Nome man sentenced to 25 years in jail for murdering girlfriend in 2020

Tyler Shold, 31, was sentenced on Tuesday to 40 years incarceration, with 15 years suspended, 25 years to serve and 10 years probation for murdering his girlfriend, 24-year-old Anna Matoomealook, on January 8, 2020 in Nome.
In a two-and-a-half hour long emotional sentencing hearing, family of Matoomealook addressed Superior Court Judge Roman DiBenedetto with the plea to punish Shold to the full extent of the law for cruelly taking their darling, precious and irreplaceable daughter, sister, cousin from them. Her foster parents spoke of Anna as a highly intelligent and athletically gifted young woman, who very cautiously dispensed her love. They described how the state has wronged her as she fell through the proverbial cracks of the system and was prevented from being adopted by her foster parents who fought so hard for her, but to no avail. Finally, her foster father said, when they tried to rebuild their relationship, her life was senselessly snuffed out when Shold choked her to death. He said he felt robbed of that opportunity to have a fully restored relationship with her.
 According to court documents, the murder happened in the couple’s shared residence in the 200 block of East Fourth Avenue on Jan. 8, 2020, just before 2 a.m. Shold called NPD dispatch for help for his girlfriend Anna Matoomealook, 24. When police entered the house, the officers found Shold leaning over Matoomealook, lying unresponsive on the bed.
Assistant District Attorney Ashly Crockett described the murder as a situation of domestic violence involving power, control and rage. “As your honor knows, domestic violence is at an absolute crisis point in the state of Alaska,” Crockett said. “Murder is one of the leading causes of death of Indigenous women in our country.” She said that nothing that happens at the sentencing can take away the grief and loss that the family experiences. She then said the defendant has agreed to a guilty plea for murder in the second degree and a sentence of 40 years, 15 years suspended and 25 active years to serve.
Shold’s attorney said that the defendant is taking responsibility for the crime. He won’t be eligible for parole during the 25 mandatory years in jail and “he’s remorseful for his actions.”
Shold briefly spoke, saying that he didn’t wish this on anybody and that he’s truly sorry. “ I did that. I’m sorry, your honor, whatever you give me, I accept,” he said.
Judge DiBenedetto said that he’s bound by law to a range of sentencing, “no matter how evil I personally think the crime is.”
He agreed with the state on the domestic violence crisis. “Crimes against Indigenous women in this region are indescribably large and indescribably evil, and it is beyond what one person sitting behind the bench can do to fix this. I can only address this one case at a time,” DiBenedetto said.
The original charge was murder in the first degree, but Shold changed his plea in October and agreed to a plea bargain, forgoing a trial. After absorbing the pre-sentencing report, the judge concluded that there was no justification for this loss of life at all. “There is no self defense, no rational reason why this occurred,” he said. A long probationary period aims to deter Shold from ever doing this again or ever breaking the law again. If Shold were to break his probationary conditions after release, no judge would hesitate to impose the remaining 15 years of jail time.
Judge DiBenedetto then read the total sentence according to the plea agreement of 40 years jail time, 15 suspended and 25 years to serve, with a ten-year probation period and extensive probationary conditions.