15 Years in Stacey Seaton Slaying

Man cooperated with prosecution in failed attempt to convict second man

Almost seven years after the death of a pregnant Maryland teenager, a man has been sentenced in connection with her death.

Macdonald Abraham, who said that he paid another man $400 cash and $200 in marijuana to kill 17-year-old Stacey Seaton, was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison followed by five years of supervised probation for second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder after cooperating with prosecutors.

“I’ve never come across a case involving a defendant who has acted in a more cowardly manner,” Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michael Pearson said.  “Your actions are reprehensible.”

Abraham testified for the prosecution in the first-degree murder trial of Jarvis Tyler that he hired Tyler to kill Stacey. She was found shot in the back of the head by a .22-caliber handgun June 1, 2005, in Bowie and later died at an area hospital. Abraham said he wanted her dead because he believed she was involved in the theft of drugs, money and a gun from his apartment. Prosecutors also presented DNA evidence linking Tyler to a cigarette butt near the murder scene.

Tyler’s defense argued that Abraham played ball just to get a lighter sentence. A jury found Tyler not guilty on all counts last week.

"The jury handled the evidence and made their decision," prosecutor Wes Adams said.

"We feel as though Stacey has been killed again,” wrote her mother, Gale Seaton, in a family statement following the verdict. “I'm going back to 2005 all over again. Stacey was betrayed by the justice system.”

Justice was not served Friday, either, in Gale Seaton's eyes.

"This was a cold, calculated, premeditated murder that went on for at least a week in the making," she said, "and here we are today -- six years, nine months later."

"We were able to put a person behind bars who did hire somebody to kill Stacey Seaton, and we had the opportunity to try the case of the person who killed Stacey Seaton," Adams said.

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