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Jared Klein 1-7-99 to 12-26-05

Jared loved to play the guitar. He loved to ride his bike and sing as loud as he could as often as he could. Jared wanted to be like Kid Rock. He new every word to every song of his. "Picture" was the very first song that Jared learned of Kid Rocks. Everyone was taken back when this tiny little boy started singing every word to this song. Jared was a good big brother. He took care of his sister. He was the oldest of all his cousins so they all looked up to him. Now they have to go on without the one person that they always looked up to. Jared could lite up the room with just a smile. He would do anything to make you laugh. Jared could run faster then any kid that I knew, and even some adults. Jared was only in the first grade when this happened. This is his story.

My son was taken from me because I would not take my ex-boyfriend, who is my daughters DNA back. I thought he was just coming to visit the kids the day after Christmas. I was not happy to see him but I let him in anyway. We argued for a minute about a phone call we had earlier and then I just stopped talking to him. He talked to Jared and Jared wanted him to go upstairs and watch a movie with him. I told Jared no and that his "dad" had to leave soon. That monster told Jared to go upstairs and get a movie for down stairs. He did, excited as anything that his "dad" was there. I turned around to clean off the portable dvd player for the kids to watch on the road trip when he came up behind me and duct taped my mouth. He told me he was going to kill me. And then he started to beat me. My daughter was asleep on the couch but eventually woke up to me screaming and saw everything! Jared ran down the stairs to help me. He said "dad please don't" and then he was punched in the face so hard that he went flying back. My son and I were both beaten and strangled. Until I was eventually strangled unconscious. I awoke upstairs were I was raped. I kept asking about Jared and that monster kept saying that he was okay that he tied him up and put him in the closet. And that if I keep asking that he will kill him. Later I was told that my son was beaten even after I was out. That my son was actually tortured. He was beaten strangled, suffocated, then stabbed. My sons brain was swollen he had bruises everywhere and he was awake when he was stabbed. They said that my sons death was not instant. It was slow and painful. My son was just trying to help me. I could hear my daughter crying downstairs. I could barely move. IT eventually left taking my car with him..I crawled downstairs to find my boy laying in a puddle of blood with nothing but the black handle of a knife sticking out the left side of his neck. The knife went almost through to the other side. He was six years old, a week and a half away from being seven. I was in ICU for days. I never got to stay by his side or tell him that I loved him. He died by himself with my 2 year old watching in horror because IT needed to get laid one last time before he left.

SOURCE: http://jaredmyangel.com/index.html

[Admin]

Man wanted for questioning in Tyrone child slaying arrested in Oklahoma

Associated Press
The Tribune Democrat
December 29, 2005

BLACKWELL, Okla. — A man wanted for questioning in the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Tyrone boy was arrested late Wednesday in northern Oklahoma after a high-speed chase, authorities said.

Nathan T. Shaw, 25, of Tyrone, was arrested in Blackwell, Okla., about two hours north of Oklahoma City, Tyrone Police Chief Joseph Beachem said.

Police described Shaw as a “person of interest” in the Monday night killing of Jarod Klein and the beating of the boy’s mother. Jarod bled to death from a single stab wound to the left side of his neck, according to the Blair County coroner.

Blackwell police responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle at a local church Wednesday, Beachem said. When the officer asked the driver for his license, the driver, who police say was Shaw, fled.

The ensuing chase reached speeds of up to 100 mph, Beachem said, and ended when Shaw crashed the car, which belongs to Jarod’s mother and Shaw’s ex-girlfriend. Tyrone police had reported the car stolen.

After the crash, Shaw took off on foot and was soon caught, Beachem said.

“With the recovery of the vehicle, obviously we’re happy some parts of the puzzle are coming together,” Beachem said.

Oklahoma authorities will extradite Shaw to Pennsylvania on a parole-violation warrant, Beachem said. He did not know why Shaw is on parole.

Beachem also said he didn’t know whether Shaw would fight extradition.

Someone called Tyrone police about 10 p.m. Monday to report there was a man with a weapon at Jarod’s mother’s house, Beachem said. Authorities would not discuss a possible motive.

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Man ‘of interest’ in child’s death held in Okla.

By Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
Decemebr 29, 2005

TYRONE — Bond has been set at $1 million for a Blair County man being held in Oklahoma as a “person of interest” in the brutal stabbing death of a 6-year-old boy.

The bail was set so high for Nathan T. Shaw, 25, of Tyrone, because of expected murder charges against him stemming from the Monday night homicide n Tyrone, officials in Oklahoma said.

“Assuming that Pennsylvania gets a murder warrant for him, which is our assumption, we’ve put a hold on him,” said Tara Doty, prosecuting attorney for Kay County, Oklahoma.

Shaw has been charged with eluding police and transporting stolen property – the car he was driving – across the state line, both felonies. He also faces three misdemeanors – reckless driving, not wearing a seat belt and driving without insurance, Doty said from the Kay County seat of Newkirk.

If the murder charges materialize, Shaw will face the Pennsylvania counts first, Doty said.

