Full Notification

DETROIT — A 37-year-old Westland man will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole in the slaying of a Taylor police officer.

Tyress Mathews was sentenced Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit. A jury found him guilty earlier this month of first-degree premeditated murder.

Cpl. Matthew Edwards was shot July 23, 2010, while investigating a breaking and entering report at a Taylor apartment complex, southwest of Detroit.

Mathews told Edwards and his partner, Cpl. Gregory Piche, that he and his wife had been arguing and he wanted to get his car keys and leave, according to The Detroit News.

Piche had testified that the officers were trying to diffuse the problem when Edwards was shot.

Defense attorney Todd Perkins claimed Edwards and his partner fired first, but witnesses said Mathews fired the first shot. The 31-year-old Edwards never removed his gun from its holster.

Piche shot and wounded Mathews.

"Cpl. Edwards thought he had peaceably handled the situation," Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Stevens said after Monday's sentencing. "He trusted humanity for a split second and that's all it took. His children should know he was and is and always will be a hero."

Mathews spent time in prison after pleading guilty in 1991 to assault with intent to commit murder and armed robbery.