Edwards gets 22 years to life
Saugerties man, 27, pleaded guilty in February to fatally stabbing his wife’s lover in May 2016
KINGSTON, N.Y. » A Saugerties man who fatally stabbed his estranged wife’s lover last year in a jealous rage will spend a minimum of 22 years in state prison, the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
Earl Edwards Jr., 27, was sentenced by Ulster County Court judge Donald A. Williams Thursday to life in prison with a minimum of 22 years on his conviction for the May 26, 2016, murder of Rameen Perry in his wife’s apartment in Saugerties.
On Feb. 28, Edwards, who fled hundreds of miles by train after fatally stabbing Perry, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
At the time, Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright said Edwards admitted in court that he killed Perry, 40, of Esopus, after finding him in Shanelle Edwards’ bed.
Carnright said Edwards “drove a knife” into Perry’s heart. The plea came just hours before Edwards was to stand trial in Ulster County Court.
After Edwards’ plea, Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael Kavanagh said Edwards and his estranged wife spoke several times the night of May 25, while Edwards was at work. But shortly after midnight on May 26, she stopped taking his calls, which
authorities believed agitated Edwards, the prosecutor said.
Edwards left work about 12:30 a.m. and went to his home on Old Stage Road in Saugerties, but authorities believe he left there about 2 a.m. and walked to his estranged wife’s home on Malden Avenue, about 5 miles away.
Kavanagh said security cameras captured an image of Edwards, wearing a miner-style head lamp, walking past Cahill Elementary School and that he arrived at the Malden Avenue home about 3:15 a.m.
Kavanagh said Edwards broke into the home and entered a bedroom, where he saw Perry sleeping, naked, next to Shanelle Edwards. Kavanagh said Perry
and Shanelle Edwards had started dating about a month earlier.
Kavanaugh said Earl Edwards plunged the blade of a folding knife he had brought with him so deep into Perry’s chest that he punctured the man’s heart and broke the folding mechanism on the knife.
After stabbing Perry, who didn’t die immediately, Edwards began beating him, first with a chair, and then, when the chair broke, with a table.
During the struggle, Shanelle Edwards barricaded herself in her children’s room and called 911.
After the murder, Earl Edwards fled to New York City, where he boarded an Amtrak train for South Carolina. He was arrested by Amtrak police in Washington, D.C., some 300 miles from Saugerties, and returned to Ulster County to face charges.
Carnright had said his
office would recommend a prison term of 20 years to life. The maximum sentence for second-degree murder is 25 years to life.
Perry’s murder was the first in a week marked by two domestic violence-related killings in Saugerties last year. And Edwards’ sentencing Thursday was the final chapter.
On May 24, Williams sentenced Karon Bowden, 42, of Saugerties to 24 years to life in state prison for the May 31, 2016, shooting death of Amy Burgher.
Bowden pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder, admitting he shot Burgher in the face while the two were at Bowden’s apartment at 26 Randall St. in Saugerties.
Authorities said Bowden shot Burgher during a domestic dispute. They had lived together for more than three years and she had decided to break off the relationship.