The Case of Shayna Hubers and Ryan Poston

[Music] so [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] hmm ryan carter poston was born on december 30th 1982 in fort mitchell kentucky to jay and lisa poston his parents got divorced when he was young and his mom remarried a man named peter carter peter raised ryan as his own and as a tribute to peter ryan later changed his middle name to carter lisa and jay put their differences aside spent holidays together and blended their families to give him a stable and happy upbringing he was a very kind and a very protective older brother he grew up in a very well-known and well-connected family in northern kentucky ryan lived with his mother and stepfather and his three younger half-sisters ellison catherine and elizabeth ryan was already a world traveler at a young age in high school the carters moved to the philippines and then switzerland ryan graduated high school from the international school of geneva during that time the distance was very hard on ryan's father so he was thrilled when they returned to the states when the carter family moved back to kentucky ryan and his father spent a lot of time together and enjoyed a very close relationship jay would go over to ryan's condo to clean and iron his clothes while he was busy with school and work most women considered ryan the total package he was extremely good looking ambitious successful and intelligent ryan's friends remember that when he would walk into a room women would just flock to him he was very charismatic and he loved to discuss politics and world events he had a love for knowledge and was one of those people who wanted to know facts about every little thing he would have regular chess matches with his friends that would last for days ryan also had a love for guns he was an avid gun collector and enthusiast after high school ryan went to indiana university for his bachelor's degree the ever ambitious ryan triple majored in history geography and political science he then went on to law school at the sam p chase college of law at northern kentucky university in highland heights after earning his law degree ryan began working as an attorney in cincinnati in 2009 ryan poston met lauren worley at a local bar lauren was a law student at the same school ryan had just graduated from it was love at first sight and they fell fast and hard they got an apartment together and adopted two puppies many of their friends thought they would end up getting married however the two didn't last and ryan and lauren broke up in 2011. shortly after their breakup ryan's step cousin carissa suggested that he talk to one of her friends 19 year old shayna hubers ryan went through shayna's spring break pictures on facebook and the two began talking when they met in march of 2011 shayna was finishing up her degree in psychology at the university of kentucky and she also did some part-time modeling on the side she lived in lexington kentucky which was about 80 miles away from ryan's condo at only 19 shayna was a woman who was already used to getting everything she wanted with ease she had almost genius level intelligence and breezed through her ap classes with all a's she staying in the choir and took acting classes her bedroom was full of academic awards and accolades her friends remember that shayna was extremely competitive and pushed herself to be the best at everything shayna always had to win she had a flare for the dramatic and was never able to handle breakups very well according to her friends she would scream and cry and seem to have a very difficult time moving on ryan and shayna's 18-month relationship was tumultuous from the very beginning shayna was still very threatened by ryan's ex-girlfriend lauren and would frequently put people on the spot asking if they knew that shayna was with ryan now she would also ask them if lauren was more attractive than she was when ryan would have his other female friends around shayna would cling onto ryan and be very cold to them to say that their relationship was a roller coaster is an understatement it was fueled by jealousy frequent fights cheating on both sides and temporary breakups ryan's friends and family quickly noticed that shayna was extremely possessive and needy she would frequently show up at his apartment and his law office unannounced and refused to leave one night ryan left his own condo and stayed the night with his father because he couldn't get her out of his place shayna also figured out how to hack into ryan's facebook and started deleting and messaging all of his female friends ryan's friends and family were growing more and more concerned about her complete obsession with him in the spring of 2012 ryan opened his own practice and started to fulfill his dream of providing legal help to those who couldn't normally afford it he was laser focused on growing his firm and was becoming miserable in his toxic relationship with shayna shayna and ryan were frequently fighting and shayna's behavior was becoming more and more obsessive and disturbing ryan's family friends co-workers and even some of his neighbors have been drug into the drama of their relationship ryan constantly told them how shayna was the craziest girl he had ever met and that he had actually become scared of her despite all of this they continued their toxic cycle of dramatic breakups and getting back together one night in april shayna again refused to leave ryan's condo and he eventually became so frustrated that he threw her purse out into the hallway