Set to be sentenced today

 

A 24-year-old Ironton woman pleaded guilty Monday to the June murder of an Elizabeth Township man, a day before a jury trial was to begin.

Ashley Seagraves, listed as homeless, pleaded guilty in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court to the murder of 53-year-old Delmar Jenkins.

Judge Charles Cooper set sentencing for 9 a.m. today.

In addition to murder, Seagraves also pleaded guilty to felonious assault, first-degree aggravated burglary and third-degree tampering with evidence.

The sentence for murder is life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Since Seagraves shot the victim, that adds a gun specification to the charge and with it an additional mandatory three years to the sentence, making her parole eligibility only after 18 years.

During a plea negotiation hearing last week, Prosecuting Attorney Brigham Anderson also offered to sentence Seagraves to five years in prison for the aggravated burglary charge, which has a maximum penalty of 11 years. That would make her eligible for parole after 23 years.

Had Seagraves gone to trial and gotten the maximum sentence, she would have received life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

Seagraves was indicted by a Lawrence County Grand Jury in June 2012 after she was arrested for shooting Jenkins in his home while he slept. A later indictment in August charged the woman with taking a safe from Jenkins’ home the night he was shot. The safe was later recovered by authorities.

Seagraves was later charged with felonious assault after she attacked a jail matron using an item she fashioned into a sharp weapon and also trying to choke the jail matron.

Since her arrest, Seagraves has been held in the county jail on a $1 million bond.