As of late Thursday, Tyrone Police Chief Joe Beachem would not refer to Shaw as anything more than “a person of interest” in the stabbing death of Jarod Klein. The boy lived with his mother, Christina Muoio at 1550 Pennsylvania Ave., in a complex known as the Tyrone Townhouses.

“We do have a lot of evidence in this case. But we want to proceed as thoroughly and professionally as we can,” Beachem said following a meeting Thursday in the Blair County district attorney’s office.

“We would like to see him back here as soon as humanly possible, and we are making progress in the investigation,” Beachem said. “But we’d like him to talk to us.”

Jarod Klein was stabbed in the left side of the neck with a kitchen knife at 10:10 p.m. Monday at his home.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon showed the boy bled to death as a result of the single knife wound, authorities said.

Muoio also received extensive injuries in the attack and remains in the Altoona Hospital, Beachem said.

Authorities would not discuss a possible motive.

Shaw was approached in a church parking lot in a rural area outside of Blackwell, Okla.

“He was driving the female victim’s vehicle,” Beachem said.

Shaw’s apprehension in the 1993 Nissan Sentra belonging to Muoio is key in the case, Beachem said.

“I think a big piece of the puzzle has fallen into place,” he said.

Muoio’s 2-year old daughter, fathered by Shaw, was at the home during the attack but was not injured, Beachem said.

Police believe Shaw left Tyrone in Muoio’s car late Monday and covered the 1,200 miles to Oklahoma by Wednesday.

“Who in the world knows where he was going, but the north-south Interstate 35 goes right through Blackwell,’’ Doty said. She surmised he might have been heading to Mexico.

In Blackwell, Shaw pulled into The Christian Church parking lot and parked the car with the license plate against the building. He was asleep when he was approached by authorities, Blackwell assistant police chief Maj. Joe Ball said.

When asked for ID, he drove off with officers in pursuit.

Shaw led police through the town of about 8,000. The pursuit eventually covered about five miles at speeds reaching 120 mph, Ball said.

The chase ended when the left rear tire on the vehicle Shaw was driving blew out. The vehicle went into a bridge at a speed estimated at 100 mph and caught fire.

Shaw took off on foot to a nearby creek, where he was captured.

“He made the statement to the officer who came up on him, ‘Just shoot me. Just shoot me,’ ” Ball said.

Shaw was treated at the Blackwell Hospital for injuries he sustained in the accident, which Ball described as scrapes and bruises. Shaw was lodged in the Kay County Jail.

Blackwell police initially wanted to talk to Shaw on a parole violation issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Parole and Probation, the agency that will pursue his extradition back to Blair County, Beachem said.

Shaw was still on probation for assaulting two Tyrone Borough police officers about two years ago, Beachem said.

Court records show Shaw has had a number of run-ins with police dating to 1999, including a charge that he took more than $1,100 from the Tyrone Dollar General Store three years ago and that he jumped a man at a fast-food restaurant in 2003.

[Admin]

Police: Tyrone boy beaten, choked before being stabbed

By Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
January 11. 2007

TYRONE — A 6-year-old boy murdered the day after Christmas was beaten and choked before being stabbed in the neck.

Police spell out in court documents filed at the office of District Judge Fred Miller of Tyrone that Jared Klein bled to death from the knife wound.

The information became available hours after the arraignment of Nathan Todd Shaw, 25, of Tyrone, the man police for two weeks have been willing to term only as a person of interest.

Shaw was returned Tuesday from Oklahoma, where he had fled following the murder. Shaw is currently in the Blair County Prison with no bail set.

A preliminary hearing has tentatively been set for Jan. 17.

Shaw is also charged with a brutal attack on Christine Muoio, Jared’s mother.

The attack sent Muoio to the hospital in critical condition. While the full extent of her injuries was not reported, she remained hospitalized for more than a week.

[Admin]

Child's brutal murder detailed

By Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
Januray 27, 2006

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A man accused of killing a boy and raping a woman was bound over for court on numerous charges at a preliminary hearing Friday.

A defiant Nathan Shaw, 25, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, walked into court rattling his handcuffs and appeared restless during much of the 90-minute proceeding.

A pathologist described in riveting testimony what must have occurred to the boy, Jared Klein, 6, prior to his death. The boy’s mother also described what she witnessed of the attack on her son and herself.

Dr. Gordon Handte – who performed an autopsy on Jared a day after the boy was murdered Dec. 26 – said the knife was plunged into the left side of his neck, which caused certain death. The body also had multiple bruising to the head.

“It (the knife) was buried deep into the neck and the tissue, which implies a significant force,” Handte said from the witness stand.

Handte said he had difficulty removing the knife during the autopsy because so much force was used.

“There was so much force it went into the back of the neck and it almost exited the back of the neck,” he said.

The blade struck the jugular vein on the left side of the neck, Handte said, causing significant bleeding that led to the boy’s death. But Jared’s death was not quick because the knife struck a vein rather than an artery.

“It is not an instant death. I think he had some significant suffering prior to his death,” Handte said.

Jared’s mother, Christina Muoio, who has a 2-year-old girl fathered by Shaw, recounted the events that led to her son’s death allegedly at the hands of the man he considered his dad.

Jared was assaulted after he came to his mother’s defense. The boy stepped in when the attacker came up behind her, put duct tape over her mouth, and started punching her.

