Police offered vivid details Wednesday about their conversations with Brian T. Shaw regarding the events of March 23, and how after almost seven hours of questioning, he eventually confessed to his role in the death of Chiarra Seals.

Shaw, a former Syracuse University student and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, sat in an olive-green jumpsuit and silver chains, his hair pulled back behind his head in a small knot, listening as officers relayed what Shaw told them when he was in custody. Shaw was arrested on charges of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Chiarra Seals.

Shaw did not testify, but Detectives Eric Carr, Kevin Hamberger, Patrick Boynton and Brian Fougnier described Shaw as arrogant but cooperative in the interview room. Three of four of the detectives testified that Shaw had disdain for his daughter, that she was a financial burden. All gave a narrative of how a simple encounter between Shaw and Seals turned into a sexual endeavor and eventually an arrest for a murder charge. The hearing resumes today at 2 p.m., with Detective Joel Cordone scheduled to take the stand.

The investigation began when neighbors found Seals’ two children home without supervision. Police then began a missing person’s investigation. According to testimony, Seals’ and Shaw’s 4-year-old daughter told police ‘Brian’ took Seals out of the house in a blanket or sheet earlier that day. Carr and Hamberger were then assigned to find relatives of Seals who could identify who ‘Brian’ was.

A friend sent Shaw an e-mail informing him police were looking for him. Shaw then contacted the police and they met him at about 10 p.m. at his house at 545 Columbus Ave. They asked if he could help with a missing person’s case. He agreed to cooperate and went without handcuffs to the Criminal Investigation Division.

Police brought Shaw into the interview room, where Carr and Hamberger began questioning. Hamberger described Shaw as ‘arrogant.’

‘He came across like, ‘I’m in college. I’m intelligent. You got nothing on me,” Hamberger said. ‘He came across as arrogant, cocky, things like that.’

Initially the two detectives asked Shaw what they termed ‘basic questions,’ questions about whether he knew Seals, what relationship he had to her and what his relationship was to Seals’ 4-year-old daughter.

Shaw told the interrogators he knew Seals from Henninger High School. Shaw said the two had a one-night stand during his freshman year at SU and didn’t keep in touch until Shaw received a letter in the mail about his daughter.

Shaw also told interrogators his daughter referred to him as ‘Brian.’ Interrogators took a short break, at which point the detectives believed Shaw was the ‘Brian’ his daughter was referring to. At that point, Carr read Shaw his Miranda rights, Carr and Hamberger said.

The detectives then began asking Shaw about his day. He told police he received a call from Seals earlier in that day asking for money to buy their daughter shoes for Easter. Shaw said he greeted Seals and his daughter at the door without a confrontation, gave each a hug and even started playing with his daughter.

Shaw told police Seals then started coming on to him sexually, touching his arm and eventually taking him into her bedroom, wanting Shaw to have sex with her. Early in the interrogation, Shaw told police he refused to have sex with Seals, gave her the money she requested and left without any confrontation. But as the night continued, his story changed.

* * *

Early on, police noticed holes. Shaw first claimed he took the bus to Seals’ residence and walked two miles in the 30-degree temperature in a T-shirt and jeans. A fraternity brother told police soon afterward he lent Shaw his white car. Seals’ neighbor saw a white car at Seals’ Jasper Street home.

Police gave varying accounts of how Shaw felt toward his daughter. Carr said Shaw showed some concern for his daughter’s welfare, and Carr told Shaw if things worked out, he’d be allowed to see her.

The three detectives following Carr’s testimony Wednesday said Shaw showed no interest in his daughter and they even detected some disdain. Hamberger said Shaw told him because of his daughter, his time at school was lengthened and he wouldn’t be able to attend medical school because Seals kept asking for money.

‘He was not concerned about her at all,’ he said of Shaw’s daughter. ‘I kept bringing her name up, hoping it would have an impact on him. He was not concerned about her at all.’

As police presented Shaw with new facts, his story changed slightly, saying he took his fraternity brother’s white car to Seals’ residence instead of the bus. After about three hours of questioning from Carr and Hamberger – around 1:20 a.m. – the two detectives were about to take a break, speak with supervisors and resume with questioning.

But Shaw called Carr back into the room as he was about to leave. Shaw lowered his voice to what Carr described as ‘almost a whisper’ and told Carr that after he refused to have sex with Seals, she grew angry and attacked him, tore his shirt and struck his neck.

Shaw then pushed Seals away from him to the bed and she struck her head. When he tried to talk to her, she was unresponsive.

