Texas jeweler’s son, accomplice sentenced to 35 years in murder-for-hire plot

AUSTIN, Texas (TCD) --

Two suspects in the 2018 murder of a Texas jeweler were sentenced to prison on Wednesday. The slain jeweler’s son is one of the two men convicted.

Nicolas Shaughnessy and Arieon Smith were sentenced to 35 years in prison each in a plea deal, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. Both will be eligible for parole in about 20 years, the D.A.’s Office said.

“The office was asked by the wife of the victim to be lenient, however, the office determined this sentence to be appropriate,” the D.A.’s Office said.

The case against the third defendant, Johnny Leon, is still pending, the D.A.’s Office said.

Theodore "Ted" Shaughnessy was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in his home on March 2, 2018.

Nicolas’s parents, Corey and Ted, were in their bedroom the night of the attack, the Austin American-Statesman reports, and the couple armed themselves when they heard someone enter their house in the middle of the night.

Ted was shot dead in a hallway. “Corey returned fire until she ran out of ammunition and crawled into a closet to call 911,” the American-Statesman reports. Corey Shaughnessy survived the attack.

KXAN-TV reports Nicolas Shaughnessy had originally been charged with capital murder in the plot.

Nicolas Shaughnessy and his wife allegedly hired two men, identified as Arieon Smith and Johnny Leon, to kill his father. Ted Shaughnessy owned a jewelry store in Austin.

Nicolas Shaughnessy was the sole beneficiary of $2 million in the event of his parents’ death, according to a search warrant. Search warrants at the time of the incident said Nicolas, then 19 and living in College Station, was having financial troubles and owed his mother $30,000, KXAN reports.

Johnny Leon told detectives that Nicolas Shaughnessy offered him $10,000 to commit the murders, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Leon’s hearing is April 14, according to Shaughnessy’s attorney, KXAN reports.

Nicolas’s wife Jaclyn Edison is charged with solicitation to commit capital murder. She bonded out of jail shortly after her arrest in 2018. Her next court hearing is set for June, according to KXAN.

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