“He said, ‘Daddy please stop,’ and Nate punched him in the face,” Muoio testified.

The impact threw Jared backward into a DVD stand, and Shaw just kept punching him, she testified.

“I told him to run and he only got two feet when Nate pulled him back,” she said.

The suspect allegedly tried to choke both of them and Muoio grabbed him. He then choked her until she lost consciousness.

She regained consciousness as Shaw was taking her upstairs. Her hands were tied with her arms looped around her neck.

Muoio said she passed out again and regained consciousness as Shaw was undressing her. She asked about Jared and Shaw said he was just knocked out, Muoio testified.

Muoio said she thought every bone in her face was broken, and said she was unable to move to her right side. Her hands were bound and the attacker had tied her pajama bottoms around her ankles.

Shaw eventually raped her, she said. He brought their crying daughter to her in the bed and left the apartment in her 1993 Nissan.

She crawled through a hallway and down the steps, where she saw Jared on the first floor in a pool of blood and the knife protruding from his neck.

Jared died at the scene and Muoio spent four days in intensive care.

She was released from the hospital after about a week so “I could bury my son,” she said.

Shaw was arrested four days later in Blackwell, Okla.

Muoio said she had dated Shaw before he got into trouble for an assault, but ended the relationship after he was incarcerated.

Defense attorney Theodore Krol said his client is pleading not guilty to all counts. They include criminal homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, rape, sexual assault, three counts of aggravated indecent assault, theft, two counts of indecent assault, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.

The hearing was held at the Blair County Courthouse for security reasons. It was handled by Magisterial District Judge Fred Miller of Tyrone, who ordered Shaw to stand trial on all charges.

Afterward, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio declined to say if he plans to seek the death penalty in the event of a first-degree murder conviction.

“It is the policy of my office not to announce that until the arraignment,” he said.

Shaw’s arraignment is scheduled March 3.

State law stipulates that Consiglio must let the defendant know then whether a capital-murder conviction will be sought.

[Admin]

Death penalty sought in killing of 6-year-old

By Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
March 03, 2006

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County man charged in the stabbing death of a 6-year-old boy will face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors said Friday.

Nathan Shaw, 25, of Tyrone, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, stood motionless in front of Judge Daniel Milliron during his five-minute arraignment. Shaw also is accused of beating and raping the child’s mother, his former girlfriend.

The arraignment was held a half hour earlier than scheduled for security reasons.

The defense told the court that Shaw was pleading innocent to the charges. The list includes criminal homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, rape, sexual assault, three counts of aggravated indecent assault, theft, two counts of indecent assault, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.

Shaw is accused of stabbing Jared Kline in the neck during the evening of Dec. 26. Authorities said Shaw also beat and raped Christina Muoio, Jared’s mother and the mother of a 2-year-old girl by Shaw.

Tyrone Borough police claim Shaw then stole Muoio’s 1993 car and fled the area. He was captured four days later in Blackwell, Okla., after crashing Muoio’s car into a stream following a high-speed chase.

Friday’s arraignment served to officially inform Shaw of the charges against him and included notification by District Attorney Richard Consiglio that it is a capital murder case because of the aggravating circumstances.

“We believe we have several aggravating circumstances in this case,” Consiglio said following the arraignment.

He said they are:

• An attack on a child younger than 12 years old.

• Use of torture.

• A murder perpetrated during the commission of a separate felony or felonies: The rape and aggravated assault of Muoio and the theft of her car.

The torture included the numerous attacks Shaw made on Jared, police said. He beat him in the head and chest area, choked him and stabbed him, Consiglio said.

Death was caused by a stabbing with such force that the blade went past the spinal column and into the tissue nearly to the back of the neck, a pathologist testified at Shaw’s preliminary hearing in January.

A trial date has yet to be set.

Consiglio said his office already has turned over a large amount of evidence to the defense.

Tyrone police are awaiting results on some evidence sent to the state police crime lab in Greensburg, he said.

While Shaw was quiet and motionless in court, he had a nervous demeanor outside.

“He was pacing the whole time he was in the holding cell,” Blair County Sheriff Larry Field said. “He just kept walking around.”

[Admin]

Accused child killer moved for beating corrections officer

Phil Ray
Altoona Mirror
September 15, 2006

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Tyrone man awaiting trial for the murder of a 6-year-old boy was transferred to the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale after he brutally beat a corrections officer at Blair County Prison.

Warden Donald Ott said Friday that information about the assault was turned over to the Hollidaysburg Borough Police Department. He said charges are expected to be filed against Nathan T. Shaw.

Shaw, 25, faces the death penalty for the January stabbing of his estranged girlfriend’s 6-year-old son.

He is accused of assaulting the mother and murdering Jared Klein by driving a knife into his neck.

Ott said the assault of the officer occurred Sept. 11.

Since his incarceration in January, Shaw has not been a problem, but on Monday, he was given an order to go to lock up. Suddenly he began hitting the officer in the face.

The officer, who Ott did not name, was taken to the hospital for treatment with both of his eyes eyes swollen nearly shut.

