NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Shayna Hubers, who danced and sang 'I did it' after shooting her boyfriend, is found guilty of murder

news.com.au
30 Aug, 2018 07:24 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Police video reveals Shayna Hubers dancing and singing “I did it” around the police interrogation room hours after shooting her boyfriend. / ABC

A woman who admitted to shooting her boyfriend in the face for breaking up with her has been found guilty of murder.

Shayna Hubers, 27, killed Ryan Poston, 29, in 2012, just before he was due to meet a date. After two trials, with the second taking just five hours for the jury to be convinced, the Kentucky woman was convicted of his murder.

Ohio TV station WLWT 5 reported Hubers admitted to shooting Mr Poston because he wanted to break up with her, but Hubers' lawyer tried to flip that script, claiming she shot her on-off boyfriend in self defence because she "feared" him.

Shayna Hubers hummed Amazing Grace to herself while in the interrogation room.
Shayna Hubers hummed Amazing Grace to herself while in the interrogation room.

Surveillance footage, filmed just hours after the shooting in a police interrogation room showed Hubers dancing and singing, "I did it, yes. I did it." Hubers can be heard chanting on the video and waving a finger in the air. "I can't believe I did that."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

After showing the video to the jury, prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass said: "I don't know what could sound more malicious than that."

Ohio TV station WLWT 5 reported that Hubers once told police she gave Mr Poston the "nose job he wanted" when she shot him six times, including in the face.

"He's very vain. One of our last conversations we had that was good was that he wants to get a nose job," Hubers told police in a recorded conversation. "And I shot him right here. I gave him his nose job he wanted. I broke it."

She also began to question the officers about what life was like behind bars, asking if she'd be allowed to take her phone or have a shower.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I don't know if anyone will ever want to marry me if they know that I killed a boyfriend in self defence — not funny."

Her lawyer, David Eldridge, said Mr Poston had physically abused Hubers and made her fear for her life.

Shayna Hubers sang and danced around the interrogation room.
Shayna Hubers sang and danced around the interrogation room.

"He was grabbing her hair, jerking her head back and forth like she thought her neck was going to snap," Mr Eldridge said in court, according to WCPO. "The commonwealth has been unable to accept the truth about Poston. They don't want you to see the whole picture of Poston and Hubers."

Hubers was found guilty of murder in 2015. She was originally sentenced to 40 years, but was granted a retrial after it was discovered that one of the jurors was a felon.

Discover more

World

'We saw nuns kill children': Horror claims about orphanage

28 Aug 08:18 AM
World

She never returned from a trip to Graceland. Her husband told three stories — before the truth emerged

29 Aug 06:23 PM
World

Man claims he was 'killer dad' Chris Watts' lover

29 Aug 08:02 PM
World

Professor's wife's body found stuffed in suitcase in his office

30 Aug 02:17 AM

Hubers was found guilty again on Tuesday. The jury recommended a life sentence on Wednesday, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Psychologists called by both sides in the retrial testified she does have borderline personality disorder. But they disagreed on whether or not she had post-traumatic stress disorder.

The local TV station reported that Hubers wept into the lap of her lawyer before the verdict was read.

She also mouthed the words "I love you" to her mother.

Shayna Hubers, 27, killed Ryan Poston, 29, just before he was due to meet a date. Photo / news.com.au
Shayna Hubers, 27, killed Ryan Poston, 29, just before he was due to meet a date. Photo / news.com.au

Mr Poston's family released a statement after the verdict, saying it brought them peace but not happiness.

"Today we embrace justice, and yet we do not feel joy," the statement read. "It has been six long and heartbreaking years without our beloved Ryan.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Those who love Ryan now move forward with the integrity, dignity and kindness that Ryan exemplified throughout his life."

On the night of October 12, 2012, Mr Poston was supposed to meet Audrey Bolte, Miss Ohio 2012, for a date.

Instead the young lawyer was found dead in his penthouse apartment, shot six times in the forehead, back, and torso.

During the second trial, Hubers recounted how she and Mr Poston went on their first date on her 20th birthday in April 2011 after meeting on Facebook months earlier.

She had explained she was rattled by his physicality and how forward he was and called a taxi from the bathroom of a bar to get away.

"I remember thinking that he had a strong personality. I feared him. I felt like I need to do what he was telling me to do," she said, according to Fox 19.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, they kept dating on and off and often had rough sex when drunk. She said everything went downhill after she refused to do a sexual act in 2012.

After two trials, the 27-year-old was convicted of killing her on-off boyfriend in 2012. Photo / news.com.au
After two trials, the 27-year-old was convicted of killing her on-off boyfriend in 2012. Photo / news.com.au

"It felt degrading … I didn't know if I trusted him. I feared him," she said.

Hubers admitted that she was also violent with Mr Poston as their fights escalated over the course of the year.

"I smacked or hit him in the face around his mouth. He shoved me, he shoved me back," she said.

The pair tried to get back together about a month before the murder, but Mr Poston had conditions, Fox 19 reported.

"He wanted me to be his incognito girlfriend and he wanted me to talk 25 per cent less, he always said I talked too much," Hubers testified.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"And he wanted me to get a hobby while I was at his condo and he wanted me to also agree to have threesomes with other girls."

Hubers' lawyer Mr Eldridge said in his closing statement: "There was a perfect looking couple on the outside that was deeply flawed on the inside. Their deeply troubled relationship came to a tragic end."

Prosecutor Ms Snodgrass said in her closing statement: "You put six bullets in a person. You're going to have to say it was self defence, or you're going to have to admit you're a cold-blooded killer."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Karen Read found not guilty of police officer boyfriend's murder

19 Jun 03:26 AM
World

Allegedly stolen SUV races through mall

Premium
Business|small business

Controversial Kiwi start-up, once worth $38m, folds in New York

19 Jun 02:37 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Karen Read found not guilty of police officer boyfriend's murder

Karen Read found not guilty of police officer boyfriend's murder

19 Jun 03:26 AM

The jury deliberated for 21 hours before delivering the verdict.

Allegedly stolen SUV races through mall

Allegedly stolen SUV races through mall

Premium
Controversial Kiwi start-up, once worth $38m, folds in New York

Controversial Kiwi start-up, once worth $38m, folds in New York

19 Jun 02:37 AM
'Love letter to objects': A look inside famous museum's storehouse

'Love letter to objects': A look inside famous museum's storehouse

19 Jun 02:19 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP