The Gigolo Who Beat His Client Until Her Teeth Ended Up in Her Stomach
Hleene Coward Doulai was born on April 22nd, 1991 in Santa Clara, California and was the youngest of three children. She was almost always smiling and had a warmth that made people around her feel at ease. Because of this, she was nicknamed Happy Herleene. Her came from a well-educated Indian seek family.
Her father was an aerospace engineer and her mother held a double master’s degree. Though their names were never publicly released, it’s clear that education and discipline were deeply valued within the family. Naturally, Herleene followed the same path. But Herleene wasn’t just smart.
She was also kind-hearted and empathetic. As a child, she refused to go to the zoo because she couldn’t stand the idea of animals being confined in cages. Her closest friend growing up was the family’s golden retriever named Roo. On one of her birthdays, she put a Burger King crown on his head and took him through the drive-thru.
Her was very attached to her family. When her older sister left for college, she locked herself in a closet and cried for hours. But in 2010, it was Herle’s turn to move away for college. Leaving her family’s home in Colorado, she attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she enrolled in the biological sciences program.
However, settling into college far away from her loving parents wasn’t easy for her. She had always been shy and struggled with self-confidence. According to a friend, she was very beautiful, but she spent most of her life feeling out of place. >> Despite her quiet nature, Herene tried her best to come out of her shell.
While living in Philadelphia, she pursued modeling. She created a profile of Model Mayhem where she wrote, “I’m new to the whole modeling thing. I did a few photo shoots and just fell in love with the experience. I love unique and artsy things and would love to shoot with people who have ideas that differ from mainstream.
I am currently looking to add some cool pictures to my portfolio, so please message me if interested in doing a photo shoot.” By 2015, Herleene had graduated from Temple University, and in 2017, she made another major move, this time to Las Vegas. It was her family’s understanding that she was headed there to further her education, specifically to attend medical school.
Friends who knew her mentioned how her family had high expectations for her to eventually become a doctor. While she did not enroll in school immediately, she did join a gym called Ace Fitness. According to gym manager Nick Lewis, Hurleene was extremely nervous during her first session. At one point, after stepping away for a few minutes, he returned to find her curled up in a ball in the corner of the room, visibly shaking.
When he asked what had happened, Herleene told him she had headache issues, a tumor in her head. She needed to be in the dark. However, the story around Herle’s tumor is kind of inconsistent. According to one of Hurleen’s friends, Amy Elliot, Herleene had mentioned a thyroid tumor to her, not a brain tumor. Furthermore, Nick said he had actually accompanied Herlene to one of her doctor’s appointments, and he claimed that she didn’t have cancer at all.
Regardless, during an Ace Fitness seminar, she told a group of people that she not only previously had a brain tumor, but she also went through chemotherapy to treat it. Heren’s sister also stated that Hurleene had never told her family anything about having a tumor. Her spoke with her family almost daily and even FaceTime her niece before going to bed.
Whatever the truth may have been, it’s clear that Herleene was dealing with some kind of internal struggle, whether it was physical, emotional, or both. She had long battled issues with self-confidence and anxiety, and other friends highlighted that she struggled with depression. At the gym, however, Hurleene found the sense of belonging that she was looking for.
She fell in love with the environment and the people there. For the first time in a while, she seemed grounded. She grew especially close to Nick and would even visit his home, spending time with his nieces and nephews. Eventually, she became a personal trainer herself, and Hurleene started a youth training program at that gym.
The same Hurleene, who felt anxious around others and lacked confidence in herself, was now helping guide others down the very same path that she had been so scared to walk. So, I wasn’t going to be this personal, but I’m trying to break out of my own shell. So, um, my secret to share with you is I have a fear of public speaking, but here I am in public speaking.
Um, so yeah, and my team pushed me out of my comfort zone, and that’s why we’re here to push you out of your comfort zone so that you keep leveling up and just keep pushing because if you stay in the comfort zone, your dreams are going to die. Everything goes to shape. [laughter] >> So, keep growing, keep leveling up, >> and we’re here for you to help you push you.
>> One of the fitness coaches from the gym remembered Hurleene saying, “It was around 2017. She was around 25 when she walked to the gym. My first impression of Hurleene was quiet, shy. She kept to herself a lot, and it was hard to break that shell at first. Her went on a fitness journey, and her personality completely changed.
She turned into a butterfly. She would dress way better and she started wearing makeup, having photooots. A whole life transformation. She became an inspiration to everybody that was around her. She became a motivational speaker, started speaking to the classes, started speaking out at seminars and events. I feel like Herleene was on a soul search.
