Toms River Man Sentenced In Double Murder

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for his conviction in a 2021 double murder in Lakewood, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced.

Tyshaun R. Drummond, 42, of Toms River, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan to 30 years in prison with 30 years of parole ineligibility in the murder of Nicholas Hardy, 36, of Toms River, and to an additional 30 years in prison with 30 years of parole ineligibility in the murder of Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, of Lakewood, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

The sentences will run consecutively, meaning Drummond is set to be in prison for 60 years.

Drummond was found guilty of two counts of murder on Oct. 22, 2024, following a nearly month-long jury trial before Ryan. The jury also found Drummond guilty of burglary, and Ryan sentenced him to 10 years in prison on the burglary count. That sentence will run concurrent to the sentences imposed on the murder convictions.

Lakewood police were called to a River Avenue apartment complex at 7:20 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2021 for a report of gunshots. The callers described the person who fired the shots and police found the person matching the description in front of the apartment complex. The man was later identified as Drummond.

Officers ordered Drummond to lie on the ground and when he refused, they used a Taser to subdue him, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital, and has been in the Ocean County Jail since Dec. 21, 2021.

Inside the apartment building officers found Hardy and Chavez-Perez dead, with gunshots to the head.

Drummond shot Hardy in the neck and back as Hardy slept in a bedroom of a downstairs apartment at the complex following an overnight party where both men and others had been in attendance, authorities said at trial, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Drummond then went to the upstairs apartment and shot Chavez-Perez in the head in front of his wife and three children, then went back downstairs and shot Hardy in the eye as Hardy was trying to escape, the report said.

Testimony indicated that Chavez-Perez's widow, Ariceli Perez, was having an affair with Drummond, the report said.