CLEVELAND (WJW) — The woman who killed a Cleveland police officer on New Year’s Eve will be eligible for parole sooner, a judge ruled Friday.
Tamara McLoyd, sentenced last week to what amounted to 54 years to life in prison for killing Cleveland Police Officer Shane Bartek and a spree of other crimes, appeared in court Friday for a new sentencing hearing.
Her effective sentence is now 47 years to life, after the Friday sentencing reconfigured the timing of the sentences handed down in her three cases, and accounted for mandatory sentencing requirements for the guns used in those crimes.
McLoyd will now serve time for her other felony charges at the same time as her sentence of 25 years to life for Bartek’s death. She’ll first serve a mandatory 22 years in prison for the firearm specifications related to her crimes before beginning her life sentence — meaning she won’t be eligible for parole for 47 years.
Last week, Judge John O’Donnell sent McLoyd to prison for life after a crime spree, which included the murder on New Year’s Eve. Lawyers for both sides wanted clarifications as to how long she would have to serve in prison before being eligible for parole.
Since last week’s sentence, the court learned it erred when it didn’t assign McLoyd’s firearm sentences to be served consecutively. Judge John O’Donnell said he was “mistaken” about the specifications and the amount of minimum prison time she would have to serve before serving out the life sentence.
“Back a week and a half ago, I felt there should be some additional time than just the concurrent felony sentences, before beginning to serve the life sentence, which was already consecutive,” Judge O’Donnell told the court. “Now I would say the sentence from last week — it’s a little different. It’s slightly less time until first parole.
“But I believe, essentially, it’s indistinguishable from last week’s. … Knowing how the parole board operates, it’s going to be, I daresay, quite a bit longer than that.”
The I-Team reported last week’s hearing lasted five hours and also included sentencing for two people who took part in robberies with McLoyd.
At last week’s hearing, we saw long discussions about how to figure out specific sentences. The judge even took breaks to go back in chambers and review it.
The hearing did not include new statements from relatives of the officer, other robbery victims or relatives of McLoyd.
The I-Team also reached out for reaction. One person close to the Bartek family told us, “That’s crazy. It is a surprise. It is a big difference.”