She was definitely trying to figure herself out. She was definitely here trying to reinvent herself in some type of way. >> For a while, things were looking bright for Herene. But sometime in 2020, everything started to turn gray. She became overwhelmed and seemed to relapse into her old struggles. She stopped working at the gym.
According to Nick, she was falling out of love with it and appeared depressed. Around May or June of 2020, her life took another turn. She met Ashia Kubiaak, better known as Ash Arand. Some alleged that he slid into Herle’s Instagram DMs, but it’s very likely that she had messaged him first. Ash was a male escort and became somewhat of a celebrity after he starred on the reality TV show Jigalows.
After the show finished, he continued to work as an escort, but built his brand around what many described as exaggerated healing practices. Like Hurleene, Ash had Indian roots. He was born to an Indian mother and a Polish American father. According to Ash’s mother, he was raised in both Maine and Japan, immersed in the healing traditions and philosophies of the East and West and exposed to an international crowd of scientists, poets, intellectuals, artists, and academics of every stripe.
His parents implied that his upbringing was happy. However, Ash once described it differently. He claimed that he had experienced violence as a child, saying, “I was hit by my godfather and other people, and I was quite harshly physically punished.” Ash’s home life was also quite unconventional, as his father had two wives.
At the age of 16, he left school and began an apprenticeship program studying Chiang. He later studied Zen Xiatsu, a form of massage therapy that included some philosophical elements as well. He worked briefly as a model before returning to Maine where he earned his GED in 2000. In his early 20s, Ash became a massage therapist and he worked in Costa Rica in Miami and then studied massage techniques in Japan, Thailand, Europe, and India. He also trained in Muay Thai.
During this time, he also became involved in the SITR community, a subculture centered around outdoor gatherings, trans music, and psychedelic drug use. The community is often framed as a spiritual or consciousness expanding experience. According to some accounts, Ash was introduced to drugs by this community, although his own mother admitted in an interview to doing psychedelics with him when he was a teen.
Around 2012, Ash was living in Miami with his then girlfriend and their son. During that period, Ash opened his own massage business called Axia Touch. On his website, he advertised services such as deep tissue and shiatsu massage. He also mentioned offering in call and out call services. And these are terms often used in the escort world.
>> I’m a jigalo. A jigah who? Women pay me to give them pleasure. >> What’s interesting is that according to Ash’s mother, he never originally aspired to become an escort. She claimed it simply happened over time. She neither approved nor condemned his career choice. Soon afterwards, he was head-hunted on social media by Garen James, the founder of Cowboys for Angels.
This is an escort agency representing both men and women. After a successful six-month run, Garren introduced him to a reality television show called Jigalows, which followed the lives of male escorts in Las Vegas. According to Garen, he knew Ash would accept the offer, as Ash had a family to support and was barely making ends meet through massage therapy alone.
Garren also believed that Ash would stand out on TV. And he was right. Speaking about Ash, Garren once said he was a good balance for the other characters. They made him out to be the zen warrior. You know, a peaceful guy. >> Where you visiting from? >> Memphis. >> Memphis. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
I’m a caregiver out there, so I really don’t have time to date. >> So, you take care of people. Like, what is that like? >> It’s a warm feeling to [music] help somebody that can’t help themsel, you know? >> That’s nice. A lot of people I take care of, they don’t have any family [music] or friends, so I make sure they eat and bathe, took their medicine.
>> Yeah, I totally relate. Um, I’ve been doing massage for over 10 years, so you know, I I do enjoy taking [music] care of people and >> just making people feel good in general. >> Yeah, it is a good feeling. Rewarding. Yeah. >> The show itself was highly controversial. At one point, the sheriff’s office reportedly looked into ways to shut down the production and potentially pursue charges to the directors.
Despite the scrutiny, Jigalow’s aired for six seasons on Showtime from 2011 to 2016. He adopted the name Ash Armen, likely to separate his personal identity from his escort persona. He presented his sessions as a way to spiritually heal women with trauma, and people believed him. They were willing to give him $800 for just two hours, up to $3,000 a night, and a whopping 25 grand for a full week.
However, according to co-star Vin Armani, Ash grew increasingly insecure about his physique, especially when comparing himself to other people he was brushing shoulders with. Vin later stated, he started doing steroids and he just got massive. It was almost too much. Once he got that attention from the public, it was filling a void where he felt like now I’ll be able to get my important message out to more people.
Marijuana, cocaine, and MDMA are just everywhere. Ash had had a lot of experience, as I do, with all of those substances. Eventually, he began going to strip clubs along the Las Vegas strip to hook up with the bottle girls. The time he was involved with adult film star Tucci Cash, and according to her, he was staying at her place without paying rent.
