Shyanne Aspen Boyd, the 16-year-old accused of stabbing her mother, Shaylie Lynn Boyd, to death in her sleep in 2022, pleaded guilty as an adult Wednesday in Cortez to second-degree murder and aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
At the end of August, Boyd’s plea deal was struck down by Chief Judge Todd Plewe of the 22nd Judicial District, who said the deal was too lenient for the severity of Boyd’s crimes. The defense drew up another plea deal, which was accepted Wednesday by Plewe.
In the new plea, Boyd pleaded guilty as an adult to second-degree murder and aggravated robbery. In the original plea, she pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of aggravated robbery and would have spent five years in the Department of Youth Services and seven years in the Youthful Offenders System, for a total of 12 years.
Now, because she pleaded guilty as an adult to both charges, she will serve five years in the DYS, then 19 years in the Department of Corrections, for a total of 24 years.
Boyd will receive credit for the time she’s already served in DYS, a little over a year, lowering her time in DYS to four years upon sentencing.
Plewe said he agreed to allow Boyd to serve a few years in DYS so that she would receive mental health treatment before being transferred to a state DOC prison.
When asked by Plewe, Boyd said she understood the charges and her sentence, saying she pleaded guilty to robbing and murdering her mother.
Plewe asked Boyd’s family and friends if they would like to address the court before the sentence was official, but their representative said the family had said all they had to say at the previous court hearing.
Boyd also declined to address the courtroom.
Before delivering Boyd’s sentence, Plewe addressed family and friends of Shaylie Lynn Boyd, who had demanded a stiff sentence. Acknowledging that they might be disappointed with the plea and sentence, he said that he felt it best for Boyd to receive treatment before serving time in the DOC.
“I want the family members to know I listened. … I took it to heart,” he said.
He also expressed his sympathy for their loss, saying cases like this one are difficult to preside over because to the nature of the crime.
“I hope you will accept my deepest condolences. I can’t imagine what you’re going through,” he said.
Plewe then addressed Boyd, saying the crimes she committed were “reprehensible” and that she had committed the “worst crime to take a life.”
“You deserve to be punished for those crimes,” he said. He then gave her a word of advice and encouragement, telling her she could be a different person when she is released from jail and make different decisions, if she chooses to do so.
“You decide what you do from now on,” he said.
Boyd was then given her sentence of five years in DYS, with credit for time already served, and her consecutive sentence of 19 years in the DOC for the second-degree murder of her mother and aggravated robbery.
After the sentencing, Boyd briefly looked back at her family before being taken from the courtroom.
Boyd stabbed her mother to death on July 29, 2022, in her home on County Road L in Cortez. She was later found dead by family members about 8 p.m.
After the stabbing, Boyd, who was 15 years old at the time, fled with a 16-year-old boy in her family’s green Dodge Caravan before turning herself in on July 30 in Leupp, Arizona, 44 miles northeast of Flagstaff.
