Uvalda Man Indicted for Malice Murder

A Uvalda man has been indicted in a 2020 incident in which an elderly woman was injured and laterdied. Byron Terrell Shinhoster, 34, was indicted by the Toombs County Grand Jury for the alleged stabbing of Gloria Rollins, who succumbed to her injuries several weeks after the September 1 attack. Shinhoster is charged with one count of malice murder, one count of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated assault on a police officer, one count of false imprisonment and two counts of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tripp Fitzner confirmed Friday. The charges resulted from a domestic incident at a residence on Smith Street in Vidalia. When Vidalia police arrived at the residence, they were met at the door by an elderly woman who told them that Shinhoster was behaving strangely and that he had a knife. Once officers entered the house, they could see into the kitchen where Shinhoster was on the phone with a knife in his hand. The woman’s granddaughter and a three-year-old girl were also in the kitchen at the time. Shinhoster then noticed police had entered the house and “started getting very agitated, stating someone was out there,” the police report said. The suspect then grabbed Rollins “around the neck with the knife in his hand.” The responding officers, who had called for backup, were joined by a third officer and all three entered the kitchen with their ser v ice revolvers drawn and gave loud verbal commands to the suspect to drop the knife. One officer reported that he attempted to grab the knife but was blocked by the suspect who was holding the woman in front of him with the knife against her neck. A fourth police officer arrived on the scene and attempted to persuade Shinhoster to drop the knife, but Shinhoster continued to ignore police commands. “While we were trying to talk to or get close to Mr. Shinhoster, he would stick the knife into (Rollins) neck. We had family members on the phone trying to talk to him but they were unable to get him to comply,” the police said. Eventually, police were able to edge closer to Shinhoster and wrest the knife from his hand. As the police took the suspect into custody, the woman was taken outside the home and was later airlifted to an area medical facility for treatment. The woman’s granddaughter and the three-year-old child were not harmed in the incident.

As police attempted to handcuff Shinhoster, he started resisting arrest and had to be stunned with a taser. Once he was placed in the back of a police vehicle, Shinhoster started kicking the vehicle’s door. When police opened the car door, Shinhoster positioned his foot so that the door could not be closed. He continued to resist multiple commands to put his foot back inside the unit and police had to use a taser to stun him again.

Shinhoster was transported to Meadows Regional Medical Center to be medically cleared and then incarcerated in the Toombs County jail and charged. Shinhoster was also facing felony warrants in Montgomery County for probation violations.