He suffered a cut on his head, which required 11 staples to close, and a cut on his nose requiring four stitches.

The officer’s nose and a finger were broken, and he remains off duty, Ott said.

The warden said this was the worst assault on an officer he has seen in his 26 years at the jail.

“It all happened spontaneously, within seconds,” Ott said.

A “Code Red” was called, and other officers offered assistance within seconds, he said.

Shaw then was placed in a holding cell.

“We live with it every day,” Ott said as he discussed the dangerous environment of the jail.

He said the jail has been lucky, noting that there have been only four assaults by inmates on officers in the past two years.

The jail was crowded Friday, with 323 inmates, and Ott said it’s hard to keep someone like Shaw isolated or segregated because of the crowded conditions.

Shaw has been in jail since he was arrested in Oklahoma, where he fled after the boy’s murder.

According to charges, he arrived at the former girlfriend’s home Dec. 26.

Shaw bound the mother’s hands and mouth with duct tape and dragged her to a bedroom, where the assault took place.

He is charged with stealing the woman’s car and leaving the area.

According charges, the mother also was beaten severely on the face by Shaw.

When the woman was able to free herself, she found her son on the first floor of the home with a knife in his neck.

[Admin]

Trial set for alleged child killer

Phil Ray
Altoona Mirror
September 21, 2006

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The trial of a man accused of murdering a 6-year-old boy in Tyrone will begin in mid-January, a Blair County judge said Wednesday.

Judge Dan Milliron also appointed veteran defense lawyer Steven P. Passarello to represent Nathan Todd Shaw during a death penalty hearing if the jury convicts Shaw of first-degree murder.

Shaw is charged with the stabbing death of Jared Klein, the son of an estranged girlfriend.

Shaw’s lead attorney, Assistant Public Defender Theodore Krol, asked Milliron to try the case before a jury from outside Blair County because of the publicity the case has generated.

He also has asked that prospective jurors be quizzed extensively about their knowledge of the case “to ensure a fair and impartial jury free from outside information.”

Milliron said he will hear legal arguments for an out-of-county jury Nov. 1 and said any lingering pretrial questions should be filed by that date.

The prosecution, led by District Attorney Richard Consiglio, also must present defense attorneys with a list of witnesses by that time.

Jury selection is to begin Jan. 8, with the trial to start Jan. 16.

Police charge that Shaw went to the Tyrone home of his estranged girlfriend Dec. 26.

The meeting went sour, and Shaw began to beat the girlfriend and her son. He took the woman upstairs, bound her and raped her, police said.

Shaw then left the Tyrone home and stole the woman’s car, according to charges.

When the woman eventually freed herself, she found her son dead on the living room floor with a knife thrust into his neck.

Shaw was arrested in Oklahoma and returned to Blair County.

He will be the fifth suspect to face the death penalty in Blair County during the past six years.

On Sept. 11, Blair County Prison authorities said Shaw assaulted a corrections officer, and he was moved to the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale.

The attack is being reviewed by prosecutors from the district attorney’s office, but as of Wednesday, no new charges were filed.

[Admin]

Jurors to Report to Hear Shaw Capital Murder Case

By Chris Forshey
WRTA
Jan 8, 2007

Jury selection begins this morning in a high-profile Blair County Murder trial.

Lawyers will sift through 400 jurors to hear the capital murder case against accused killer Nathan Shaw, who is charged with stabbing a 6-year-old Tyrone boy to death last December. Prosecutors also charged the 26-year-old Shaw with raping the boy’s mother, and then stealing her car and fleeing to Oklahoma, where he left police on a high-speed chase.

Shaw was brought back to Pennsylvania last January to face the charges. As of Friday, 381 jurors remained on the list to potentially hear testimony against Shaw. Defense lawyers had requested that the trial be moved or that an out-of-county jury be brought in to hear the case. Blair County Judge Daniel Milliron has ruled that the county would attempt to seat a jury first, before considering a potential move.

Shaw faces the death penalty if he is convicted on the first-degree murder charge. Jury selection is expected to last the whole week. Testimony could begin as early as next Monday.

[Admin]

Defense to dispute intent in 6-year-old boy's murder

Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
January 16, 2007

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The man charged in the killing of a 6-year-old boy is expected to admit he stabbed Jared Klein, the first-grader who called him “Daddy.”

But Nathan Shaw hopes to convince a jury that – although he wielded the knife – the homicide lacked the intent needed for a conviction for first-degree murder and the death penalty.

“He treated him like his son,” defense attorney Theodore Krol told the jury.

“He caused the death of Jared Klein, but it was not under circumstances claimed by the commonwealth.”

Tuesday was opening day of the murder case of Shaw, 27, of Tyrone, who was living in Johnstown on Dec. 26, 2005, the day he visited Christine Muoio and her two children in Tyrone.

Police believe Shaw had hoped to revive his relationship with Muoio, who had ended it in the months before the murder.

Authorities contend Shaw punched, shoved, choked and finally stabbed Jared after the boy came to his mother’s defense.

In opening remarks, Assistant District Attorney Doug Keating said Shaw acted with forethought and formed intent before he plunged a 5-inch blade into the boy.

