Courtesy of DA Katz
DA Katz said that Aycock “may have thought he had gotten away with murder, but investigators and prosecutors never relented” in Rucker’s case.
By Forum Staff
A Far Rockaway man has been sentenced to up to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend in 2012, a week after Superstorm Sandy hit the city, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday.
Thyron Aycock, 48, was found guilty of murder in the second degree last month following a jury trial. Queens Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Mullen sentenced Aycock to 25 years-to-life in prison.
According to trial records, Aycock lived with his girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend—Shawn Rucker—in Far Rockaway. Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7 of 2012, Aycock insisted that Rucker move out of the shared residence. An argument ensued between the two men and escalated to a physical altercation. Aycock struck the 32-year-old man at least eight times in the head with a hammer. Rucker died as a result of blunt force trauma and compression to his chest.
According to trial testimony, Aycock then made attempts to dismember Rucker’s body. There were post-mortem lacerations to the victim’s wrist, and his left thigh had a gaping cut that went all the way to the bone. The body was bound with a very distinctive patterned cloth, stuffed in a garbage bag, and buried on the beach.
File Photo
City workers discovered Rucker’s remains while clearing Rockaway Beach of storm debris a couple of weeks after Superstorm Sandy touched down in NYC.
On Nov. 15, 2012, according to trial testimony, workers with the City Department of Parks were clearing the beach of storm debris in the vicinity of Beach 13th Street in Far Rockaway. That’s when workers saw a pair of blue shorts and an elbow protruding out of the sand and discovered Rucker’s remains.
According to trial testimony, police executed a court-authorized search warrant of Aycock’s home where they recovered a knife with the victim’s blood on it. A saw was also discovered with the victim’s blood on it, and the teeth of the saw were forensically matched to the deep thigh wound of the victim. A bed sheet with the same distinctive pattern as the cloth used to bind the victim was also found in the home.
Aycock, however, was not apprehended until approximately seven years later when he told a friend that he had killed someone and gave detailed information about the homicide. That friend contacted cops.
“After so many years, the defendant may have thought he had gotten away with murder, but investigators and prosecutors never relented and today a judge sentenced him to a lengthy term of incarceration as a measure of justice for this brutal crime,” Katz said.
