Ash gets life in prison

Vencil Ash was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday afternoon in Kimball County District Court.

Ash was found guilty early last month in the 2003 murder of Ryan Guitron. Tuesday in court, he was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. The facility where he will be detained will be determined by the Nebraska Department of Corrections at a later time.

Prior to Tuesday’s sentencing, Ash made a motion for a new trial. That motion was denied. Ash said Tuesday that the murder was not committed in Kimball County, but rather in Weld County in Colorado. He said the victim was then transported across the state line.

The prosecution offered evidence collected from recorded statements made by Ash from the two previous trials that contradicted his testimony on Tuesday.

“It ends today, judge,” Prosecutor Corey O’Brien said. “You should be offended, I know I am.”

“Kelly Meehan is the only victim in this case, period,” Ash said just prior to sentencing.

A jury found Ash guilty of Guitron’s murder in a weeklong trial that ended Feb. 2. It was the second trial in which Ash was found guilty of the murder. The first trial, held in July 2012, was overturned by the Nebraska Supreme Court in October 2013. The court found that the defense did not have proper time to prepare for the testimony of Ash’s wife, Kelly Meehan-Ash. The Supreme Court stated that Ash’s requests to postpone the trial in order to prepare a defense against the testimony should have been granted.

The second trial began Jan. 27 and wrapped up Feb. 2. According to testimony, Ash, Meehan-Ash and Guitron traveled from Colorado to an abandoned farmstead south of Bushnell. Meehan-Ash testified that as she took some items to the car, she heard a gunshot. According to testimony, she looked back and saw Guitron on the ground bleeding from his neck with Ash above him holding a .380 pistol.

Meehan-Ash testified that she looked and then continued to the car. She said she was high on methamphetamines at the time and described her perception of things being “real, but not real, like a dream.” She constitutes her lack of reaction to seeing Guitron dead to her being high. Meehan-Ash testified that Ash then returned to the car and retrieved a pair of black gloves, and said he had to bury Guitron. She said that after this, Ash drove Guitron’s Mercury Topaz car to an oil rig where he traded several of the car’s contents, including drugs, and made arrangements for the trade of the car itself. It was what seemed like the next day to Meehan-Ash that she and Ash went to the home of Jesus Campos, and there Ash made a deal with Campos to trade Guitron’s Topaz and two pounds of methamphetamines for Campos’ Cadillac Escalade.

Meehan-Ash came forward in 2010 and told the police her recollections of that day. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officers that were working with Meehan-Ash tried to find the abandoned farm she spoke of on a few occasions, but she could never point out the location, even when she was driven out to the area to look around.

According to testimony, it was not until investigators Robert Coleman and Kevin Maul of the Larimer County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office interviewed Ash while he was incarcerated that the abandoned farmstead was found. After Ash gave up that he had shot Guitron because he thought Guitron was going to hurt Meehan-Ash, he offered to take the officers to the abandoned farm where the events took place. Later that day, Ash took the officers there directly without second guessing himself at all.

The remains of Guitron’s body were found and sent to a pathologist. Other items that were on Guitron the day of the murder, including a watch, ring and an Oakland Raiders cap, were also found at the scene.