A woman was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2021 shooting of a 16-year-old boy in Denver.
Ashlye Handy, 36, was convicted of second-degree murder on Jan. 14 in Denver District Court in the shooting death of Abrehem Yohhanes in a Denver apartment building in the 1400 block of Yosemite Street in September 2021, according to a news release from the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
Yohhanes was discovered bleeding from his head inside an apartment by a friend around 4 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2021, according to Handy’s arrest affidavit. The friend went to check on Yohhanes after receiving a screenshot of a concerning text sent by Handy’s brother in a Facebook thread. The text read, “I love you thug rest up.”
Handy, then 32, who is described in the affidavit as Yohhanes’s girlfriend, had already fled the apartment when the friend arrived, according to the affidavit.
Police believe Yohhanes was shot at around 11:08 p.m. on Sept. 15, 2021, when ShotSpotter reported a shot in the area of 1425 Yosemite St., which is located directly next to the apartment building where Yohhanes was found, according to the affidavit.
Police also acquired surveillance video of Handy leaving the apartment building around 11:12 p.m. that night, roughly four minutes after ShotSpotter detected a gunshot in the area, according to the affidavit. She was seen carrying a black and silver handgun, and leaving in a silver Chevy Impala she and Yohhanes had previously arrived in at around 10:52 p.m. She was arrested in the shooting on Oct. 19, 2021.
Handy was sentenced to 25 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections on Thursday.
“Abrehem Yohhanes’ murder was a terrible, senseless tragedy: A young man, just 16 years old, killed with nearly his entire life in front of him,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said in the release. “Ms. Handy will pay a heavy price for her awful actions – a sentence that we hope will bring a measure of comfort and a sense of justice to all those who knew and loved Abrehem.”
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