Shelby Lacie Andrews

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Remembering Shelby

Shelby Laice Andrews was ten years old, and thankfully, we know more about who Shelby was than we do for many of the children we've been researching. Shelby loved sports. She played soccer and baseball and was proud to be the only girl on her baseball team. But she also loved having her fingernails painted and doing her mother's hair and makeup. Her uncle remembered her as a little daredevil. Her mother, Kimberly Hale, remembered Sunday mornings when Shelby and her stepfather, Guy, would turn on music after breakfast and dance together in the kitchen. Before Shelby became the little girl whose death changed Utah law, she was an athletic, adventurous ten year old who could love baseball and painted fingernails at the same time. She had friends. She had people who loved her. And she had a personality that deserves to survive alongside the terrible record of what happened to her.

​

Shelby's Story

On August 1, 2006, police were called to the Syracuse, Utah home where Shelby lived with her biological father, Ryan William Andrews, and her stepmother, Angela Ray Andrews. Shelby's brother had called 911. When police arrived, Shelby was dead. What investigators discovered showed that her death had not followed one isolated act of violence. Shelby had endured prolonged and severe abuse. Approximately 80 percent of her body was covered with bruises, contusions and bite marks. Some injuries were new. Others were weeks old. Investigators believed the abuse had been occurring for as long as a year and that Shelby had likely been beaten daily during approximately the final week of her life. She had been severely beaten by hand and with a belt. Her head had been slammed into a wall with enough force to break a hole through the sheetrock. Her brain was later found to have been swelling. But the abuse documented after Shelby's death went much further. Ryan Andrews later provided prosecutors with a written confession describing systematic abuse inside the home. According to his confession, Angela Andrews forced Shelby to eat her own feces. She repeatedly slammed Shelby's head into stairs. She struck Shelby in the genital area with the heel of a shoe. Ryan admitted holding his daughter's arms and legs while Angela assaulted Shelby's genital area with a metal spray can. And on the night Shelby died, she was placed inside an extremely small linen-closet space. Ryan described forcing Shelby into the cramped area, where she had to remain standing. Shelby cried that she could not breathe. She was gagging on her own vomit. According to Ryan's confession, Angela insisted that Shelby was pretending or manipulating them, so they left the ten-year-old trapped inside while the adults went and watched television. Eventually, they returned and opened the door. Shelby's lifeless body fell out.

​

The Abuse Behind Closed Doors

Shelby's mother, Kimberly Hale, said Ryan had temporary custody of their three children because he was in a better financial position at the time. Kimberly still had visitation. But she said Ryan and Angela gradually cut off her access to the children, eventually accusing her of abuse and obtaining a protective order that kept her away. Kimberly said that if she had known Shelby was being abused, she would have done anything to stop it. That context matters because horrific child abuse can become easier to conceal when a child becomes isolated from adults outside the abusive household who know and love them.

​

Justice for Shelby

Both Ryan and Angela Andrews were charged with first-degree felony murder and aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Ryan Andrews ultimately pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder. On January 22, 2007, he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. As part of his plea agreement, the aggravated sexual-abuse charge against him was dismissed. Angela Andrews also pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder. She additionally pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

On November 19, 2007, Angela was sentenced to 15 years to life for Shelby's murder, along with one to 15 years for the sexual-abuse conviction. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

​

Ryan William Andrews
Relationship: Father
Conviction: First-degree felony murder
Sentence: 15 years to life

​

Angela Ray Andrews
Relationship: Stepmother
Convictions: First-degree felony murder and second-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child
Sentence: 15 years to life, plus 1–15 years concurrently

​

Shelby's Law

Shelby's story did not end with the convictions of Ryan and Angela Andrews.

At the time Shelby was killed, Utah law did not allow prosecutors to pursue an aggravated-murder charge carrying a potential death sentence solely because a child died during severe abuse unless prosecutors could establish the required intent to kill. Public outrage following Shelby's death helped drive lawmakers to change that. In 2007, Utah enacted what became known as “Shelby's Law,” expanding the circumstances under which  prosecutors could bring aggravated-murder charges when a child under 14 dies during child abuse. Years later, prosecutors would use the law bearing Shelby's name in other child-abuse homicide cases. Shelby was ten years old when she died, but her name became part of Utah's effort to protect other children after her.

​​

Forever Remembered

There are horrific details in Shelby's story. They need to be told. But there are other details that deserve to survive just as strongly. Shelby played baseball. She was proud to be the only girl on her team. She liked soccer, painted fingernails, hair and makeup. She was remembered as a daredevil. She danced in the kitchen on Sunday mornings. Her name was Shelby Andrews. The Brutality inflicted upon her ultimately helped change the law in Utah, and her name continues to be spoken through Shelby's law.  But Shelby's greatest importance was never the legislation created after her death. It was that she was Shelby. A daughter. A sister. A friend. An athlete. A little daredevil. A ten year old girl who deserved to grow up. Abuse Angels remembers Shelby, tells the complete truth about what happened to her, and remembers the behind the law that carries her name.