Ash would freely socialize with Tui’s friends, but she said if she did the same, he would become angry with her. After their relationship ended, Tui reportedly invited one of Ash’s former friends and Jigalo’s co-star Nick to hang out with her. She assured him that she and Ash were over and that it wouldn’t cause any problems.
But when Ash found out he was furious, he called Nick and threatened to kill him. One of Ash’s close friends, John Hill, later claimed that Ash even looked into hiring a hitman to get the job done for him. By 2019, Ash was fired from the Cowboys for Angels agency. According to Garen James, after the show, instead of Ash being all about the client, it was more like it’s all about me.
And that didn’t really vibe. Financially, Ash was struggling. He had spent much of the money he earned during his time on Jigalows. By then, he was living in a house off the Las Vegas strip. Some sources alleged that this was with his teenage son, while the child’s mother lived on the East Coast, but other sources have alleged that the teenage son lived in Miami.
He also had a revolving door of people staying with him, including fellow Jigalow’s cast member Bradley Lords, who lived downstairs for a time. But Ash’s flashy life in Las Vegas was far from over. He continued attending parties and surrounded himself with Instagram models and adult film stars. His fans still adored him and were eager for his attention.
He also tried to make use of his D-list fame to create an erotica website with Bradley called Lexodica. Though the site never took off, some of the videos are still available on his YouTube channel. One video has received 2.2 million views. >> Welcome to SR Fitness. Today’s workout is going to be a body weight workout that will directly translate into the bedroom.
>> All right, so before we start our workout, we’re going to start with some breath work. Just synchronize our breath and get in touch with our bodies. >> And I am always supreme. >> Sometime before getting dropped by his agency, Ash began dating an Instagram model named Tia Evans. Few weeks later, the pandemic hit.
Ash told Tia he loved her and asked her to move in with him. To make room, he asked Bradley to move out. According to Tia, Ash would occasionally bring clients home for his escort work. One of those clients was Herleene. However, he would become enraged if another man so much as dropped Tia off at the house. Tia was jealous at first.
However, Ash reassured her that his relationship with Herleene was strictly professional, but that wasn’t exactly the full truth. According to Herle’s friend Amy, Herleene wasn’t even looking for a jigalow. Amy claims Herleene initially rejected Ash when he first reached out and that she was never looking for anything intimate, especially from a jigalo.
After becoming involved with Ash, Herleene also began distancing herself from her other friends. Her came from a well-off family. Unlike Ash, she wasn’t struggling financially. According to some reports, Ash had asked her to help pay his rent. Some sources alleged that Hurleene’s father gifted her a Corvette that Ash was seen driving on multiple occasions, but others claim that Herurleene bought that car herself and gave it to Ash.
In June of 2020, the two traveled together to Zion National Park. Erlene told a friend that the trip felt spiritually healing for her. Ash took full credit for elevating her mental state to the next level, further claiming he had uncovered suppressed trauma from her past. It should be noted that although Ash was a licensed massage therapist, he had no credentials in psychotherapy.
However, Herleene appeared to be genuinely happy with Ash. According to a friend, he would text her like really, really, really nice messages every morning and like affirming that she was just like, you know, in her power, like that she was beautiful, like she was very, very happy talking to him. Every time he’d text her, I swear her eyes would like light up.
I feel like she thought they had like a soul connection. Despite talking to her parents and sister multiple times a day, her family had no idea that Ash even existed. Then sometime in July, Ash broke up with Tia for good. When she asked Ash for the reason, he simply said that he had fallen out of love with her after she got her implants.
This was kind of ironic, as Ash was the one who paid for the implants. Tia thought that Ash broke up with her due to him getting closer with Herleene. On July 15th, 2020, Ash asked Tia to stay somewhere else for the night because Herleene was coming over. Some sources claim Herleene had gone to the house to pick up Ash’s Chihuahua so that she could dogsit while he first traveled to Miami and then from there planned to continue to Jamaica for a solo trip.
That afternoon, Ash had been exchanging nasty text messages with Tia, telling her that she was nothing, that her life was never going to become anything. He also told her his karmic debt was paid off, and Tia had no idea what he meant by that. She knew Ash wasn’t himself, so she went to check on him. Ash, however, got extremely upset.
There was a slight altercation after which Tia said she grabbed her belongings and booked a room at the M Resort Spa Casino down the road for the evening. Tia was absolutely blindsided, but the next morning would be a nightmare for everyone connected to Ash. >> On July 16th, 2020, at approximately 10:20 in the morning, Ash dialed 911, told the dispatcher, “This is going to sound insane, because it is insane.
