Noah Sharp was a nineteen year old teen killer from Delaware who would lure his ex girlfriend, Madison Sparrow, to the woods and beat her to death with a baseball bat. According to court documents Noah Sharp and his current girlfriend Annika Stalczynski, who was seventeen at the time of the murder, would convince Madison Sparrow to go out to the woods where she was brutally attacked and murdered. Annika Stalczynski would take a plea deal in exchange of getting out of a life sentence, however she has yet to be sentenced. Noah Sharp decided to try his luck at trial and the jury quickly found him guilty of the murder and other charges and he is expected to receive a life sentence.
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A Delaware man who lured his ex-girlfriend to a wooded area and beat her to death with a baseball bat has been convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes.
A jury deliberated for less than three hours Thursday before finding 21-year-old Noah Sharp guilty of murder, conspiracy and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.
Sharp faces a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors are also recommending a life sentence for Sharp’s accomplice, 19-year-old Annika Stalczynski.
She pleaded guilty in May to murder and conspiracy in the killing of 17-year-old Madison Sparrow
Sparrow was a junior at Newark Charter School. She was reported missing on Oct. 2, 2020 after she didn’t return home from a trip with Stalczynski to get ice cream.
A jury deliberated for less than three hours Thursday before finding 21-year-old Noah Sharp guilty of murder, conspiracy and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.
Sharp faces a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors are also recommending a life sentence for Sharp’s accomplice, 19-year-old Annika Stalczynski.
She pleaded guilty in May to murder and conspiracy in the killing of 17-year-old Madison Sparrow. Sparrow was a junior at Newark Charter School.
She was reported missing on Oct. 2, 2020 after she didn’t return home from a trip with Stalczynski to get ice cream
https://www.fox29.com/news/ex-boyfriend-guilty-of-murder-in-killing-of-17-year-old-delaware-girl
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The day Madison Sparrow left home for the final time, she donned a pair of ghost earrings.
She didn’t wear jewelry often, but earrings were even rarer, her mother said. It was less than a month before Halloween, though, and Sparrow wanted to be festive to get ice cream with a friend she hadn’t seen in several months.
What happened after 17-year-old Sparrow walked out her front door on the afternoon of Oct. 2, 2020, however, would be no ghost story. Instead, the hours, days, weeks and two years that followed became a real-life nightmare for Sparrow’s family, friends and the Newark community.
On Thursday, some of that nightmare came to an end. After less than three hours of deliberation, a New Castle County jury found Noah Sharp, Sparrow’s ex-boyfriend, guilty of murdering Sparrow.
The jury also found Noah Sharp guilty of conspiring with Annika Stalczynski – the friend Sparrow was supposed to get ice cream with the day of her death – to commit the crime.
The verdict, which prompted almost no visible reaction from Noah Sharp or his mother, yet left Sparrow’s family and friends in relieved tears, came after eight days of evidence and more than 250 exhibits presented by prosecutors.
The defense’s case, which Sharp’s attorneys made in less than three hours Wednesday morning, consisted largely of the statements of just three witnesses: Sharp’s mother, brother and grandmother.
Attorney General Kathy Jennings said Thursday afternoon she was “grateful to the jury for doing the right thing.” She added that for Sparrow’s family and friends, however, “closure is much more elusive than justice.”
“Madison was a daughter, a friend and a wonderful person,” Jennings said. “Her loss is too great to measure and everyone who knew and loved her is in our hearts today.
Sparrow’s mother, Heather Sparrow Murphy, who sat through every day of the trial, said she had “no words” following the verdict.
Instead, she gave a phrase her daughter used to use:
“Embrace the light, not the dark,” Murphy said, quoting Sparrow. “Love wins.
Sparrow’s mother, Heather Sparrow Murphy, who sat through every day of the trial, said she had “no words” following the verdict.
Instead, she gave a phrase her daughter used to use:
“Embrace the light, not the dark,” Murphy said, quoting Sparrow. “Love wins.
