TOMS RIVER – An Ocean County jury today found a 42-year-old Toms River man guilty of a 2021 double homicide in Lakewood.
After deliberating in the morning and reviewing videos from the crime scene, the panel of eight women and four men found Tyshaun Drummond guilty of the murders of Nicholas Hardy, 36, of Toms River, and Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, from Lakewood.
Both men were fatally shot on December 19, 2021, at the Brettwood apartment complex on River Avenue in Lakewood.
The jury also found Drummond guilty of burglary, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.
The courtroom was packed with family of both the victims and the defendant when the jury foreman announced the verdict around 1:30 p.m. Some in the courtroom wept quietly when they heard the outcome.
Drummond remained calm the entire time.
He faces a minimum of 30 years without parole and a maximum of life in prison on each murder charge.
Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan scheduled Drummond’s sentencing for December 13.
“Soon, Tyshaun Drummond will be held accountable for the brutal murders of Mr. Hardy and Mr. Chavez-Perez as he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his natural days in prison,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D . Billhimer said in a news release after the verdict.
“We hope this jury verdict provides some semblance of closure to the loved ones of these victims,” Billhimer said.
Prosecutors alleged during a three-week trial that Drummond shot Hardy once in the neck and three times in the back shortly after 7 a.m. while the victim slept in the bedroom of a downstairs apartment in the Brettwood complex, where the suspect, the victim and others had attended a late-night party.
After shooting Hardy, Drummond went to the upstairs apartment, where he shot Chavez-Perez once in the head in front of his wife and three children, assistant prosecutors argued. Drummond then went back downstairs and fatally shot Hardy in the eye as he tried to escape from the downstairs apartment, they argued.
Dramatic evidence presented at trial included footage from cameras worn by responding police officers, which showed Drummond being disabled by a Taser and later telling them, “I shot everyone in the face.”
Testimony revealed that Chavez-Perez’s widow, Ariceli Perez, had an affair with Drummond.
She and her eldest daughter, who was 12 at the time of the murders, testified that Drummond burst into their apartment, shot Chavez-Perez in the head and left. The mother and daughter also stated that they heard another shot from downstairs – the fatal shot to Hardy’s eye – after Drummond left their apartment. They were both on the phone with 911 operators when they heard that shot.
Defense attorney Mark Bailey tried to discredit Ariceli Perez’s testimony by calling her an adulteress, lustful and treacherous and suggesting that she may have killed her husband and convincing her brother-in-law that the people downstairs were responsible.
The jury deliberated briefly late Thursday before being sent home for the weekend and returning this morning to resume their discussions.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jury convicts Toms River man of double murder in Lakewood
