Dye sentenced to 30 years for 2014 murder

 

Tonya Dye

 

 

By TRACY ESTES

News Editor

 

HAMILTON - A woman charged with murdering a man with whom she was living has been sentenced to 30 years in prison almost four years after the incident.

 

Formerly of Haleyville, Tonya Renee Dye, 43, was sentenced to three decades in prison for the stabbing death of Timothy Hyde in January 2014. She will be given credit for the 42 months served in the Marion County Jail in Hamilton to this point.

 

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Lee Carter handed down the sentence in a hearing on Friday, Sept. 29, at the Marion County Courthouse in Hamilton.

 

The sentence was the result of a plea agreement between the defendant and officials at the Marion County District Attorney’s Office.

 

According to Marion County District Attorney Scott Slatton, the victim’s family had been consulted in the sentencing process and agreed with the years to be served.

 

“The entire process was handled in the same hearing,’’ said Slatton, who noted Dye entered her guilty plea only minutes before hearing Carter issue the official sentence.

 

Dye was facing charges of first-degree arson and capital murder.  Prior to the incident, she had a previous arrest sheet, but none had involved such serious crimes.

 

“I think the agreement was fair and worked out well for the family as they had remained up to date on developments throughout the process.’’

 

Dye was originally arrested in connection with the case on April 18, 2014, three months after the incident. She has been held at the Marion County Jail in Hamilton awaiting trial ever since.

 

Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams confirmed the defendant had confessed to the crimes shortly after her arrest in an interview with officials from the sheriff’s department, Alabama State Fire Marshal and Marion County District Attorney’s Office. 

 

No further arrests were ever made in the case, as Dye was believed to have acted alone.

 

Firefighters discovered the lifeless body inside a charred mobile home. 

 

An investigation revealed the victim had been stabbed in the neck area with a knife with the body being discovered as the Haleyville Fire Department responded to the residential fire on Cherry Hill Road.

 

In an interview with the Journal Record shortly after the incident, Williams said the body was “one of the worst burned bodies I have ever seen--beyond recognition.’’

 

Extinguishing the blaze, fire crews began to search the home in the hopes of locating the ignition point, but during the search found the victim lying in the master bedroom.

 

The arson blaze appeared to have been started by Dye, who was believed to have set the bed comforter afire after she had stabbed and killed Hyde.

 

Authorities transported the body to a state forensic lab in Huntsville to secure a positive identification with the results confirming it was Hyde only a few days after the incident.

 

Williams said the mobile home was deemed a total loss in the arson blaze.