and then picked her up and tossed her out as well shayna went to his neighbor's condo and complained to her about how she did his laundry walked his dogs and went food shopping for him yet he still didn't seem to want to be with her she also complained that ryan was verbally and emotionally abusive she told his neighbor that he frequently told her she needed plastic surgery and to lose weight since shayna had a key to his place ryan threatened to padlock his door in the fall of 2012 shayna was 21 and ryan was 29. sheena had just started her master's program in psychology and was attempting to hang on to her hot and cold dysfunctional relationship with ryan ryan was still entangled in the lawsuit with his former law partner and had become extremely stressed out and angry over the situation this stress along with the stress of shayna's increasingly unstable behavior was beginning to take a huge toll on him on october 1st ryan took shayna to the gun range with him shayna texted her friend christy the following when i go to the gun range with ryan tonight i want to turn around and shoot him and kill him and play like it's an accident with the pressure continuing to build with a lawsuit and his extremely turbulent relationship with shaina ryan was being pushed to his limits on october 4th 2012 ryan texted a friend there's nothing i want more than to just scorch the effing earth and leave this entire city in a pile of rubble ryan was throwing himself into work and was becoming more and more distant with shayna finally in october ryan decided he couldn't take shayna's obsessive stalker-like behavior anymore unbeknownst to shayna he had begun talking to other women ryan's legal assistant lori zimmerman watched the relationship with growing concern she was very disturbed by shayna's obsessive behavior and the huge toll it took on ryan lori witnessed first hand how shayna would call and text him at work 50 to 100 times a day if she couldn't get him on a cell phone she'd then call the receptionist and ask for him if that didn't work she would show up at their office and refuse to leave on october 11 2012 sheena joined ryan at his parents house for dinner and to watch the presidential debates after their steak and asparagus dinner ryan pulled his father aside and told him he was ending things with shayna for good after the debates they went back to ryan's place to spend the night he informed shaina that he wouldn't be able to see her that weekend and shayna became very upset and couldn't sleep after tossing and turning with her anxiety growing she called her mother she told her mom that she didn't feel well and her mom drove the 80 miles to ryan's condo and spent the night on october 12th ryan awoke to find shayna's mom sleeping in his living room shayna claimed she still wasn't feeling well and that she now had chest pains she asked ryan to take her to the er when he refused to do so she left with her mom after they left his condo she texted him throughout the day about her er visit she told him that she ended up getting an ekg and was referred to a specialist she went into detail about the daily medication she was prescribed ryan had just recently begun talking to audrey bolt on facebook who was also miss ohio they had arranged to meet up at a bar later that evening although shayna denies it it's a fair assumption that she found out that ryan was talking to audrey shayna had regular access to ryan's facebook and was regularly checking up on him and everything he was doing in fact shayna had just friended audrey two days prior she had also been spending quite a bit of time researching her online i would definitely love to be amazing at wakeboarding or snowboarding i like both because right now all i can do is cling on to those handle bars during wakeboarding and i would love to be able to do like sweet tricks and show off and show the boys up or be able to really cool cut some snow on the snowboarding like we did at chelsea cooley's except without face planning or while at work that day ryan was talking to his co-workers about his excitement over his date with audrey that night lori zimmerman remembers that she was extremely concerned about shayna's reaction and she warned ryan to be careful ryan responded that he had it under control and not to worry it appeared that shayna either had direct knowledge or just an instinct that ryan was ready to move on and she had become desperate contrary to what shayna had told ryan she had not gone to the er and had spent the entire day out shopping with her mother in a bid to get sympathy from ryan while shannon was shopping she was also googling the symptoms of high blood pressure and heart disease so that she could sound believable she even googled the types of medication that she would be prescribed ryan made it home to his condo after work that day autumn was ryan's favorite season and he was feeling upbeat and optimistic about his date with audrey that night as ryan walked through the parking lot he texted audrey about their plans later on at first they discussed meeting up at ryan's condo but eventually decided to meet up at a local bar ryan had a concealed carry license and carried to work every day when he would get home from work his habit was to set his gun down on his kitchen table sometime around 8 30 pm shayna showed up to ryan's condo unannounced at 8 54 pm that evening the following 9-1-1 call came into the highland heights police department county 9-1-1 ma'am i have i haven't um i i killed my boyfriend in self-defense