Asheville man gets probation in fatal West Asheville crosswalk shove case

Tyler Coenraads walked away from Buncombe County court with probation after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the West Asheville crosswalk death of Gregory William Martin, 73. The sentence closed a case that began near Haywood Road and Craven Street, in the I-240 exit area, where a split-second confrontation turned deadly.

Martin was pushed in a crosswalk on Feb. 29, 2024, and later died on March 12, 2024, after suffering head trauma from the fall. Asheville police first charged Coenraads with assault inflicting serious bodily injury, then upgraded the case to second-degree murder after Martin died. Coenraads, 26, lives on Marathon Lane west of Asheville.

The June plea resolved the case on voluntary manslaughter, which North Carolina law classifies as a Class D felony under General Statute 14-18. In North Carolina’s structured sentencing system, punishment depends on both the felony class and the defendant’s prior record level. That framework can produce outcomes far short of prison, and in this case the court imposed probation rather than active time behind bars.

The result is likely to surprise many people who have followed the case since the 2024 confrontation because the legal ending is so far removed from the fatal outcome. A death followed by probation is a stark example of how a criminal case can move through charges, plea bargaining and sentencing rules before reaching a final punishment. Buncombe County Prosecutorial District 40, which is handled by District Attorney Todd Williams, oversaw the prosecution.

The human details of the case have lingered in West Asheville since the morning of the assault. Wendy Harmon, who rushed to help Martin at the scene, described the episode as heartbreaking. Store workers in the area remembered Martin as a regular customer known as “Grumpy Greg.” Those memories, paired with the plea and probation sentence, leave the case as a reminder of how a fast-moving street conflict can ripple through a neighborhood long after the crosswalk is cleared.