A North Philly man who killed his childhood friend and dumped his body in Lower Merion was sentenced to decades in prison

Tyreese Quinerley killed his childhood friend and dumped his body on the side of City Avenue in Lower Merion last year, and for that, he was sentenced Wednesday to 18 to 40 years in state prison.

Quinerley told Montgomery County Court Judge William Carpenter he didn’t remember why he committed the crime. He said he was too high on PCP to recall the events that led to the death of Jeremiah Shackford.

The judge was unmoved.

“Drug intoxication does not spare him from the consequences of his actions, and he will be held accountable,” Carpenter said. “The fact is, the impact on the victim’s family and our society is huge. This conduct cannot be tolerated.”

Quinerley, 40, was convicted of third-degree murder in March after a two-day bench trial before Carpenter.

During the trial, Quinerley testified he had no recollection of killing Shackford, 31, his lifelong friend, nor of dumping Shackford’s body near St. Joseph’s University during evening rush-hour traffic.

Quinerley’s attorney, Thomas Egan, attributed the lapse in memory to the powerful hallucinogenic the two men had been smoking for hours before the fatal shooting.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Egan said his client’s actions had caused untold heartbreak to Shackford’s family, who had taken Quinerley in as one of their own and made him the godfather of Shackford’s two sons. But Egan asked Carpenter for leniency, citing health issues that left Quinerley reliant on a wheelchair.

In brief testimony, Quinerley apologized to the Shackford family, saying he was sorry from the bottom of his heart.

“I don’t remember that night, and I can’t speak on it,” Quinerley said. “I understand how y’all feel, and I didn’t mean to hurt your family.”

Assistant District Attorney William Highland III said despite his intentions, Quinerley — who has a lengthy criminal record of convictions for assault and drug offenses — still took a life.

“Although he didn’t know what was happening in that moment, he made several decisions leading up to that, that it was an inevitable outcome,” Highland said. “I think it’s important that he now faces a lengthy prison sentence that holds him accountable for the decisions that he made.”

Two witnesses testified during the trial that they saw Quinerley driving erratically shortly before the shooting, weaving in and out of traffic. While stopped at a red light, the witnesses said, Quinerley got out of the van, walked around to the passenger side, and fired a handgun into the vehicle before getting back in and driving away.

Surveillance footage later recorded Quinerley pulling Shackford’s body out of the van.

Police learned of the shooting from Quinerley himself. In a 911 call, he lied to investigators and said he was a bystander who had found Shackford’s body lying in the middle of City Avenue.

But call logs that detectives later found on Shackford’s cell phone showed not only that he and Quinerley had called each other multiple times on the day of the shooting, but also that they had been good friends for decades.

Quinerley was even heard calling Shackford by his childhood nickname, “Creek,” in the 911 call he made.

Shackford’s mother, Maxine High, said after Wednesday’s hearing that Quinerley is a “lying dog” who knows exactly what he did to her son.

“It’s a shame my son lost his life for nothing,” she said. “[Quinerley] had a tight hold on my son, and my son would’ve done anything for him.”