The defense will attempt to show Shaw did not intend to kill Jared.

Along with first-degree murder, Shaw also is charged in the rape and physical assault of Muoio.

[Admin]

Shaw found guilty of murdering 6-year-old boy

Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
January 18, 2007

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Jurors convicted a Blair County man early today of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Jared Klein, 6, not buying the defense contention that the homicide was accidental.

Nathan Shaw, 27, also was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault, rape, theft, simple assault, indecent assault, false imprisonment and other lesser charges.

Shaw stared intently at the jury until the jury’s decision was read.

Upon hearing the guilty verdicts, he turned to one of his attorneys and said, “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what I did. I told the truth. What happened to justice?”

Jurors deliberated for 8 1/2 hours before reaching their verdict at about 1 a.m.

“We were disappointed that a number of the jurors were swayed to the first degree,” said defense attorney Theodore Krol.

Jurors will reconvene at 11:30 a.m. today for the penalty phase of the trial, in which a death sentence will be considered.

Shaw took the stand in his own defense earlier Thursday and told jurors he was running down a hallway carrying a kitchen knife when he accidentally collided with Jared and the knife plunged into the boy’s neck.

Shaw, of Tyrone, denied beating and attempting to strangle Jared on Dec. 26, 2005, at the Tyrone home the boy shared with his mother, Christine Muoio, and his younger sister, Angel – Shaw’s daughter. He’d traveled there from the Johnstown halfway house where he had been temporarily living.

He said an unknown man was in the house that day, that his stabbing of Jared was accidental and that his former girlfriend begged him for sex when she thought she was going to die.

The DA said that version of events was preposterous.

“That is the most outrageous thing you heard in this case. It may even be the most outrageous thing you will ever hear,” District Attorney Richard Consiglio said in closing arguments.

Shaw testified he had a knife in his hand because he planned to confront an unknown man he thought Muoio was seeing.

“I knocked him (Jared) down, and I fell on top of him. I picked him up and carried him downstairs,” said a tearful Shaw.

“He had a knife in him. I didn’t know what to do.”

In a sequence of events Consiglio later called unbelievable, Shaw testified he then bound Muoio – unconscious from a beating – with duct tape, dragged her upstairs and raped her.

Shaw testified that Muoio – who had a broken nose, beaten face and blood running down her throat – told him she wanted to have sex before she died.

The relationship between Shaw and Muoio had ended several months prior to the assault, and Shaw was trying to rekindle it when he became suspicious that Muoio had a new boyfriend.

He testified that he was a caring, loving father and had a good relationship with Jared, who saw little of his biological father.

Shaw testified that he took duct tape to the Muoio house so he could restrain the supposed boyfriend and talk to him.

Consiglio said Shaw went to the home with other intentions.

“Hatred had a lot to do with this little boy’s death. Control had a lot to do with this little boy’s death, because he couldn’t control that woman. Hatred got so bad, he beat her and killed him,” Consiglio said.

Krol argued the prosecution was successful in putting Shaw at the scene and the knife in his hand but contended the death was not intentional.

“He didn’t have the intent to kill Jared Klein. The assault against Christine, we don’t contend that (was unintentional),” Krol said.

[Admin]

Nathan Shaw guilty of first degree murder

By Rob Carolus
Daily News
January 19, 2007

Former Tyrone resident Nathan Todd Shaw looked square in the eyes of a Blair County jury and pled his case.

“I would never hurt Jared,” he said as tears rolled down his cheeks. “I loved him. He was my son.”

As he took the stand in his own defense, Shaw told a tale of a “mystery man” he heard arguing with his ex-girlfriend upstairs in her two-story townhouse the evening of Dec. 26, 2005. He explained, as his face turned a deep shade of red, how he quickly went into Christina Muoio’s kitchen and retrieved a large knife, then hurried up the stairs in order to come to the aid of her and her son, Jared.

The jury wasn’t buying it, however, as evidenced by its verdict rendered some nine hours after being presented with the case on Thursday.

Near 1 a.m. this morning, following an elongated deliberation period, the decision was issued: Guilty on all counts, including first degree murder for the stabbing death of six-year-old Jared Klein.

Aside from first degree murder, Shaw was also convicted of numerous other charges including two counts of aggravated assault - one for the attack on Muoio and one for the beating of Klein - rape, unlawful restraint and theft of an automobile.

Shaw’s version of the events that led to Jared’s death was decidedly different than the story told by Jared’s mother during testimony two days earlier. Shaw told of a conversation he’d had with the boy he called “son” in the days leading up to the night-after-Christmas attacks, during which Jared said his mother had a “new boyfriend who makes her cry.”

Shaw said he’d come to Tyrone that night to confront the man ... and he brought along a roll of duct tape for the occasion.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I was gonna hurt this guy,” he said to the jury.
“He was trying to keep me from seeing my children. I was gonna tie him up and confront him - he had no right telling me I couldn’t come to Chrissy’s (Muoio) house to see my kids.”

During his testimony, the defendant said the alleged new boyfriend, who Shaw identified as apartment manager of the Tyrone Townhouses where Muoio resided, had sent a letter stating Shaw was no longer allowed on the townhouse property. Shaw explained that this angered him, claiming the apartment manager was only doing it because of the relationship he’d kindled with Shaw’s estranged girlfriend Muoio.

