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(WJBK) - A Waterford man is headed to prison after confessing to killing his girlfriend inside their apartment.
Ashley Rich was just 26-years-old. Her family speaking out in court before the sentence was handed down to her killer, Ian Jones.
"I have nightmares of my baby lying on that floor scared and in pain fighting to live," said mother Melinda Newcomb. "Yet slowly dying."
They had only been dating a year but the family of Ashley Rich says it wasn't long before they realized her boyfriend 27-year-old Ian Jones had been abusing her mentally and physically. The abuse escalated until Jones eventually took her life.
On Wednesday he was sentenced to 20 to 60 years for shooting and killing her inside their Waterford apartment.
Jones was sentenced for two additional years for felony firearm. But Rich's family, her young children, are still left feeling empty.
"It feels like my heart stops beating and just lies broken inside of me," Newcomb said.
Originally charged with open murder and felony firearm, Jones accepted a plea deal of second degree murder last month.
Jones previously claimed he had been swinging his gun on his finger in the living room and it slipped.
"I would like to apologize to the family," Jones said in court. "This was a terrible accident; I would never intentionally hurt her or anybody else."
But Jones shot Rich in the back. The bullet, her family says, pierced her heart.
On Wednesday Rich's mother and sisters tried to describe what they've lost.
"I'll never hug her again and I can't understand why," said Newcomb. "How can someone come to terms with this?"
The family is even more sad, thinking of Rich's three small children who are now left without their mother.
"My heart aches knowing the lives the defendant destroyed on both sides," Newcomb said.
Rich's family says the young mother had been planning to leave Jones. They say Jones attacked Rich's mother when she confronted him about the abuse -- and once, even threatened to kill Ashley for not making the bed.
"My heart will never heal. My life will never be the same," said Annette Ellis, Rich's sister. "My tears will never stop, nor will my pain."