Former death row inmate pleads guilty to murder and is sentenced to 46 1/2 years in prison

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former death row inmate in Connecticut, whose conviction was overturned in 2020, has pleaded guilty to a murder charge and been sentenced to 46 1/2 years in prison.

Lazale Ashby, 38, entered his plea Monday as a part of an agreement with the prosecutor and the family of his victim, 21-year-old Elizabeth Garcia, his attorney, Joe Lopez, said Tuesday.

Garcia was strangled inside her Hartford apartment in 2002 as her 2-year-old daughter watched television in another room, prosecutors said.

This is the third time Lazale Ashby has been sentenced for killing Garcia. He was originally convicted of multiple charges including capital felony, sexual assault and kidnapping and sentenced to death in 2008. He was resentenced to life in prison in 2016 after Connecticut abolished the death penalty.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Ashby in 2020 after finding his rights were violated during his original trial when the judge allowed testimony from another inmate who said Ashby made admissions about the crime in prison.

Lopez said Ashby denied he sexually assaulted or kidnapped Garcia.

“He takes full responsibility for the murder,” Lopez said. “Forty-six and a half years is obviously not a walk in the park.”

Ashby is also serving a 25-year sentence in another case — for murder in the fatal shooting of Nahshon Cohen, 22, on Sept. 1, 2003.