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Peekskill resident Shane Gilleo was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison for the 2022 murder of his stepfather, Edward Reeves, and setting fire to his mother's apartment later in the day, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office announced on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
According to the DA's Office, at around 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14, 2022, Gilleo stabbed the 48-year-old Reeves seven times in his arm, abdomen, thigh, and chest in a parking lot outside his grandmother's apartment on North James Street in Peekskill. Soon after this, Gilleo ran from the scene.
Reeves was later taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he died of his injuries.
Gilleo had been on federal supervised release from prison at the time of the stabbing and had been confined at home with an ankle monitor.
Almost 12 hours after the stabbing at around 11:30 a.m., Gilleo barricaded himself inside his mother's apartment on Grand Avenue in Peekskill, where he was soon surrounded by Peekskill Police officers.
While inside the two-family residence, Gilleo started three separate fires before punching out the windows. To escape, he leaped out of a second-story window.
The apartment was later made uninhabitable by the fires.
After the blaze, Gilleo was arrested by Peekskill Police. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and third-degree arson on Wednesday, Aug. 7 after a two-week trial.
In a statement after the sentencing, Westchester District Attorney Miriam Rocah condemned Gilleo's actions:
"This defendant murdered Edward Reeves in cold blood and then lit his own mother’s home on fire. Today’s sentence holds this defendant fully accountable for his violent and deadly actions," Rocah said.
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