Shaylyn Moran is a eighteen year old teen killer from Rhode Island that would convince her new fiancee to murder Cheryl Smith
According to court documents Shaylyn Moran would have an online relationship Jack Doherty and the two became engaged. The pair who met for the first time the day before the murder. Moran would convince Jack Doherty to murder Cheryl Smith who was the mother of her ex boyfriend. Jack Doherty would fatally shoot Cheryl Smith at her Rhode Island home.
Shaylyn Moran and Jack Doherty would be arrested.
Shaylyn Moran would be convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison
Jack Doherty would be sentenced to life in prison
Shaylyn Moran Photos
Shaylyn Moran Now
| Inmate ID | Last Name | First Name | MI | Name Type | Race | Gender | Age | Last Residence | Security |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 159467 | MORAN | SHAYLYN | C | Real | WHITE | Female | 22 | UNKNOWN | WOMENS FACILITY 1 |
Shaylyn Moran Case
Twenty-year-old Shaylyn Moran, half of what police said was a murderous duo who killed the mother of her former boyfriend and then boasted about it on social media, pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to life in prison.
Moran, of Pawtucket, was 18 at the time when police said she conspired with a new beau to get even with a former boyfriend after the two had a violent falling out from their brief relationship.
Superior Court Justice Kristin E. Rodgers sentenced Moran to life in prison for the murder of Cheryl Smith with two additional 10-year consecutive sentences for carrying a pistol without a license and conspiring to commit murder.
Smith, 54, died the night of Jan. 1, 2020, when she opened the door of her Baxter Street home in Pawtucket. Greeting her, police said, was Moran’s new fiancé, Jack Doherty, who shot her several times.
Minutes after the killing, police say, Doherty, now 25, rode in a Lyft and tapped out a Snapchat message to Moran: “now this is for life.”
Moran, staying nearby at the Hampton Inn, replied with a heart emoji and words of endearment: “i’m yours forever and you mine.”
Doherty, of New York, remains held without bail awaiting trial on murder and other charges.
Had the case gone to trial prosecutors were prepared to show that the pair had conspired “to shoot and kill anyone who answered the door at the home where Moran’s ex-boyfriend lived,” said the attorney general’s office in a statement.
During a bail hearing for Moran in February 2020 before Rodgers, investigators presented a minute-by-minute timeline of some of the moments from that night, derived from the couple’s phones and social media records.
Moran’s former boyfriend, Leonard Troufield III, also testified at the hearing that he had met Moran on the internet in the fall of 2019. On the first day they met in person, in October, she stayed with him overnight at his mother’s Baxter Street home.
On the fourth day of their relationship, an argument ensued. Moran stormed out of the house and by day’s end had filed police charges against Troufield, alleging assault.
Notwithstanding the allegation and a no-contact order against Troufield, the couple “continued this toxic relationship,” Judge Rodgers said.
Soon Moran began texting Troufield threats, police have said.
“I’ll kill you,” at least one text message said.
Troufield testified the threats extended to his brother, to his dog, to his mother and the daycare center where she worked.
Police said evidence recovered from phone and social media records showed Moran may have recruited Doherty to do Troufield harm.
Among the evidence they presented at the bail hearing was a Dec. 28, 2019, Facebook message Moran sent Doherty: “When I leave for Maine,” where her mother lives, “I’m a need u to hit up Leonard so I can stain and then switch the state.”
Doherty replied: “lol u just let me know.”
The next day, Doherty revisited Moran’s plans to move to Maine in another Facebook message.
Judge Rodgers summarized the meaning of the message from the bench: Doherty asked if “it’s because she has a beef, thereafter offering to pull up and kill that person today. He also says that the defendant just has to let Mr. Doherty know what’s good, that he loves her and would do anything for her.”
At 9:23 p.m. on Dec. 29, 2019, Doherty sent Moran another message saying he was coming to Rhode Island.
In another message sent the following evening “Mr. Doherty informs the defendant that he’s pulling up with a cannon” — an apparent reference to a gun.
He also arrived with an engagement ring.
Just before 10 p.m. the night of Jan. 1, 2020 — about two hours after Cheryl Smith was killed — police said Doherty posted on Facebook a picture of himself and Moran in bed in their hotel room.
Moran is showing off her engagement ring in front of her face, which sports a tattoo of the crosshairs of a gun scope.
With the photo are the words: “we some fighters and some shooters.”
Within minutes of that posting, a Pawtucket detective, still at the shooting scene at 100 Baxter St., saw Doherty’s photo and its caption.
By 10:30 p.m. officers were outside the Hampton Inn room where Doherty and Moran were staying. Police said they found a loaded, holstered pistol in Doherty’s backpack with an extra magazine of bullets.