” Ash sounded calm, but somewhat anxious in the call. Told the dispatcher that he had a friend staying the night at his house. He said there was a brief struggle and now she wasn’t responding. Ash claimed he had only woken up about 20 minutes before making the call and found her like that. He said, “We took mushrooms together last night.
We said our prayers together. We put on Avatar together.” And I don’t know if you’ve ever done mushrooms before, but I started like I was no longer like in this reality anymore. I was like trans different realities. I totally lost my mind. The dispatcher told Ash to perform CPR, but it was already too late. When paramedics arrived, there was blood splattered across the bedroom.
Herlene was lying in the middle of it, bruised and swollen from head to toe. One paramedic was recorded on body cam footage, saying that she was already in rigor mortise. The altercation Ash described hadn’t just happened. It had been hours. Ash was handcuffed and the police were called to the scene. Detective Jared Grimit from the Las Vegas Metro Police’s homicide unit was assigned to the case.
The evidence told a very different story than the one Ash had given. There were bloody footprints and handprints all over the house. There were numerous signs of a half-hearted attempt to clean things up. Police claimed bloody clothing was located in the master bedroom, which led the detectives to believe that Ash had changed his clothes before he called 911.
There was also blood in the downstairs laundry room. There were clean bed sheets in the washing machine and Detective Grimit believed that Ash had washed the bedding before calling authorities. There was also psychedelic mushrooms and ziplockc baggies scattered around the house. In the downstairs bedroom, detectives found apple and beachwood candle wax.
The same wax was found in Hurling’s hair and on her body. There was also an open suitcase lying around. And while it was known that Ash had booked a plane ticket for Miami scheduled to leave that morning, investigators did wonder if Ash had thought about fleeing the scene. By that point, Ash had already invoked his right to remain silent.
Detectives couldn’t question him further about what happened inside the house, but he had definitely said enough to incriminate himself. >> He’s pretty much admitted to me that he’s he did it and she’s a mess. I mean, she got a huge >> He did what? >> Like he did what happened to her. So, she’s >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah.
He He’s pretty much admitted that to me. I put him downstairs right in the front. But he said he did this. He said, “When the cops get here, I’ll surrender. No problem. Just take care of her.” >> What is undeniable is the defendant indicates he’s responsible. He did it. >> You called the police. >> Why’d you call the police? >> I knew I need to go in for what I did.
What do you mean? >> As investigators continued piecing things together, they were informed that Ash’s friend Bradley had been nearby that morning. He was located and interviewed and alleged that he had no idea about the murder. However, in a later published true crime documentary, Sin City Jigalow, a murder in Las Vegas, he bragged that he lied to the police.
Bradley claimed that Ash had asked him to come over before he had even contacted the authorities. He went to Ash’s house, inspected the scene, and called another Jigalo Star Brace. Bradley even boasted that if it were up to him, he would have helped Ash flee and that Ash would still be running to this day.
He even admitted that he removed firearms and other potentially incriminating items from the house before the police could find them. Despite everything, Bradley and Brace eventually advised [music] Ash to turn himself in. >> The initial understanding at the scene was that Ash had murdered his girlfriend, Tia Evans.
It was a serious oversight by the authorities. Body cam footage, Ash clearly stated that the victim’s name was Herleene, but for whatever reason, that very important detail wasn’t communicated among the police. A little while later, Lieutenant Ray Spencer addressed the media in a preliminary press conference, going so far as to say that Ash had murdered his girlfriend, even though the victim hadn’t even been identified and her family wasn’t born.
>> Good afternoon. I’m Lieutenant Ray Spencer. I’m the homicide lieutenant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. I’m out here this afternoon to brief you on a homicide investigation that we are conducting in the southwest part of the valley. I stress the details that I’m sharing right now are extremely preliminary, but at around 10:20 this morning, we received a 911 call reporting that a female was unresponsive inside uh the residence about 100 yards behind me.
Officers and medical personnel arrived on scene and that female was pronounced deceased. The male boyfriend who lives in the residence, who is an Asian male in his late 30s, was taken into custody. We believe there was a struggle or a battery of some sort, but this again was very very preliminary and that’s from the initial walkthrough of the scene.
So with that, I will take a couple questions, but I stress I don’t have much uh more to share than that. >> We have not identified the female. She appears to be a white Well, she’s a white female. Appears to be early 30s would be my best guess. >> And what what’s her status? I mean, she was hospitalized or is she >> No, she’s deceased inside the res.
>> So there’s Sue. So, there’s male and a female. >> Yes, we have a male in custody and then we have the female uh who’s was found unresponsive and deceased. >> All right, thank you guys. >> Meanwhile, Tia’s phone was blowing up with text messages and calls with many people asking if she was still alive. She claimed she had slept in late and had no idea that people were trying to contact her.