okay where are you up i'm at 12 meadow lane highland high kentucky four 107 seconds okay 12 meadow lane are you in a house or an apartment there it's apartment suite pen is it meadow anything else meadowview or something no it's all that elaine we have my children okay okay okay tell me again tell me again what unit you're in it's not showing to my computer okay you're at 12 minute lane unit number 10. okay hold on hold on what did you kill him with i got a loaded gun in the house and tell me where the gun is right now my gun is in the house where at the man tell me where it's at i landed on the bookshelf swear at laying on a shelf on the bookshelf and how long ago did you shoot him i don't know not even that long like 10 or 15 minutes ago yeah okay what's your name my name is michelle huber i'm sorry what is it again tell me cena cena michelle huberty [Music] all right shane i'm just having a hard time hearing you okay all right now you're gonna stay you're going to stay on the line with me okay because this is what we're going to do the officers don't want me to stand in line with you so when you get when they get there they're going to want to know where that gun is and we want you to get out safely too okay okay are they going to arrest me ma'am i don't know what they'll do we're going to send send them out i'm going to stay online with you okay i mean i'm not a murderer i'm just kidding what happened exactly what happened he beat me and cheering me out of the house he beat me and tried to carry me out of the house and i came right in to get my things and he was right in front of me and he raced down and grabbed the gun and i grabbed it out of his hand and told him hold the trigger okay all right do you need an ambulance have you been injured i'm not injured ma'am i was thrown into the side of the couch okay and how old is he he's 29 he'll be 30 under he would have been 30 on december the 30th all right what's his name ryan carter posted he's an attorney in cincinnati [Music] okay have you had a history of domestic violence with him yeah okay and is this your gun no this is his gun he keeps floating down from the house so he he slammed you into the couch but you don't have any injuries i don't have any injuries i was just very frightened he picked he's a lot bigger than me he's just three and he picked me up and and was carrying me out of the house and i said let me get my things at least if we're gonna break up and and he wouldn't let me get my thing and when i reached around and tried to get my thing [Music] she i can hear myself actually in the background ma'am it's just this phone system a phone system has got a and he he pushed me down from from the door all the way to the couch and when they come here they'll see how far that is he threw me across the room and and i was very startled i was laying on the floor okay all right and i killed him okay all right man this is what i want you to do can you you're sure he's not ma'am you're sure he's not breathing at all no that's okay they actually have someone that's outside almost right now but i'm going to stay online with you okay when they when they tell me to what we're good when they tell me to what i'm going to tell you to do is walk to the door with your hands up because we want you to come out safely okay so that's why i'm standing on the line with you ma'am i don't i'm just a dispatcher i'm nothing but a dispatcher so i can't tell you my job is to keep you in mind make sure my officers get there safely and nothing happened to them okay and i knew he was gonna die anyway and he was making funny noises i saw her a couple more times just to kill him because i knew he would have been i'm sorry you said you shot him a couple more times after that yeah how many times did you shoot him total i don't know okay because he was twitching and you knew he was gonna die so you shot him again enough to make sure he was dead because he was twitching so bad and watch your way there into it so you shot him instead of calling 9-1-1 do what yeah i did completely die okay he was pretty mad [Music] can you see out front of your apartment at all i can't see out front i can't see the back but not the front do i walk which way do i oh i can i can hear it can i walk out the front door nope no no i want you to stay right where you're at right where i'm at stay okay okay well they tell me when they're oh i have to give them a key to let them in i actually have to walk all the way down there to let them in all right ma'am what i want you to do is i want you to set your phone down but i do not want you to hang it up i want you to go to your front door i want you to open it up walk outside the door with your hands in front of you okay i will and your hands open the officers are at the top of the steps let's hit the phone okay i'm gonna do it when police arrived to ryan's two-bedroom condo at 9pm they found ryan slumped over on the floor under his table shayna was taken to the highland heights police department for questioning despite her being read her miranda rights and immediately requesting an attorney she wanted to talk and talk and talk for the next three hours she wouldn't stop talking to the point that officers couldn't take it anymore and were switching off in shifts to relieve each other during her bizarre manic ramblings investigators recalled that she was making strange noises forcing herself to cry and as soon as they left the room she stopped immediately they said it was like she flipped a switch they watched shayna in the