family
disapproved of the union. She says Shawn encouraged her to leave home,
but the life she left for wasn't much fun. Because they had no money,
she says, they slept by railroad tracks and occasionally stayed with
friends.
On one occasion they stayed with a friend of Shawn's who
was a tattoo artist. Angela says that was the day that Shawn got the
letters "S" and "A" tattooed on his arm, promising her they would be
together forever.
Eventually Shawn and Angela had two sons and one
daughter. But Angela says it was not long before Shawn's abusive
behavior began to surface. She says that at first, it would only happen
when he was drinking; he'd yell at her, call her names, push her, and
smack her. But in time, she says, the abuse got worse, and he began
punching her.
Angela says says Windsor's abuses became worse and
worse. She recalls the day he was in their back yard, attempting to fix
the lawn mower, and asked her to help by holding the mower steady. As
he leaned into the mower using a wrench to fix it, Angela says the
weight of it became too much for her to hold it steady, and she fell
backwards. She says Windsor's reaction was to take the wrench and
cracked her on the knee with it. She says she couldn't walk for several
days.
Eventually, Angela says, Windsor began abusing their
two sons. In one instance, she says, after beating one child son so
badly that he could hardly move, Windsor then made him sit cross-legged on
the floor. When she tried to go in and interrupt the beating, she says,
Windsor turned his anger on her, hitting her with a nylon dog leash and
threatening to kill her if she ever tried to leave him.
A New Woman Enters The Picture
In 1990, Angela's 15-year-old cousin Betty, was
having problems at school. She knew that Angela lived in a better school
district, and asked if she could move in with Angela and her family. She
had no idea what was going on in her cousin's home. But cops say she
would soon become a big part of it.
Angela agreed to let Betty move in, but that turned
out to be a big mistake. Because shortly after Betty arrived, Angela
says, her young counsin became romantically involved with Windsor. And
a few months later, Betty became pregnant.
While Angela says she was hurt, she admits she was
also relieved that Windsor's attention had shifted to someone else. In
fact, she says, she saw this as her chance to escape from Windsor. He
agreed to divorce her, and she moved out with her children.
Soon, Betty gave birth to a baby son she named Corey,
and Windsor asked her to marry him. He took a new job working security
at a grocery store, and persuaded the store manager to let the wedding
take place right inside the grocery. He told the manager it would be a
lot of free publicity for the store. But Angela, who attended the
ceremony, says what he really was after was a free wedding.
Windsor and Betty tied the knot in the middle of the
bread aisle. But their honeymoon wouldn't last long. According to
Betty's family, Windsor was soon back to his old ways -- he began abusing
Betty.
Family members say that when Windsor purchased a new
car with manual transmission, Betty was apprehensive about driving it, because
she could not drive a stick shift. Windsor promised to teach her. In
July, 2003, as they drove around with Betty in the driver's seat, cops
say Shawn became increasingly frustrated at her inability to operate the
car. Police say he struck her in the face -- as their eight-year-old son
watched from the back seat.
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. When Betty filed for divorce
several months later, Windsor refused to accept a summons mailed to his
apartment, leaving the divorce in limbo.
A Deadly Dinner Date
In December, 2003, Betty and her son Corey were
staying with her mother. It was the Christmastime, and according to
Betty's family she began to feel guilty that she hadn't allowed Corey to
spend Christmas with his father.
Police say Windsor called Betty on December 28th,
asking to see Corey again, and inviting Betty and Corey over for dinner. Over
her family's protest, Betty reluctantly agreed.
But Louisville police say dinner wasn't what Windsor
really had in mind. Once he got Betty and Corey inside his home, cops
say, Windsor stabbed his son in the heart and then beat both Betty and
Corey to death with a barbell. When police discovered their bodies,
they also say they found a detailed written confession signed by Windsor
and covered in blood. But Shawn Windsor had disappeared.
AMW.com
Shawn
Windsor Pleads For Death Penalty For 2003 Murders
By
Frances Kuo - Wave3.com
Shawn Windsor walked into his sentencing hearing
Thursday morning to await judgment. However, in his mind, he's already
decided for himself. WAVE 3's Frances Kuo was there.
"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, and 8-year-old son, Corey nearly three years ago.
At his hearing, Windsor's plea to be put to death was
at odds with his own attorneys.
"There's a moral component that comes into this,
Judge," said defense attorney Jay Lambert. "If you're going to kill this
man, you've got to know who he is."
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 added that Windsor's troubled upbringing led
to his unstable mental state. He argued that it 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 the mental state of Windsor and his mother.
The testimony outraged Windsor. "It's like my
mother's on trial instead of me," Windsor said at one point. "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 -- want judgment as soon as
possible.
"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 will resume Friday, when
prosecutors are expected to call their witnesses to the stand.
