MAN GETS 2 YEARS IN MURDER CASE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A 28-year-old man was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for being an accessory in the murder of a co-defendant's boyfriend.

David Ashbury in October pleaded no contest to being an accessory in the 1997 slaying of 21-year-old electrician Ricky Cowles Jr., who was beaten and shot to death in a Lancaster apartment Cowles shared with the girlfriend and another girl.

Also charged in the slaying are Cowles' girlfriend, Amy Preasmyer, who was 16 at the time of the killing, and Jennifer Kellogg, 26. Preasmyer, 25, and Kellogg have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. They are both being held without bail.

A man already is serving a life sentence in prison for Cowles' death. William Hoffman, a former store clerk, was sentenced in October 1999 to life in prison without parole, plus 10 years, for using a claw hammer and a gun to ambush and murder Cowles on Aug. 12, 1997.

Prosecutors have said that Hoffman was solicited by Preasmyer and conspired with Preasmyer, Kellogg and Ashbury to commit the crime, therefore making them all principals in the murder.

At the time of Hoffman's trial, prosecutors couldn't establish a clear motive for the killing. Hoffman did not know Cowles, a young electrician who worked for his family's business, and officials said at the time that he may have been persuaded by someone else to kill Cowles.

Witnesses testified during the trial that Hoffman told them he killed Cowles for Cowles' girlfriend, but she denied having anything to do with his death.

Sheriff's deputies said the killer was waiting for Cowles inside his apartment in the 43400 block of Gadsden Avenue. Cowles arrived shortly after 9 p.m., after working late fixing lights at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

Family members and detectives said nothing inside the home had been touched or taken, and there was no obvious sign of forced entry.

Family members said Cowles had moved into the apartment a month earlier with his girlfriend, who was 15 weeks' pregnant at the time of his death.

Preasmyer had told investigators that she arrived home an hour after the murder and found the victim lying in their bedroom, shot in the head.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com