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Death Sentence Levied In '02 Pasco Slaying Of 16-Year-Old

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By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2008

Updated: 12/01/2008 02:52 pm

NEW PORT RICHEY - Convicted killer Phillup Partin was sentenced to death this afternoon in the 2002 slaying of 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook.

A Pasco County jury found Partin guilty of first-degree murder in March. The same jury then voted 9-3 to recommend he be sentenced to death; Circuit Judge William Webb handed down the death sentence at a 2 p.m. hearing today.

According to trial testimony, Partin picked up Ashbrook as she was hitchhiking along U.S. 19 on July 31, 2002. Partin and Ashbrook spent the day fishing and swimming with Partin's daughter, Patrisha, then 7, before returning to the New Port Richey house where he and his daughter were living.

Partin, his daughter and Ashbrook remained at the house until that night. Prosecutors think Ashbrook was killed between 9 p.m. and midnight. The next morning, workers found Ashbrook's body in woods off Shady Hills Road.

Partin dropped his daughter off in Wauchula nine days later and left the state. Investigators tracked him to Fayetteville, N.C., where he was arrested in October 2003.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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