A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with the 1983 shooting death of a Simsbury man in a Massachusetts motel.
Shawn Marsh, 48, of Holyoke, pleaded guilty at a courthouse in Woburn, Mass. to a charge of manslaughter. Marsh was sentenced to 15-18 years in prison, according to a press release from the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.
The shooting took place Aug. 22, 1983 around 10:46 p.m. when Marsh and an accomplice broke into the Town Line Motel in Malden, Mass. intent on robbing the victim, 29-year-old Rodney C. Wyman, and his roommate, the release says.
Wyman was shot once in the chest. The bullet pierced his heart, aorta and kidney.
Investigators were unable to identify suspects in the case until years later. Marsh was arrested in 2011 after advanced fingerprint databases identified his prints at the scene of the crime, the release says.
Marsh left his fingerprints behind while attempting to remove items from the hotel.
By Hilda Munoz, Hartford Courant