{"id":14175,"date":"2024-03-19T11:58:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T15:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=14175"},"modified":"2024-03-19T11:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T15:58:19","slug":"63-year-term-for-killing-a-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/63-year-term-for-killing-a-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"63-year term for killing a woman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chad Erhardt, the brother of Tiffany Irene Ferris, said she saved his life and her loss has impacted the lives of those in his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erhardt testified at Monday’s sentencing of Ajaylan Malik Shabazz, 26, convicted of murdering Ferris, a Decatur woman, in May of 2021. The Fort Wayne man received 63 years in prison from Allen Superior Judge David Zent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he plans to appeal the sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry Smith Jr., 36, was initially charged with murder but pleaded guilty in April to aggravated battery in exchange for his testimony in Shabazz’s trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith was sentenced in February to 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a Journal Gazette story by Maya Wilkins, Deputy Prosecutor Tesa Helge called Ferris’ murder a “brutal, merciless killing. She didn’t do anything wrong. It was completely unprovoked.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She didn’t deserve the ending she got,\u201d Erhardt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erhardt called Ferris creative, smart and beautiful, and he said she would be friends with anybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also pointed out that her two children will grow up without their mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Destiny Erhardt, Ferris’ sister-in-law, also spoke at Monday’s sentencing, according to the Wilkins story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the last few years have been difficult for their family, and no one will ever fully know what happened to Ferris the night she was murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferris had trauma and addiction in her life, Destiny Erhardt said, but that doesn’t mean she deserved to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferris, who attended Norwell High School, was 35 years old. Her body was found in a bathtub in the motel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Chad Erhardt, the brother of Tiffany Irene Ferris, said she saved his life and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,21],"class_list":["post-14175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/photoless-header-template-news.jpg?fit=252%2C144&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}