On a late summer afternoon in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the life of Tyrone T. Cornish Jr., a 21-year-old African American man, was tragically cut short. On August 11, 2018, police were called to the Willow Village Apartments on Sterling Avenue just before 5:30 p.m. for a report of a shooting. In the parking lot, they found Cornish with a single gunshot wound to his neck. He was rushed to Sharon Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The unexpected and violent nature of his death sent ripples of shock and grief through the community.
The events that led to the fatal shooting began with an altercation between Cornish and another young man, 18-year-old Jaylaun Coleman of Farrell. Witnesses to the dispute later recounted that during the course of the fight, Coleman retrieved a gun from a bag and shot Cornish. Following the incident, law enforcement quickly identified Coleman as the suspect and issued a warrant for his arrest on a charge of criminal homicide. The day after the shooting, Coleman turned himself in to the police.
In the ensuing legal process, the initial charge against Jaylaun Coleman of first-degree murder was amended. On February 26, 2021, Coleman entered a negotiated guilty plea to one count of third-degree murder, one count of firearms not to be carried without a license, and twelve counts of recklessly endangering another person. Subsequently, on June 23, 2021, a judge sentenced him in accordance with the plea agreement to a term of 20 to 40 years in prison for the third-degree murder conviction, with a consecutive sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years for a separate firearms charge to which he had also pleaded guilty.
