Judge gives Hayward murderer a life sentence but with a real chance for parole

DUBLIN A Hayward man was sentenced to years to life in prison for killing his neighbor in after an argument that started with the victim s girlfriend telling him she required to take a shower at the defendant s apartment according to court records But things could have been a lot worse for Shawn Moayer who now sits in North Kern State Prison with the anticipated for parole eligibility in about years In sentencing him Judge Amy Sekany dismissed a firearm use enhancement that could have pushed Moayer s parole eligible date back years giving him a chance to prove in his late s or early s that he has been rehabilitated Related Articles Nine charged in burglary spree that ended in Oakland cop s death Man followed woman to Berkeley with car full of sex toys condoms crack pipes Taser and a gun police say Judge orders new trial in decade-old murder affair as scrutiny of Oakland detective grows Indicted Bay Area real estate mogul must give up deed to East Bay house East Bay woman who embezzled million from charity gets years in federal prison Sekany s order came after she heard from the family of the victim -year-old Matthew Beck as well as loved ones of Moayer But Sekany seemed majority interested in details from Moayer s childhood laid out in a probation summary She disclosed Moayer grew up with a mentally unstable mother in an abusive household and was clearly exposed to substance abuse at a young age As I read the reports and letters submitted on his behalf I could not help but notice that perhaps there was just a little flicker of light in there somewhere Sekany disclosed I saw not only adversity and despair mistakes and wrongdoing a lot of poor decision making but I also saw a person trying against all odds to somehow make change and possibly even ultimately rise above Moayer has made several attempts to get sober including the greater part in recent days in jail after he was arrested for killing his neighbor court records show It happened during an Aug argument at the Hayward apartment complex where both men lived According to testimony at the preliminary hearing Beck was armed with a knife and irate after his girlfriend informed him she was going to Moayer s home to take a shower Moayer allegedly grabbed his gun and killed Beck then threatened Beck s girlfriend to keep quiet At the preliminary hearing Sekany ascertained that there was enough evidence to hold Moayer to answer on a charge of dissuading Beck s girlfriend from testifying but balked at the murder charge choosing instead to hold him to answer on a voluntary manslaughter count Prosecutors re-filed the murder charge and convinced another judge to let the circumstance go to trial where Moayer was convicted of second degree murder At Moayer s Nov sentencing Beck s mother Judith Smith submitted a letter to the court where she noted she has lived in fear of retaliation since Beck s murder The death of my son has changed my whole world the meaning of friendship trust and prevention Smith wrote When Matt was murdered friends and family and true friends of Matt required to do a memorial at the site I petitioned them not to because I felt they would not be safe I knew Matt would not want anyone hurt Beck s niece Amanda Simpson noted in a letter that Beck was the father of three boys and his death has impacted the entire family He was the one to make sure that we all stayed together as a family and made sure that as a family we were inevitably okay and didn t not want for anything before himself and would give you his shirt off his back to make sure everyone around him was invariably okay before himself Simpson reported in the letter Moayer s family including his brother a former Stockton policeman named Handsome Moayer voiced assistance for him One family member compared Moayer to Sully from the Pixar animated film Monsters Inc a character who appears large and intimidating but has the biggest heart in the film What I can say is through all my experiences from experience as a police officer experience as just the average civilian in society I ve been able to gather whether or not somebody is a cruel person or a fearless person and just a person with no care Handsome Moayer revealed My brother is not that person My brother is a very passionate loving person Prosecutors argued that at the time of the murder Moayer was essentially selling drugs out of this house and that he kept guns in his apartment because of this criminal activity Quite frankly Mr Beck would have never died if the defendant had not illegally possessed that firearm last summer Deputy District Attorney Margaret Watts explained at the hearing While I have a lot of empathy and a lot of sympathy for the past there is no nexus between that childhood and what happened in this event in the modern day