WEST BATH — A woman who pleaded guilty last year to robbery in connection with the 2019 murder of a Richmond man now faces charges that she violated her probation by marrying the man who was charged with murder in that case and later acquitted.

Prosecutors say Chanda Lilly, seen here during her initial court appearance in March 2020 at Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath, violated her probation by having contact with Tyon Shuron, who was acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of Andrew Sherman. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

The conditions of probation for Chanda Lilly, now 35, who court records indicate has lived in Windham, Belfast and Augusta, include that she have no contact with Tyon Shuron, now 47, of Augusta.

Shuron and Lilly were arrested in early 2020 and indicted in connection with the shooting death of Andrew Sherman in September 2019 at Sherman’s home in Richmond.

Lilly was initially charged with felony murder in Sherman’s death, but struck a deal with state prosecutors in March 2023 to plead guilty to a Class A count of robbery. Prosecutors dropped the felony murder charge, and she agreed to testify against Shuron at trial. During her testimony, she described how Shuron shot Sherman in the head.

Shuron was found not guilty of murder and felony murder charges following a jury trial in November 2023.

When Lilly pleaded guilty to robbery, she was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with all but four years suspended, and four years of probation, which included a provision she have no contact with Shuron. She received credit for the time served while awaiting trial, and was on probation when she had contact with him, officials said.

If the court finds Lilly violated the terms of her probation, she could be sentenced to serve to the remaining 14 years of her initial sentence on the robbery charge.

A district court hearing was held on the matter Wednesday in West Bath, but no decision was reached.

Superior Court Justice Daniel Billings granted a motion from Andrew Emerson, Lilly’s lawyer, to delay the case to allow time for a mental health evaluation of Lilly.

Emerson said he does not believe she is now competent to participate in her own defense. He also said jail officials indicated Lilly had not been taking her medication.

Court documents show Lilly has been held at the Knox County Jail in Rockland and Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.

A disheveled-looking Lilly was brought into the courtroom briefly for the hearing Wednesday, hunched over with her hands shackled to her waist. Instead of sitting next to Emerson at the defense table, she sat in a separate area of the courtroom, surrounded by officers. She did not speak in court.

Suzanne Russell, an assistant attorney general prosecuting the case, said the state did not object to delaying action until Lilly’s mental health is evaluated. Lilly’s mental health was also an issue at Shuron’s trial, when she disclosed she has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type

Billings noted a previous mental health competency evaluation of Lilly found her to be competent, but in so doing, the judge also raised issues about Lilly’s mental state. He ordered her to undergo another evaluation Wednesday.

Shuron, who was sitting in the public audience section of the courtroom for the hearing, asked to address the court.

Tyon Shuron, center, shakes hands with his lawyer, Ronald Bourget, after a jury announced Nov. 22, 2023, it had found Shuron not guilty of murder and felony murder, at Sagadahoc County Superior Court in Bath. Shuron had been accused of fatally shooting Andrew Sherman at Sherman’s Richmond home in 2019. While the jury absolved Shuron of the most serious charges he faced, it convicted him on one count of witness tampering. Jessica Lowell/Kennebec Journal

Billings said no, telling him, “You’re not a party in this matter.”

In a letter written to the court in May, Shuron sought to respond to Lilly’s being charged with violating her probation. Shuron argued the ban on her having contact with him served no valid purpose and imposed an unfair and unreasonable impediment to their “Natural & Constitutional Rights that should be properly restored and retained by Chanda, and are also retained by me.”

“My wife and I simply wish to live our life together Lawfully & in peace,” Shuron wrote. “The current set of facts holds no constructive penalogical purpose for precluding our Rights to live Free of the Cruelty imposed on us by this type of unfair & Unrequired restriction upon our association.”

Shuron said he legally changed his name to Tziyon Israel L’Jeshurun. He added that Lilly is also known as Chanda L’Jeshurun.

Penology is a branch of criminology that studies how societies deal with criminal activity and treat offenders.

Court files include a marriage license application that officials say Shuron and Lilly obtained together in Belfast in December 2023, a license issued by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services indicating they were married Dec. 31, 2023, in Searsmont and photographs of them smiling together and opening wedding gifts at what court documents indicated was their wedding in Searsmont.

A police affidavit stated the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Searsmont said Lilly and Shuron came to the church a couple of weeks before their wedding and said they wanted to have it there. The ceremony took place at the church, which posted photographs on its public Facebook page. The pastor told police Lilly did not mention she was on probation or prohibited from having contact with Shuron.

State probation officials also allege Lilly and Shuron were together in February 2024, when a car driven by Shuron was pulled over in Liberty. Police said Lilly used her sister’s name when identifying herself during the traffic stop.

Officers who are familiar with Chanda Lilly reviewed the report and video of the traffic stop and said in court documents that she, not her sister, was with Shuron inside the vehicle, again in violation of her probation.

Prosecutors at Shuron’s trial said he had traveled with Lilly in late September 2019 to Sherman’s home in Richmond for a fatal confrontation over explicit photographs that Sherman had taken of Lilly. Sherman paid her for the images after they met through an online platform that connects models and photographers.

While investigators said they found a case inside Shuron’s car for a gun he owned that matched the make and model of the gun used in the killing, they never recovered the gun. They also did not find other items allegedly taken from Sherman’s home, including computer equipment, digital storage media and cameras.

While Lilly was consistent in her testimony during trial that Shuron shot Sherman, had taken pains to avoid leaving evidence at Sherman’s home and had burned other evidence days later in Appleton, she also testified she has schizoaffective disorder bipolar type and has problems with short- and long-term memory.