Two men charged with burning a Black woman’s body in California are free because of the Antioch police’s bigoted text scandal that resulted in suspensions for almost half the department.
Charges against Ashton Montalvo and Deangelo Boone, who were accused of throwing 25-year-old Mykaella Elizabeth Sharlman’s body in the trash and setting it on fire last October, were dropped because several police officers that worked the case were embroiled in the scandal.
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said the prosecution “relied heavily” on the investigative work of police officers associated with racist texts.
“After thoroughly reviewing the officers’ role in this case, applying relevant legal principles and considering ethical responsibilities, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office no longer has confidence in the integrity of this prosecution,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “Our office extends our deepest sympathies to the family of Mykaella Sharlman, and we aspire to renew this prosecution if presented with the opportunity to do so. “
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“My mom walked into the funeral and had to see a shell of a body, charred with half of a face, and that was the last image we saw in our head of what we once knew was our sister, our daughter, our cousin, our aunt,” Sharlman’s sister, Nicole Eason, said through tears. “There was nothing left that resembled Mykaella Elizabeth Sharlman.”
The bigoted text scandal
The FBI and Contra Costa County DA released a redacted report on March 27 that “documents some of the derogatory, homophobic and sexually explicit language and photographs shared by members of the Antioch Police Department that demonstrates their racials bias and animus towards African Americans and other people of color.”
In another text, an officer allegedly offered to buy someone a prime rib dinner if they would use a .40mm on Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe.
The original report named 14 Antioch police officers, but the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office said in April that 45 officers out of the department’s 99 commissioned on the force have now been accused of misconduct, CBS News Bay Area reported on April 18.
Mykaella Elizabeth Sharlman was allegedly mutilated and burned by two men in California, but prosecutors dropped the case because of a scandal in the Antioch Police Department. (Mykaella Sharlman/Facebook)
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“Justice is not being served,” her mom, Sandra Sharlman, told CBS News Bay Area. “They have way too much evidence. This happened before all [the texting scandal] came out, and they come out all of a sudden like that. It’s a cop-out. The system is failing us. It’s failing us.”
Mykaella Sharlman’s family said, “Justice was not served,” after charges were dropped against the suspects who allegedly burned her body. (Nicole Eason/Facebook)
Sharlman was an Oakland native and the youngest of seven siblings. She was studying at Los Medanos College with aspirations to work as a hair and makeup stylist. `
Tori Sharlman, one of Mykaella’s sisters, cried as she recalled the night they filed a missing person report last October, and the detective told their family they had identified Mykaella through dental records.
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As Eason spoke, a clip of Mykaella dancing and having fun played. Tori recalled their dance battles and how “corny she could be.”
Mia Sharlman, another of Mykaella’s sisters, was in tears as she held her newborn baby girl on her lap.
At the end of the video, Eason talked about some “takeaways,” including the “circle of influence” and about avoiding drugs.
“Choose your circle of influence wisely, because that will positively impact you or negatively impact you. As we’ve seen with Mykaella, it negatively impacted her,” Eason said.