Shaw told Carr he left the room and his daughter walked in, asking, ‘What did you do to Mommy?’ Shaw didn’t answer, walked outside briefly and claims the door locked behind him. He tried to get back into the house and had to force his way in to both the building door and the apartment door.

He then wrapped Seals in a blanket or sheet and placed her in the backseat of the borrowed car. Shaw claimed he dropped the car off at his fraternity house with Seals’ body still in the backseat, left the keys with his fraternity brother and went to his history class.

Carr asked Shaw if he checked to see if Seals was still alive at that time, and he said no.

When he returned from class, Shaw claimed the body was gone.

Carr kept asking Shaw where Seals could be, but Shaw kept repeating, ‘I can’t remember.’

‘We’d go through the whole story again,’ Carr said, ‘but when we got to that part, he kept saying, ‘I don’t remember.”

Soon Shaw’s roommates told police they saw him with a black suitcase, but Shaw said the suitcase was still in the house and he hadn’t used it.

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Sgt. Patrick Boynton started his shift that day about 11 p.m. By the time he started work, he knew Chiarra Seals was missing and Brian T. Shaw was in custody. Until about 2:15 a.m., he and a team of police searched university-area dumpsters, parking lots and wooded areas, including Thornden Park, for Seals’ body.

He and Fougnier, the last detective to speak, returned to the office about 2:15 a.m. and took over the interrogation from Carr and Hamberger.

Shaw repeated what he told Carr, adding that he discarded his T-shirt after his history class because Seals had torn it. He continued saying he didn’t know where Seals was.

Boynton and Fougnier continued speaking with Shaw for two hours without much progress.

Around 4:30 a.m. two other officers relieved Boynton and Fougnier. After 20 minutes, Shaw requested Boynton and Fougnier back into the room, saying he was prepared to tell the entire truthful story.

Boynton testified that after he and Fougnier walked back in the room, the first thing Shaw did was point at Boynton and say, ‘You laugh too much.’ Then he pointed at Fougnier and said, ‘I don’t like the way you look at me.’ Then he proceeded to tell the whole story.

‘It was very odd,’ Boynton said.

Shaw started with the same story, but omitted the part about Seals attacking him, and he added that he tried doing chest compressions on Seals’ chest after he pushed her. Shaw also changed his story after he left Seals’ residence.

Shaw said he drove to his house at 545 Columbus Ave. and took Seals’ body out of the backseat of his fraternity brother’s car. Shaw then grabbed a black suitcase from his room and passed his roommates on his way out. They asked Shaw if he was moving out, and he said he just needed to move some things.

Shaw then stuffed Seals’ body in the suitcase and left it in the garage. He returned the borrowed car, attended his history class and returned to his home. Shaw picked up the suitcase, walked two blocks and dropped it behind 112 Avondale Place.

When Shaw made this confession, Boynton and Fougnier drove to the house and caught a glimpse of the suitcase from the street. Boynton opened the suitcase and found a cold, partially-clothed black female. Boynton checked a pulse and didn’t detect one. He summoned an ambulance, and paramedics confirmed Chiarra Seals was dead.

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Judge Joseph Fahey’s courtroom was nearly empty as Shaw’s hearing began at about 11:30 a.m. Shaw made almost no defining gestures during the proceedings, speaking intermittently with his defense attorney, Tom Ryan. After hearing the cross-examination of Hamberger, who offered the most critical testimony of Shaw, Ryan and Shaw whispered with each other, at which point Shaw leaned forward and cracked his neck.

Seals’ aunt, Janet Phillips, arrived around 2:15 p.m. with her child, and Shaw turned many times to glance back at them. After the proceedings ended, Phillips waited outside and spoke with Chief Assistant Defense Attorney Pat Quinn.

‘I want to hear the testimony,’ Phillips said of why she came, since many in Seals’ family don’t want to see Shaw. ‘To hear this testimony, it’s lies, because my niece (Seals) did not have any sexual feelings for him.

‘It’s unbelievable how they’re saying how they were trying to find her (Seals), but there’s no talk of the neck problems,’ Phillips said of the autopsy, which determined strangulation was the cause of death. ‘(Shaw) says he tried to resuscitate her, but you don’t call 9-1-1? I mean, you’re perpetuating a crime.’

In addition to being a member to Sigma Phi Epsilon, Shaw was on SU’s cheerleading team. Ryan has said he will try to argue Shaw’s charge down to manslaughter when the case comes to trial.

Published on September 14, 2005 at 12:00 pm