LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Two gang members were sentenced today to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the August 2006 shooting death of an Inglewood woman.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe denied the defense’s motion for a new trial for Clifton Gregory Brown, 26, and Casey Lee Rowland, 32.
The two were convicted of first-degree murder for the Aug. 25, 2006, slaying of Ashley Cheval, who was shot once in the head as she sat in a vehicle in southwest Los Angeles. Brown and Rowland also were found guilty of three counts of attempted murder involving two rival gang members who were wounded while standing near the car and a woman who was in the car with Cheval but was unhurt.
Deputy District Attorney Allyson Ostrowski said the 23-year-old murder victim–who was not a gang member–was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It just aches and it doesn’t go away,” Cheval’s mother, Marcia Holmes, said of the pain of losing her daughter, who herself had a daughter who is now 11.
She described her slain daughter as “the kind of person who loved everybody,” and said she believed justice had been served.
The young woman’s father, Ricky Bachemin, said, “I have a granddaughter that doesn’t have a mother at all … You took somebody that is well-loved and I loved her.”
Brown and Rowland filed paperwork to appeal their convictions.
