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Elmira man sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting murder

Judge calls shooting of Elmira man 'a murder' in sentencing Shamel Swan, convicted of murder in the January 2023 death of Jeremy Shazer.

The first of four suspects convicted in connection with a January 2023 shooting in the city of Elmira will spend at least 25 years in state prison.

After a four-day trial last December in Chemung County Court, the jury found Shamel T. Swan, 30, of Elmira, guilty of second-degree murder and second-degree weapons possession, both felonies.

On Wednesday, Chemung County Judge Richard W. Rich Jr. sentenced Swan to a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison for murder and 15 years for weapons possession. The sentences will run simultaneously.

The charges stemmed from the Jan. 21, 2023, murder of 34-year-old Jeremy J. Shazer on Elmira's Southside.

According to court documents, Shazer was shot with a semiautomatic pistol while sitting in a car in a parking lot at 201 W. Miller St., near Qountry Tavern.

Before Rich announced the sentence, Chemung County District Attorney Weeden Wetmore introduced the court to three people who gave statements – Shazer's best friend Darrel Green, Shazer's son, also named Jeremy Shazer, and the victim's mother, Robin Granger.

“Now I don’t have a son. “My grandchildren don’t have a father,” Granger said in an interview with Swan. “It's just sad. And I hope you get the maximum.”

Swan's attorney, Matthew Buzzetti, asked for a lesser sentence than the maximum for the convictions, but Wetmore, who called Shazer's killing an “execution,” urged the court to impose the maximum possible sentence.

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Rich agreed, saying the crime was entirely premeditated and pointing out that Swan had implicated several other people who also now face serious charges.

“District Attorney Wetmore called it an execution. I would call it an assassination attempt,” Rich told Swan before announcing the sentence, also noting that Swan shot Shazer 11 times in the back while the victim sat in his car.

Following an investigation into Shazer's death, Elmira police also charged Tashear E. Jackson, Zemyuah Graham and Micah Brown with murder and related charges.

The cases against the other suspects are still pending.

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