In the early morning hours of December 19, 2021, the life of 36-year-old Nicholas Hardy, a male resident of Toms River, was tragically cut short in an apartment complex on River Avenue in Lakewood, New Jersey. Hardy, along with another man, Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, of Lakewood, was found deceased by police officers who were responding to reports of gunfire.
Both men had sustained fatal gunshot wounds to the head.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly led authorities to a suspect, Tyshaun Drummond, a 42-year-old man from Toms River. Police officers arriving at the scene found Drummond in front of the apartment building. When he refused to comply with their orders to get on the ground, he was subdued with a taser and taken into custody. Drummond had been at an overnight party in the same apartment complex as the victims.
Subsequent legal proceedings revealed a grim narrative of the events that transpired. After a nearly month-long trial, a jury found Tyshaun Drummond guilty of two counts of murder, as well as burglary and weapons offenses. Testimony during the trial indicated that a motive for the killings was an affair between Drummond and the wife of Sergio Chavez-Perez. On that fatal morning, Drummond first shot Hardy as he was sleeping in a downstairs apartment. He then proceeded to the upstairs apartment where he shot Chavez-Perez in front of his wife and children. As Hardy attempted to escape, Drummond shot him again.
For his crimes, Tyshaun Drummond was sentenced to 60 years in state prison. The sentence consists of two consecutive 30-year terms for each murder, with the stipulation that he must serve the full 30 years for each count before being eligible for parole. He also received a concurrent 10-year sentence for the burglary charge.