interrogation room with a mixture of fascination and disbelief the following is some of the most bizarre interview behavior i have ever seen so i can't ask you any questions at all and i shot him in self-defense because he's done stuff before where i've hit my head on a headboard and could have died okay what was his name the man that i killed her ryan carter poston he was in just a second he was throwing me around the room like picking me up and like had my face and stuff if you go to jail are you allowed to keep your phone i feel very pretty did you have a donation i have my head banged and do a few different things tonight can i talk to you i have somebody to talk to you know i wasn't doing anything that was me and i was like begging him to stay in the relationship and be with me because i knew that we once really loved each other you know ryan told me that he loved me what did it be with me i guess somewhere along the way that grew to hate he was screaming how much he hearing i don't know if anyone will ever want to marry me if they know that i killed my boyfriend insult it's not funny but the stuff he was saying to me was so abusive while he was throwing me around the room i think in the midst of that my love trying to hate i remember screaming reaching up to grab this shirt you have a deer you walk my family i'm there you stay secretly my mother and my family i don't get any serious consequences that i could really be happy just having a career maybe not even ever getting married because this is very traumatic you know search matters for me to live with it he had put his arm across the table and there's a lamp and he had put his arm across the table and had it in my face and was screaming at me at the top of his lungs after he had thrown me around the room and was saying emotionally to me i and he wasn't completely standing up he was like this she was like he was sitting here the nest that when she sent me like this literally that's what i knew it was dad or close to it and twitching and that's and i couldn't i let him i still even though the hurt i still enough of me loved him but i couldn't stand to watch him twitch i knew he was gonna die or have a completely deformed face he's very vain one of our last conversations we had that was good was that he wants my best friend as a dentist to do his veneers and wants to get a nose off just that kind of person and i shot him right here i gave him his nose dog he wanted [Music] how sweet [Music] [Music] oh [Music] thank you me here's what's gonna happen right now shayna okay was being held at the police station and ryan's condo was being processed as a crime scene audrey sat at the local pub waiting for ryan to show up she kept texting ryan getting no response and becoming more and more annoyed she couldn't believe that ryan had stood her up on the date that they were both so excited about back at the highland heights police department shayna hubers was arrested and charged in the murder of ryan carter poston she was held on a 5 million dollar bond the following day ryan's dad jay was riding his bike around northern kentucky when he got a call from an unknown number not recognizing the number he let it go to voicemail he made a stop and listen to the message which he recites verbatim mr poston we have a body here which we think may be a member of your family he didn't return the coroner's call he stated that he just couldn't doing that he said would have made it real a couple days after the murder the haunted heights police gave us permission to go to his condo and take some things out and i remember clearly walking up to that door and in my head i could envision my son being wheeled out of that room in a body bag you think yourself oh my god that's my child's blood that's where my son took his last breath no one should ever have to clean the blood of their murdered child off the walls of his home but no one else was going to do that but me that was my duty due to her extremely high bail shayna remained incarcerated until the trial the trial for ryan poston did not begin until april 13th of 2015. shayna entered a plea of not guilty the defense claimed that the shooting was in self-defense and that it was shayna who was the victim they alleged that ryan was abusive toward shaina the prosecution asserted that shayna murdered him in cold blood after he tried to break up with her both sides used the couple's drama-filled texts to back up their claims during the trial audrey bolt also briefly took the stand funny and very smart and i found him very entertaining and that led me to accept an invite to go on a date with him the defense claimed that shayna and ryan had a violent argument after she arrived at this condo however ryan's neighbors recalled that on the evening of october 12th shayna was only there for a couple of minutes before they heard two loud pops that they thought sounded like fireworks a few minutes later they heard four more shayna's former cellmate cecily miller testified that shayna bragged about killing ryan and that shayna claimed she was going to plead insanity and she shot him and what i recall what i remember is when she shot him it was like bang bang bang bang bang sprayed and she then she sat down and she said i just gave him those job he always wanted cackled left and she shot him he fell and then when she shot him she stood up shouting more spray i reckon and that's when he was twitching shayna also allegedly stated that she was too smart to plead insanity because she had the iq of einstein