WACO (January 7, 2011)—Antoine Mitchell, 22, of Waco, pleaded guilty Friday to murder in the shooting death of Matthew “Matt” Ash, who was gunned down more than a year ago in his Waco apartment.
He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Ash, 22, was shot in the neck in his apartment at the Sandstone apartments at 5101 Sanger Ave. after answering a friend’s knock at the door.
The friend, Christopher Beals, of Woodway, told investigators that two men were in Ash's apartment when he arrived.
He said one of the two men suddenly struck him in the face and that as he fell to the floor he heard a gunshot.
Then, he said, the two men ran out of the apartment.
Ash chased them, but collapsed outside, in the commons area of the complex, police said
Beals suffered a minor laceration.
Ash was attending the ATI Career Training Center in Waco and planned to become an air-conditioning technician.
Mitchell and Cameron Harrison were originally indicted capital murder and murder (enhanced) in the Dec. 2, 2010 shooting death, but Mitchell pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge.
Harrison is awaiting trial
He is also charged in a home-invasion robbery on Dec. 21, 2010 in which a Waco couple was attacked while their 12-year-old daughter, who was locked in a bathroom, called 911 on her cell phone.
His bonds total $7 million.
