Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

site web  

HAMILTON — A case involving the torture of a young disabled woman has left one teenager haunted, according to her parents, and another teen behind bars for most of her adult life.

Cheyenne Blanton, 17, was sentenced to 44 years in prison Friday, Sept. 5, for terrorizing Ashley Clark, 19, while she and her boyfriend waited to assault her mother at their Hanover Twp. home.

Blanton, 17, of Progress Lane, pleaded guilty in July to aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, complicity to aggravated robbery, felonious assault, two counts of kidnapping and vandalism for assaulting Clark all day Feb. 22.

Blanton faced a total of 59 years in prison.

"I never will understand why this happened to someone as loving and caring as Ashley," said Bobby Clark, Ashley's father, who added his daughter is haunted by the attack.

The judge, who noted the girl's criminal past that includes her own admission to violence with her mother and boyfriend as well as harming animals, said when she is released from prison, "I hope you are out of gas."

Blanton offered a short apology to the victim's family.

"I am really sorry for what I did," Blanton said. "I am sorry for the pain I have caused Ashley and her family. I really want to change the way I am."

Blanton, whose case was bound over from juvenile court to adult court, and her boyfriend Joseph Nagle, 17, tied up Clark, shaved her head and beat her so severely that Clark vomited.

The couple, who have a baby together, also plotted to steal the car belonging to Sheila Clark, the mother of Ashley Clark. Nagle was waiting behind the door with a baseball bat to hit Sheila Clark in the head, but she fled to get help.

Defense attorneys Lyn Cunningham and Muhammad Hamidullah, asked Nastoff to consider Blanton's young age.

Blanton and Nagle broke into the Clark residence and lay in wait in the laundry room where they had sex. Nastoff noted when Blanton fled from the house after the attack, Nagle turned to her and proposed marriage.

"This crime is utterly sensless and unspeakably violent," Nastoff said.

Nagle pleaded guilty Aug. 29 to the same charges. He also faces 59 years in prison and will be sentenced on Oct. 14 by Judge Chares Pater.