Shane McGarity is accused of murder in the first degree over a particularly violent killing in November 2022. (Orange County Corrections)
A Florida man was arrested for the violent murder of another man who was stabbed at least 25 times last fall, police announced on Friday.
Shane McGarity, 46, stands accused of one count each of murder in the first degree with a weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon, the Winter Park Police Department said in a press release.
In the late afternoon on Nov. 11, he called 911 seeking medical attention for himself, police records show.
“I don’t have a comment other than I was attacked, and I defended myself, and I’m cut up, bad,” he said during the 911 call, according to an excerpt in an application and affidavit for his arrest warrant. “I got cut up bad with a knife. I need … I need paramedics. It’s bad; I almost cut my finger off.”
During the spate of violence, the dead man, a member of McGarity’s family whose identity cannot be released under Sunshine State victim’s protection laws, was stabbed in multiple places throughout his body. First responders described his wounds as “incompatible with life” and called the police.
The affidavit contains a stark and graphic depiction of the gruesome scene law enforcement found inside the residence when they arrived:
The decedent was in the living room in a recliner chair in a slightly reclined position. The decedent was slumped down in the chair so that his back was on the chair’s seat and the decedent’s waistline was on the edge of the chair where it met its reclining foot portion. The decedent was slumped to the right side so that the decedent’s right cheek was turned toward the chair’s seat. Detective Woehr observed a knife handle sticking out of the head area with the entire blade portion embedded into the left eye. The decedent’s right arm was bent so that his right hand was touching his left cheek.
The document references a small sledgehammer found in the dead man’s hand. Police believe the hammer was “loosely” placed on the victim’s body after the murder.
According to the affidavit, the defendant also changed his story when speaking to someone other than police, telling a man identified as “Brother” that an unknown intruder snuck into the house and killed the victim.
“McGarity is known to be a trained fighter with extensive martial arts knowledge,” the document said. “It should be noted that Defendant McGarity has previously killed an individual, which he argued was self-defense, and he was not prosecuted for that prior incident.”
The number and type of wounds the victim also suggest that he was murdered, police wrote in the affidavit.
“The pattern of the wounds and the evidence at the scene is consistent with the stab wounds occurring while the decendent [sic] was sitting/lying in the reclining chair,” the document says. “Due to the subarachnoid hemorrhages on both sides of the brain and the severe subdural hemorrhage, it is reasonable to believe, based on the injuries of the deceased and the physical evidence, that the decedent was unconscious in the reclining chair, leaving the decedent defenseless as he was fatally stabbed.”
Ultimately, police rejected McGarity’s claims of self-defense.
“Based on the above facts and his multiple stories, it is not reasonable to believe that Defendant Shane Kelly McGarity is acting in self-defense,” the affidavit alleges. “[H]e delivered multiple strikes to the decedent to the point where the decedent’s ability to fight back was considerably diminished. Defendant McGarity used a knife to cut and stab the decedent twenty-five (25) times. Defendant McGarity killed the decedent by embedding the knife in the left eye, which penetrated the decedent’s brain stem and instantly killed the decedent. The repeated blunt force trauma and twenty-five (25) stab wounds show an intent to kill.”
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Shane McGarity charged with murder in family member’s death