Pa. teen pleads guilty to killing 12-year-old girl, showing body on video chat
03/22/2024 1:59 pm PDT
BENSALEM, Pa. (TCD) -- An 18-year-old suspect will spend 15 to 40 years in state prison after killing a girl in November 2022 and then showing the victim's body on video chat.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, Ash Cooper, who previously went by Joshua Cooper, pleaded guilty Thursday, March 21, to third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Cooper was originally charged with criminal homicide.
A judge subsequently handed down the sentence, and the defendant was "ordered to follow all the rules and recommendations of adult probation and parole and undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluations."
On Nov. 25, 2022, shortly after 4 p.m., Bensalem Township Police received a call about a possible homicide at the Top of the Ridge Trailer Park on Gibson Road. Officials learned a juvenile reportedly spoke with Cooper, who was 16 years old at the time, on Instagram video chat. Cooper "flipped the video image and showed the legs and feet of someone covered in blood." According to prosecutors, Cooper asked the juvenile witness to help clean up the crime scene and get rid of the victim's body.
Officers responded to the Gibson Road property and noticed a juvenile running out of the back of the home. Upon entry, police found 12-year-old Morgan Connors dead on the bathroom floor with an apparent gunshot wound, the district attorney's office said. Investigators suspected that "substantial steps were taken to clean up the crime scene."
Officers created a perimeter around the trailer park and located and apprehended Cooper shortly after.
According to prosecutors, the gun used in the fatal shooting belonged to the defendant's father and had been kept in a safe within the home. Cooper reportedly gained access to the safe by replacing the batteries the defendant's father had "removed to make the combination lock inoperable."
During the defendant's sentencing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy read an impact statement from the victim’s grandfather, who said he felt "intense pain and heartbreak" after Connors' death. The victim's grandfather also wrote, "The human heart is not built for such heartbreak."
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