A jilted husband was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for slicing his estranged wife’s neck months after she sent him a break-up text, leaving her dead and nearly decapitated.
“I will never get over this,” Shanice Wright, 26, the daughter of victim Karen Bartley-Ashley told reporters after the sentencing.
“I’m still confused about what happened. My mom loved this man. My daughter and I broke bread with this man — and he killed her.”
Beresford Ashley admitted to authorities killing his wife inside her Nissan Maxima parked on Blake Ave. and Drew St. in East New York on Sept. 16, 2016. Wearing bloody clothes and cuts on his hands, Ashley turned himself in hours later at the 78th Precinct stationhouse.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ruth Shillingford and the jury rejected Ashley’s extreme emotional distress defense in Ashley’s slaying.
“The defendant’s actions before, during and after was a heinous crime,” Shillingford said before imposing the maximum term.
The couple had been together for three-and-a-half years before the victim split with Ashley.
“I hope every day when you wake up in your jail cell … she haunts you,” Terry Yarde, 41, a heartbroken friend of Bartley-Ashley, said in court.
Prosecutors revealed during the sentencing that Ashley, thought to be 56, was actually born as Andrew David Rhoden and is 48.
The convicted killer had been thought to have had no prior criminal record. “Since trial, we found that not to be true,” prosecutor Sabeeha Madni said.
The discovery was made after authorities ran Ashley’s fingerprints after trial in November and found he has a criminal record under his birth name in Canada for domestic violence and in Jamaica for assault with a weapon, a source said.
During the months leading up to the slaying, Ashley stalked Bartley-Ashley at her job because he felt “disrespected” by the break-up text and wanted her to tell him it was over to his face, according to trial testimony.
When asked if he wanted to address the court before being sentenced Wednesday, Ashley stood up and told the judge, “No, your honor.”
