1ST DEGREE MURDERER SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE
- Aug 5
- 2 min read
District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer reports that the Bradford man convicted of Murder in the 1st Degree following a jury trial in May has been sentenced to life in prison by a judge at a sentencing hearing held at the courthouse. Thomas MCELHATTAN was convicted of killing Rebecca Haynes while her infant child was present in the home. At today’s sentencing, family members of Rebecca read their statements to the judge about their pain over the loss of their sister and daughter due to MCELHATTAN’s actions. All of the family members mentioned how Rebecca’s young child will now grow up without a mother.
District Attorney Vettenburg-Shaffer recounted for the judge various parts of the testimony from trial such as statements made by MCELHATTAN that he “shot that c…sucker in the mouth” while delaying calling 911. She emphasized that the evidence showed that MCELHATTAN was acting with calculated acts in deciding to shoot Rebecca who did not want him inside her home based on their text communication yet he drove to her home with her child; that he shot her 5 times, some at close range all concentrated to her chest area; and that the shots were in a downward direction while Rebecca, trapped by a coffee table pressed against her legs, tried to stop the bullets by putting up her hand – only to have a bullet shot through her hand and into her chest. She recounted the expert testimony at trial that Rebecca was alive for each of the five shots and, she argued that, for each shot, MCELHATTAN could have stopped and called for help but he chose to continue shooting, getting closer with each shot before fleeing the scene with Rebecca’s infant child and waiting 13 minutes to call 911. The DA told the Judge that MCELHATTAN deserves the sentence allowed for Murder in the 1st Degree which is life imprisonment and she asked the judge to specifically order that he is not eligible for parole. She concluded: “Defendant McElhattan deserves every second of the sentence of life imprisonment he is about to receive.” The judge imposed a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