so instead she was going to plead the battered wife syndrome the defense did not put shayna hubers on the stand on april 23 2015 after five hours of deliberations the jury came back with a verdict we a jury find the defendant shayna hubers guilty of murder under instruction number three on the day of sentencing ryan's younger sister catherine took the stand to tell the court about the enormous loss that the family had suffered he made us complete and without him there is always a chair that's going to be empty he will never be able to have all the things that he deserved to have in his life shayna looked stunned as the judge sentenced her to 40 years in prison he told her that he did not believe she was the victim of domestic violence and that he had actually considered giving her more than the recommended sentence on august 25th 2016 in a shocking twist shayna was granted an appeal overturning her conviction the appeal was granted on the basis that one of her jurors withheld a felony conviction kentucky law prohibits convicted felons from serving on juries and one of her jurors had a prior conviction for a child support charge shane has still managed to make headlines outside of the courtroom in june of 2018 shayna married a transgender inmate unique tailor who was awaiting trial on robbery charges shayna's retrial began on august 18th of 2018. this time shayna took the stand to give her account of the alleged abusive relationship and he picked me up from an awkward angle and threw me from the doorway of his bedroom into the other room i thought that he was going to snap my neck because of the way that he was jerking my my head around and he had all of his weight on me and he was he had all of his weight on my body and he was jerking my head around with his hand in my hair i don't believe i said that that night now and did you seek medical treatment no and it was offered to you multiple times wasn't it yes when he was first shot he let out a really loud noise that sounded like an animal it sounded like a bear some type of wild animal it's easy to look at shayna and think that she's obviously a few fries short of a happy meal however during the trial she was officially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder during shayna's retrial ryan's father jay poston also took the stand the status was my son wanted her not to be around and the status was she kept coming around the time he was a small child to the time he graduated law school he would always kiss us on the cheek and say i love he said if you leave now maybe in the future you two can get together because i have found that life is about timing and i said your timing is just not right on august 29 2018 jurors yet again deliberated for five hours and came back with a verdict of guilty on october 18 2018 almost six years from the date of ryan's murder shayna was again sentenced to 40 years in prison ryan's family once again stood in court to give their emotional accounts of how ryan's death had affected them i wake in the middle of the night every night anguishing that i may forget the sound of my son's voice the warmth of his embrace there was hardly a dry eye in the courtroom as ryan's sister catherine testified at the sentencing hearing with her she carried a teddy bear that was made from the shirt that ryan was killed in it contained a recording of ryan's voicemail greeting which she played for the court this teddy bear was made by jay's sister this is ryan's shirt the evidence was profound debilitating and lingering leaving the poston and carter family's lives crushed come here catherine come here come here she didn't tell any of us or michelle or anybody about this um the teddy bear went off the other day when i was playing with henry nobody had touched it so i thought these people don't know who ryan is they'll never get to meet him so why don't i bring a piece of ryan there into that courtroom and show them who he is the softness of his voice just through a voicemail you can tell who a person is um that was just just came to me when i was playing with henry shayna hubers filed for divorce from unique taylor also known as richard mcbee in january of 2019 stating that her life sentence constituted the marriage as irretrievable shayna is eligible for parole in the year 2032 taking into account time already served as with any murder case it's not just the story of the victim that's important it's also the story of their loved ones that are left behind with the enormous loss and grief to carry around for the rest of their lives ryan's family struggles daily with the hole that ryan's death has left after shayna's sentencing jay poston told reporters my name ends with this he was my lineage he was the last of me when i am not in that courtroom she does not exist to me she flat out doesn't exist i will not let this woman have power over me you can't let evil win audrey balti has moved on with her life and is now living in colorado however she still thinks about that night and what would have happened had anything been different and if they would have met at ryan's condo as they had originally planned instead of the local bar she also can't help but wonder what role their date had in his death for live discussions on this case and more please join us every wednesday for true crime and wine wednesdays only available through patreon

Channel: Unmasked

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Id: T3CYcNjfjpo

Length: 35min 37sec (2137 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2020