Jury: Partin guilty of murdering teen

Phillup Alan Partin, right, was found guilty of first degree murder in the 2002 murder of 16-year-old runaway Joshan Ashbrook Tuesday at the West Pasco Judicial Center. [Brendan Fitterer, Times]

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Phillup Alan Partin is guilty of the 2002 murder of 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook, a jury decided today.

Partin received the news with his customary indifference. He stood, heard the verdict, then leaned back in his chair, his bearded chin resting on his right hand, the same position he has kept throughout the trial.

The victim's mother, Tara Lynnn Ramsdell, clutched her husband's arm and shook as the verdict was read. She declined to comment.

After listening to five days of testimony, after the trial stretched into its second week, after listening to 4 1/2 hours of closing arguments on Monday, jurors listened to their final instructions this morning. Circuit Judge William Webb then sent them off to deliberate at 9:45 a.m.

The jury of eight men and four women came back with their verdict little more than three hours later, at 1:15 p.m., finding Partin guilty of first-degree murder.

Their job isn't done yet. Now the jury must now decide whether Partin should be sentenced to death or life in prison when the penalty phase begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Their recommendation will be given "great weight" by the judge, but the final decision will fall to the judge alone.

Ashbrook was a teen runaway when her body was found Aug. 1, 2002, off Shady Hills Road. She had been strangled, her throat slashed and her head separated from her spine.

She was caught on security cameras visiting a Wal-Mart Supercenter with Partin and his 7-year-old daughter before a fishing trip on July 31, 2002.

Witnesses placed her in Partin's room the night before she died, forensic investigators matched tire tracks found near the body to Partin's old pick-up truck and matched his DNA to her body. Partin himself disappeared for 13 months while detectives hunted for him.

The defense blamed the murder on another man who lived with Partin at the time, a friend Partin met in prison and from whom he rented a room in Port Richey. In 1987 Partin was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of a South Florida man.

Ashbrook's mother Tara Lynn Ramsdell later sued the Pasco County Sheriff's Office for failing to obey a court order to have the troubled teen picked up. Instead, Partin found the girl first, authorities say. In 2006 the mother settled with the agency for $25,000.

Partin declined to testify on his own behalf this week, and has written taunting letters to the Pasco Sheriff Bob White from his cell. The only emotion he has shown during the two week trial is when he glared at one of the deputies who hunted him down in 2002 as that deputy testified last week.

This is Partin's second murder trial in six months. The first one in October ended in a mistrial when the state and defense were surprised to learn forensic tests had been run on a certain piece of evidence.

The jury in that trial had been told no such tests were run.

-- Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer

[Photo of Joshan Ashbrook, courtesy of her mother Tara Lynn Ramsdell)

Comments

[JPD]

2002? Does anybody else have a problem with this? 5 years to get a verdict? This is ridiculous!

[flsportsfan83]

he was on the run fo a while.

[Duane]

In the future, if Partin has one, maybe he should watch the Discovery Channel where they show DNA evidence convicting people on a daily basis instead of the Cartoon Channel. Killing a 16 yo girl, what a tough guy. Put this animal away for life. I wouldn't have a problem with the death penalty is this case.

[Not The Marlboro Man]

The electric chair is too good for this piece of trash.

[tundo]

Id put him in jail rather than euthanize him.

Most prisoners take very good care of guys who kill kids. Let them get ahold of this puss.

[todd]

I was in a jail cell with him at landolakes d516 which is a high charge pod or inmates awaiting to go to prison.i spent 3 months living with him.he has killed before and did time . hes a very spooky man . very intelligent .if i had to guess knowing small details of him i would say hes done this more than twice in his life. there a coldness about him mixed with intelligence.the worst kind of human.i knew him when he had been locked up for 4 years in county jail, and still he was very calm and complaisant.

[sadecat]

I know this man to well, my ex husband. I know he did that to that young girl. I had to leave the state and run from fear of him. I too believe he has probably murdered more than twice.

sonny....I'm sorry

The hole family is crazy him more then his two sisters im sorry to say I was married to one HE DID IT.