Muoio denies having a relationship with the apartment manager.

Shaw testified that during the first minutes of his unannounced visit to the Muoio residence on Dec. 26, both Klein and Muoio went upstairs, then minutes later, he heard a commotion coming from above. He said he heard Muoio and a “man” arguing and that’s when he went for a knife.

“I ran up the steps as fast as I could,” Shaw testified. “When I got to the top of the steps and turned the corner, Jared was coming the other direction and we ran into each other - the knife was in my hand.

“I knocked him down, into the wall, and fell on top of him,” Shaw continued. “I saw the knife in his neck, I didn’t know what to do. I never meant to hurt him.

“I took Jared downstairs to the living room and tried to give him CPR,” Shaw said as he tearfully continued with his account of that tragic December night. “I started blowing into his mouth, pounding on his chest, but nothing worked. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Shaw said the “man” then came downstairs, saw Jared’s body and “ran out” of the apartment, never looking back.

During prosecution rebuttal, the townhouse manager and his wife were both called as witnesses. They testified that on the night of the murder, they were no where near Tyrone; they were on the other side of the continent in Los Angeles visiting family over the holidays and that they’d received the report of the murder on a cell phone while waiting for a flight at Los Angeles International Airport.

According to Shaw, when Muoio came downstairs and saw her son lying dead on the living room floor, she “lost it.”

“She started screaming, ‘you killed my son!’” Shaw said. “She was hysterical. I tried to explain to her what happened - that it was an accident - but she wouldn’t hear it. She kept saying she was calling the cops and I’d be going to jail for the rest of my life.

“I was scared. I panicked and I hit her. I don’t deny it.”

Shaw admitted to tearing all three of Muoio’s telephones out of the wall and to striking her “numerous times.” He also confessed to taping her mouth and wrists with duct tape, because she was “out of control” and “wouldn’t stop screaming.”

He then told the jury that he carried her upstairs and placed her on her bed. That’s when Shaw’s account of the night took a hard left turn.

“She was really scared and feared for her life,” he said. “She thought I was going to kill her, so she said, ‘get me off one last time before you kill me.’ That’s when I had sex with her. She asked me to.”

This testimony was answered by a chorus of groans throughout the courtroom. Even Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio reacted to the statement, angrily throwing a pen down on the prosecution table and shaking his head.

Defense attorney Theodore Krol did what he could to present a case for a lesser charge of third degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, calling into question the Wednesday testimony of forensic pathologist Dr. Gordon Handte who performed Klein’s autopsy. Krol was able to get Handte to admit that Shaw’s version of the stabbing was “possible” but the medical examiner qualified the statement during Attorney Consiglio’s rebuttal by saying it was “not likely.”

“I submit that the prosecution has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Krol said during closing arguments. “There was no specific intent to kill. This was clearly a tragic accident; a case of involuntary manslaughter. This man was a loving father to Jared and never meant to cause harm that night.”

“An accident?!? An accident?!? Please,” said Consiglio during his closing remarks. “Hate and control had a lot to do with this boy’s
death. He couldn’t stand the thought of Christina having a relationship with someone else. It just so happened that Mr. Shaw showed up unannounced that night. It just so happened that he had a roll of duct tape with him. It just so happened that he was running up the stairs and Jared was running in the other direction. It just so happened that the knife accidentally hit Jared in the jugular vein. It just so happened that all three of the phones in the house were ripped from the walls after this accident, instead of using them to dial 911.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit that he did what he did intentionally and I ask that you find this defendant guilty of first
degree murder.”

When the verdict was read early this morning, Shaw could be heard saying, “What happened to justice? I told the truth.”

The penalty phase of the trial begins today and prosecutors will seek death for Shaw.

[Admin]

Jury spares killer

Kathy Mellott
The Tribune-Democrat
January 20, 2007

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury failed to reach a unanimous decision Friday evening between life in prison and death by lethal injection for a Tyrone man convicted of the first-degree murder of Jared Klein.

The hung jury essentially spared the life of Nathan Shaw, 27. State law requires that Judge Daniel Milliron now sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Initial word of the hung jury came about 2 1/2 hours into deliberations, with the foreman telling Milliron he saw no hope of the 12 reaching an agreement.

Milliron asked each one to re-examine his or her position if possible and ordered jurors back into deliberations.

The jury returned 11/2 hours later, again unable to reach a consensus. Milliron then dismissed the jurors.

The reaction was mixed from the family of Jared, the 6-year-old boy who died Dec. 26, 2005, of a knife wound to the neck.

“(Shaw) should have died. My son didn’t have a choice, but of course, that piece of (expletive) does,” said Jared’s mother, Christine Muoio.

The boy’s uncle said he was satisfied with the outcome of the four-day trial that ended with the first-degree murder conviction in the wee hours Friday. Pat Muoio said, “At least he got life, that’s what I wanted.”

Shaw’s grandmother, Phyllis Shaw of Tyrone, was pleased with the stalemate.

“We’re relieved. We didn’t want him to get the death penalty,” she said.

