CLEVELAND — A 19-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in the slaying of off-duty Cleveland police officer Shane Bartek during a carjacking in December and for a series of separate armed robberies in and around Cleveland the previous weeks.
Tamara McLoyd, wrists cuffed behind her back, showed no emotion when Cuyahoga Judge John P. O'Donnell told her she would not be eligible for parole until she is in her 70s.
A jury found McLoyd guilty in the New Year's Eve slaying of Bartek on Aug. 3. Later that month, she and two others were convicted of separate armed robberies that prosecutors say occurred between Nov. 2 and Dec. 19.
Bartek joined the Cleveland police department in 2019. Authorities say he was shot and killed in the parking lot of his apartment complex after he and McLoyd struggled for control of her gun. She confessed to killing Bartek, but told detectives she did not mean to shoot him.
Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond called Bartek “a true public servant” with a strong interest in community policing at a memorial service in January.
McLoyd did not address the court on the advice of her attorneys. Kevin Cafferkey, one of her attorneys, asked O'Donnell to show McLoyd mercy, saying she has unresolved behavioral issues first diagnosed when she was 6.
Bartek's twin sister, Summer, told O'Donnell that she and her brother were born addicted to drugs and were placed in foster care before being adopted.
She said that when Shane was shot, she was shot as well.
“I'm a twinless twin,” Summer Bartek said. “Our souls were connected by a cord that nothing could break except death.”