At several points during the trial, Sharp’s defense team attempted to argue that someone else could have had control of Sharp’s devices and that it wasn’t him texting Stalczynski. Given their verdict, it appears the jury rejected this argument.
In court proceedings, the jury watched hours’ worth of video of Sharp’s interviews with police at Delaware State Police Troop 2 in Glasgow. Over the course of several days, they heard how Sharp’s ever-changing stories ultimately crumbled, culminating in a confession.
They also saw, through police video, how Noah Sharp led detectives to where he and Stalczynski buried Sparrow in a 2- or 3-foot grave – a decision the teens made after unsuccessfully drowning Sparrow’s body in the Christina River under I-95 several dozen yards away.
And the jury listened as several detectives testified that they found a bare footprint in the mud next to the river – where paving blocks from Stalczynski’s home and Sparrow’s burned clothing were found – of which they created a cast.
A Delaware State Police fingerprint analyst then testified that from the cast, she was able to obtain enough detail of the print of the big toe to compare it to an inking of Sharp’s big toe. The two matched, she said.
During his various interviews with police, Noah Sharp said he often walked barefoot. An employee of Sobieski Inc., the heating and cooling company that has a warehouse close to where Sharp and Stalczynski disposed of Sparrow’s body, also testified that he saw Sharp not wearing shoes.
Perhaps most anticipated in the trial, though, was Stalczynski’s Monday morning testimony. She pleaded guilty in May to murder and conspiracy in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors will ask for 30 years in prison.
The plea documents required her to testify.
Over a period of about three hours, she quietly confirmed what prosecutors had already presented to the jury the week prior, testifying that her role in the plot was borne out of Sharp’s claims to her that Sparrow was “spreading (her) business.”
Sparrow’s family and friends have repeatedly said the girl wasn’t the type to talk badly about her friends. Stalczynski hinted on Monday that she now realizes Sharp may have not been truthful with her.
“We was all friends … and he was messing with both of us,” Stalczynski said.
Sharp’s defense team made much of the now-19-year-old’s plea agreement and testimony, suggesting during closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon that Stalczynski was not to be believed.
Monika Germono, one of Sharp’s three defense attorneys, told the jury not to be “fooled” by Stalczynski’s “small build or quiet voice.”
“She’s the one who received a plea to 30 years,” Germono said.
It remains unclear how much weight the jury ultimately gave her testimony
During their back-to-back testimony, Sharp’s mother and brother contradicted each other several times. At least once, Sharp’s mom also contradicted herself.
Nikia Sharp testified Wednesday that her son wasn’t particularly wet when he arrived home on the evening of Oct. 2, while David Sharp said his brother was very wet.
“I don’t know if he’d been crawling through mud or water or what,” David Sharp testified.
Nikia Sharp also said that soon after her son got home, Stalczynski came into the house and was “calm.”
But David Sharp said the teen “stormed in” and slammed the door twice. When questioned by prosecutor John Downs about Stalczynski’s demeanor, David Sharp said: “When you slam a door, I don’t think you’d describe it as calm.”
In closing arguments, neither Sharp’s defense team nor the prosecutors noted these inconsistencies.
Instead, the defense argued that police “molded” Sharp’s confession while prosecutors urged the jury not to overthink what they had heard over a period of eight days.
“Don’t outsmart your common sense,” said Deputy Attorney General Matt Frawley. “You know when something doesn’t make sense, you know when something doesn’t add up.”
When the verdict was returned to Judge Ferris Wharton just after 1 p.m. Thursday, he reminded courtroom spectators to remain composed, something he had said Wednesday afternoon after Sharp’s family began audibly reacting from the spectator section of the courtroom.
Heeding this, the courtroom was silent as the jury entered, with spectators sitting up a little straighter in their seats. When the foreperson announced guilty on all three charges, several of Sparrow’s family members and close friends began crying silently. Others put their hands on each other’s backs.