Christine Muoio was the victim of a brutal rape and beating at Shaw’s hands the night he murdered her son.

Shaw will be formally sentenced by Milliron on a date to be scheduled.

Prior to that date, a presentence investigation will look at Shaw’s criminal past, a background that was kept from the jury.

It will show that, two weeks prior to the murder, Shaw was released from prison and living in a Johnstown halfway house, the result of 2004 charges that he assaulted Christine Muoio and a Tyrone police officer.

Death-penalty counsel Steven Passarello made an impassioned plea asking the jury to spare Shaw’s life as he methodically ticked off the steps that would be taken should Shaw be put to death.

Despite having children 4 and 10 years of age and having lost a child to a premature death, Passarello said, he defended Shaw because he believes in the system that gives jurors the right to choose life over death.

“I believe we are a people quicker to mercy than we are to revenge,” he said.

Passarello’s pleas were countered by an emotional statement from Christine Muoio outlining the impact of Jared’s death.

She spoke of him having just one day to play with new Christmas toys and of the words which echo in her mind, his young voice pleading with Shaw to stop hurting him and his mother.

“Jared was learning how to play the guitar. He wanted to be a rock star,” she said. “Jared wanted to be a lot of things, but most of all he wanted to be alive.”

As part of the aggravating factors the jury had to consider, district attorney Richard Consiglio outlined the young age of the child, which makes the murder much harsher, according to state law.

Also on the scale of aggravating factors was Shaw’s rape of his former girlfriend. He also had beaten Muoio after she refused a Christmas gift from him.

The mitigating factors raised by the defense portrayed Shaw as abandoned by his mother at age 3 and raised by a single father who worked long hours, drank heavily and smoked marijuana.

His father, Gary Shaw of Tyrone, spoke of his son’s early years and how his son got involved in alcohol and drugs at age 13.

His mother, Lorrie Howard of Clinton County, said she fled a violent household, taking Nathan Shaw with her but returning him to his father less than a year later.

Her court appearance was the first time she has seen her son since he was 12.

“He hasn’t had a good life because of me,” Howard said.

The only expert testimony in the penalty phase hearing was from Dr. Marc Tabackman, a forensic psychologist, who examined Shaw and determined he had developmental problems – perhaps because his mother drank and used drugs while pregnant.

Testifying for the defense, Tabackman said Shaw was impacted negatively by an unstable home and lack of a mother, and continues to have attention deficit disorder.

[Admin]

Shaw sentenced to life in prison

Rob Carolus
Daily News
January 20, 2007

“This jury had an obligation to issue the death penalty in this case, and they failed,” said a disheartened and exhausted Peggy Miller, grandmother to a young Tyrone boy who never lived to see his seventh birthday. Miller spoke immediately following the news that the murderer of her grandson would be allowed to live.

Nathan Todd Shaw, 26, formerly of Tyrone, was sentenced to life in prison in Blair County Court Friday, just one day after a jury found him guilty of first degree murder and other related charges. The panel of six men and six women got the sentencing case at just before 4 p.m. and was deadlocked on “life or death” throughout the evening.

The jury foreman twice notified Blair County Judge Daniel Milliron of their “inability to arrive at an agreement.”

The second time, Milliron ruled it a “hung jury.”

Shaw stood trial for fatally stabbing 6-year-old Jared Klein during a rampage in the young boy’s Tyrone home the night of Dec. 26, 2005.

Shaw was found guilty of beating the boy repeatedly, choking him and fatally stabbing him, then leaving his lifeless body in the middle of the living room floor, with the murder weapon - a kitchen knife - still embedded four inches deep in his neck. He also attacked Klein’s mother, Christina Muoio, his ex-girlfriend. Shaw punched her several times in the face, breaking her nose and eye sockets. He also choked her, then dragged her upstairs to her bed, bound her by the hands and feet and raped her.

Milliron explained that in the case of a hung jury during first degree murder sentencing, his legal obligation was to issue life without the possibility of parole.

The jury contemplated the case for over five hours, in similar fashion to their Thursday night deliberation that ultimately produced a guilty verdict for murder in the first degree. While deliberation was still going on, lead defense counsel Theodore Krol said, “It’s hard to tell what’s going on in (the jury room). To form a judgment at this point would be speculation.”
Prior to being excused for deliberation Friday afternoon, the jury heard from several witnesses for both sides, including Shaw’s father, mother and grandparents, and Muoio and Miller, Muoio’s mother. These “impact statements” gave the families of the victims and the defendant the opportunity to directly express their feelings on what penalty should be dealt out for the vicious crimes.

“The impact of losing Jared has been unbearable,” said Muoio as she tearfully delivered her statement to the jury. “It’s like your insides die, but your heart still beats.

“My son was my whole world - that world was ripped apart.”
All of Shaw’s family members who testified during sentencing asked that the jury spare his life.

Defense counsel Steven Passarello, who argued the penalty phase on Shaw’s behalf, asked the jury to consider the alternative of life in prison, calling for an end to the killing.

“We as a people are good and civil,” he said. “One boy is already dead - one mother’s son - do we really need two?”

Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio reminded the jury that during jury selection, each member “promised” to impose the death penalty should the evidence prove it warranted.

“The defense would have you believe we’re cold and heartless, that we want to kill this man,” he said, referring to Shaw. “They would have you believe that by imposing the death penalty, you would be killing this man.

I’ll tell you, I didn’t create this situation, you didn’t do it, he did it,” the DA said, pointing a stern finger at Shaw.

The prosecutors presented two aggravating circumstances which they said required a verdict for death under Pennsylvania state law.

“Murder in the first degree must carry the death penalty if at least one of a list of aggravating circumstances are present,” explained Blair County Deputy District Attorney Douglas Keating. “In this case, the victim being under the age of 12 is an aggravating circumstance. Also, the commission of this murder while perpetrating a felony offense ó this would be the rape which he’s also been found guilty of - is an aggravating circumstance.”

Passarello argued that there were mitigating circumstances that would weigh against the aggravating circumstances presented by the prosecution.

“We’re not asking you to set Mr. Shaw free,” he said to the jury. “We’re not asking you to excuse what he did. We’re just asking you not to kill him.”

Prior to the jury’s announcement, Judge Milliron cautioned the audience, made up primarily of members and friends of both families and representatives of the media, to quell any potential emotional outbursts that might occur.

Following the verdict, those in the courtroom began to quietly exit, exchanging embraces and reassurances. Muoio sat motionless and stunned for several moments, then, as they led Shaw from the courtroom, she could be heard through her tears saying, “He should’ve died. My son didn’t have a choice.”

DA Consiglio said of the “no verdict” at a press conference later Friday evening, “There was obviously a problem. We felt that we presented a case that would certainly warrant a death sentence.

“If anyone deserved to die, this guy deserved to die. He’s pure evil.

“This is not a criticism of the jury,” he added. “They worked very hard all week and we have a lot of respect for them. This is never an easy thing.”

Tyrone Borough Police Chief Joe Beachem said, when asked if he was satisfied that justice had been served, “He was found guilty on all counts, including first degree murder. I think that speaks volumes about whether justice was served.

“Did we get the sentence we wanted? No. We felt good about it, especially after the sickening, disgusting testimony (from Shaw) we were subjected to yesterday. But he’ll never see the light of day again.”

With sentencing to be scheduled in the upcoming months, Muoio and her family have seen an end to the trial of their loved one’s killer; however, as they told The Daily Herald following Friday’s proceedings, they have a lifetime of grief to bear.

“No one could fight for Jared that night but the person who killed him had many people begging for his life today,” Muoio said.

“(Shaw) should be dead. He should be in hell and I hope he rots there.”
“Mom Mom,” as Jared referred to his Grandma Miller, reminded the press of another victim in this tragedy.

“Don’t ever forget, these brutal attacks happened right in front of my granddaughter - she was only two - and she still has nightmares.
“She has to live her life without her big brother but she has to carry with her the memory of his murder.”

[Admin]

Jury deadlocks; Shaw will get life

Phil Ray
Altoona Mirror
January 22, 2007

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Nathan Shaw of Tyrone will serve life in prison for murdering 6-year-old Jared Klein after a hung jury spared his life.

“He should have gotten the death penalty,” said Jared’s mother and Shaw’s ex-girlfriend, Christine Muoio. “My son didn’t have anybody there to fight for him.”

The jury deliberated for about four hours, then told the judge they could not reach a unanimous decision required for a death sentencing.

That means sentencing falls to Blair County Judge Dan Milliron, who promised Friday night a sentence of life without parole. A judge cannot impose the death penalty.

The first sign of a possible hung jury came Thursday night, when jurors struggled for more than eight hours before reaching a first-degree murder conviction on the Dec. 26, 2005, stabbing death.

“My daughter has been through hell. Her life has been turned upside down, and he [Shaw] is allowed to smile,” said Jared’s grandmother, Peggy Miller. “He should be in hell where he belongs, and I hope he rots there.”

On Friday, jurors heard Muoio and Miller tearfully read statements and Shaw’s family speak of his childhood in which his mother deserted him.

Shaw’s mother, Lorrie Ann Howard of Hyner, Clinton County, testified Friday that she rarely saw her son.

As she walked from the courtroom, Shaw said, “I love you, Mom ... I love you, Mom.”

Shaw also was convicted of charges relating to his attack on Muoio and theft of her car.

Those charges are two counts of aggravated assault, as well as rape, indecent assault and theft in addition to the murder.

Shaw’s family remained distraught at the first-degree murder conviction.

Gary Shaw, Nathan’s father, his eyes red with tears, said nothing. His grandfather Paul Shaw said life was the best of the options.

Nathan’s grandmother Phyllis Shaw said, “It’s a relief he isn’t getting the death penalty.”

District Attorney Richard Consiglio said he respected the jury’s attempt to reach a decision.

“This guy is a guy who deserved to die,” Consiglio said.

Jurors could not be reached for comment after they told Milliron they were deadlocked.

Viewers in the courtroom, including the media, were not allowed to leave until the jury departed the courthouse.

Shaw was scheduled to return to the State Correctional Institution in Houtzdale Friday night, where he will remain until sentencing in a few months.