At 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday in the Kimball District Courthouse, Vencil Leo Ash, III, was sentence to “not less than natural life with no possibility of parole” by the Honorable Judge Derek C. Weimer for murder of Ryan Guitron of Colorado.

This sentence will be applied consecutively to the Federal charges that Ash will be serving in a Kentucky penitentiary.

The story began in October of 2003, when Guitron went missing. The trail went cold until, in April of 2010,  police responded to a domestic disturbance in Cheyenne, Wyoming and arrested Ash, who was living there at that time. Ash’s then girlfriend Kelly Meehan, fled the house as police approached. She told authorities that Ash was holed up inside with a high-powered hunting rifle.

After some investigation, it was discovered that Ash was a former roommate of Guitron.

Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found information during their firearms investigation that led them to believe Ash had been involved with in a homicide.

Meehan-Ash also told investigators that Ash took Guitron to an abandoned farmstead in southwest Kimball County in the fall of 2003, shot him in the head and buried his body in a woodpile.

Documents showed that Ash led investigators to the site where he shot and killed the victim.

Ash has had a lengthy criminal history. He was sentenced to four years in state prison in 1998 after pleading guilty to felony assault and vehicular eluding police. Other charges from the 1998 incident, including arson and using a gun while drunk, were dismissed.

On Tuesday afternoon Judge Weimer questioned Ash if he was ready to be sentenced.

“Yep,” was the response.

Before the judge passed sentence, however, Ash said he needed proof that Kelly Meehan-Ash had not received a deal for testifying against him.

“Also, I want my phone privileges back,” he added. “At some point they took my phone privileges away from me and I want them back.”

The judge urged him to apply for an appeal in the privileges matter.

Several members of the Guitron family came for the sentence hearing. The victim’s parents, however, decided against a return to the county courtroom. After the trial, Ash had ranted about Guitron in front of the family and court.

Guitron’s family appeared in the hallway outside of the district courtroom, where they cried tears of sorrow and closure.

The sentence hearing for Kelly Meehan-Ash was on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, in the Kimball County District Court. The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office agreed to a plea agreement with Meehan-Ash, age 24, who was previously shared with first degree murder and then later with accessory to murder in the Guitron case.