WESTOVER, Md. - A man has been sentenced to life for what witnesses described as a horrific murder of a fellow inmate at Eastern Correctional Institute in 2025.
According to the Office of the State’s Attorney for Somerset County, Maryland State Police and the Division of Corrections were called to ECI on March 29, 2025, on reports of a homicide. There, investigators discovered inmate Shane Lanham, Jr. unresponsive and covered in blood in his cell. Lanham, suffering from multiple facial injuries, died on the way to the hospital, according to authorities.
Lanham’s cellmate, Tyjuan Chapple, was removed from the cell with his shoes and legs covered in blood.
An autopsy would later reveal that every bone in the right side of Lanham’s face had been broken, along with fractures on the left side of his face and injuries to his neck and body. Officials say the official cause of death was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
Chapple was later charged with the murder of Lanham in September of 2025. On March 31, 2026, Chapple was found guilty of first degree murder and other related charges following a two-day trial.
Somerset County State's Attorney
“Almost every officer and staff at ECI testified at trial that this was the most horrific incident they had seen while working at ECI,” the State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
On Thursday, June 18, Chapple was sentenced to life in prison in addition to the sentence he was already serving at ECI.
