Rapist sentenced for murder plot, assaults

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jake Lahut

Shultz, center, awaits sentencing in Saratoga County Court

BALLSTON SPA — Convicted rapist Kyle Shultz was sentenced Wednesday to at least 33 years in prison for rape, assault on correction officers, and plotting to kill the rape victim from behind bars, according to court proceedings.

Judge James A. Murphy confirmed with Shultz in court that Shultz tried to hire an undercover police officer to kill the woman Shultz and Dylan Kelly, 21, of Hudson Falls, raped and robbed in Moreau on May 16.

Kelly pleaded guilty in April in Saratoga County Court to one count of first-degree rape and is to be sentenced to 14.5 years in state prison.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley said the victim already feared for her safety before receiving a call from the DA’s office and Saratoga County sheriffs deputies informing her Shultz had tried to have her killed.

Murphy sentenced Shultz to 20 years for first-degree rape, three years for second-degree felony assault and 10 to 20 years for second-degree conspiracy to commit murder. He also ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.

The victim of the rape was not in court Wednesday; according to Buckley, it was too difficult for her to write a victim statement.

Buckley said the victim asked her: “How do you put down on paper that someone took a part of your life that you will never get back?”

Shultz spoke briefly to apologize, saying he had “been raped too,” so he knew how the victim felt. He also said he deserved to go to prison.

“I find your words today stunningly and completely hollow and unsympathetic, and tone-deaf,” Judge Murphy told Shultz. “I don’t think you have any idea how this woman feels. I certainly don’t … I hope that after today’s sentence, the victim of the rape and conspiracy for the murder feels finally safe from you.”

Murphy added that, according to the pre-sentencing investigation, Shultz had once thrown a 6-year-old who couldn’t swim into the Hudson River.

Murphy’s attorney, Frederic Sober, did not make any statements in court, only speaking to oppose the presence of photographers in the courtroom and to confirm details from the judge.

The investigation into Shultz’ plot began with a tip. Shultz offered a person he believed was a hit man $10,000 to for the killing and wrote the witness’s name on a piece of paper that he gave to the man — actually an undercover police officer — during a jail visit. He also described in detail how he wanted the witness killed.

Later, while still behind bars, Shultz repeatedly assaulted correction officers, according to Judge Murphy and Assistant DA Buckley. One incident, according to Murphy’s citation of the pre-sentencing investigation, involved three correction officers “in some kind of melee,” that led to Shultz being constantly monitored by at least one guard while in lockup — and at least two when roaming about the facilities.

In addition to the time served, Shultz will have to register as a sex offender and observe a no-contact order upon his release from prison.