She immediately went to Ash’s house and when she arrived, the entire area was flooded with police. She was interviewed and her presence made it immediately clear to detectives that Tia was not the victim. The victim was someone else entirely, Herleene. Even with Ash naming Herleene to the arresting officer, detectives had no idea the body wasn’t Tia’s until she physically showed up.
Back in Colorado, Herle’s family was growing anxious. She hadn’t been responding to any of their calls. But around 6 p.m., Herle’s sister was putting her three-year-old daughter to sleep. Her mom decided to try to reach out to Hurling one last time before the night was over. This time someone answered, but it wasn’t her. A voice spoke.
I know you’re calling your daughter’s cell, but it’s at the coroner’s office. She’s passed away. When Herurling’s autopsy report came back, it was devastating to read. It documented five fractures, nine abrasions, 31 bruises all over her body, and 14 lacerations. Her body was covered in contusions from head to toe. Some of her teeth had been knocked out of her gums and were found in her stomach.
There were hemorrhages in her tongue, eye globe, scalp, brain, esophagus, arms, legs, and nose. She had aspirated blood into her lungs. Her hyoid bone in her neck was fractured. She also had a broken rib. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head with strangulation listed as a contributing factor.
Erlene also had MDMA, psilocybin, caffeine, and alcohol in her system. Herlene’s sister said that she was the only one to read the autopsy report at the time in order to shield her family from having to immediately know what the details were of what happened. While Hurle’s family was trying to process that level of brutality, Ash was rotting in a jail cell.
As wealthy as he appeared on social media, he didn’t even have enough money to hire a lawyer and had to beg for help from old acquaintances. Ash reached out to his old boss at Cowboys for Angels, Garen. He later said, “I helped make that guy a lot of money. He’s actually done something against a woman, so there’s no way that I could have any part helping that sort of defense.
” Not long after, Garen received another call, this time from Ash’s mom. She begged him for money. Even Ash’s son called him, which Garren said led him to take pity on the child, and he decided to help. But that still wasn’t all. Ash’s parents sent Garen’s wife a link to a go-get funding page that they had set up for Ash’s defense.
The page read, “Ashia/ Ash is being unfairly charged with a dreadful crime, and without competent defense, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.” Background: One morning in July, a very sick young woman friend died in his home. He had called 911 for medical help and told authorities he felt responsible. The 911 phone staff coached him in emergency CPR, which they continued together until the team arrived.
Tragically, she did not survive. Garen was understandably disgusted by the audacity of this plea. He said, “That funding page is despicable to me. Anyone who gave $1 to that fund should not get anything for Christmas or get some coal in their stocking.” Despite everything, Ash still had supporters. One of them was Whitney Wester, an attorney and former prosecutor from Texas.
Whitney claims that she met Ash at a party prior to the events of today’s story. While many believe that this was an open andsh shut case, Whitney ended up uncovering things that cast doubt on the police’s theory of events. On July 19th, 2020, Whitney visited Ash at the Clark County Detention Center.
She offered her legal support and began reaching out to his friends and former partners to help raise money for his defense. But she didn’t stop there. Whitney was willing to go further into investigative work that she felt the police had lacked. She argued that investigators hadn’t properly documented the crime scene. Ash’s house had been released roughly 12 hours after first responders arrived, a fraction of the time a typical murder scene is held, which can be days.
She suggested that the documentation was rushed. Body cam footage showed paramedics telling police that there were bloody footprints in the house that did not belong to them. Whitney claimed that police never measured or made any attempt to prove who they did belong to. Whitney herself measured the shoe prints found in the bedroom and found that they didn’t match Ash nor Bradley nor Brace’s shoe size.
After comparing the measurements to other shoes in the house, she did find a match. Tia. >> Whitney theorized that Tia, motivated by jealousy of being so suddenly dumped and kicked out by her boyfriend, might have returned to the house during the night and killed Heran. Whitney highlighted other pieces of information that cast doubt on Ash’s guilt.
First, she had subpoenaed the M Resort Spa Casino and found they had no record of Tia staying there on the night she claimed to be there. Furthermore, Tia had allegedly told friends that she was staying at her mom’s house. She later confirmed when pressed that she did stay at the M resort spa casino, but no records were able to prove this.
Whitney also mentioned how during interviews, Tia mentioned that she knew her had been beat over the head and asked what Ash beat her over the head with. At that point in time, that detail in her manner of death had not been released. Despite this, Tio was never considered a suspect by police, and Whitney, who was not licensed to practice law in Nevada, wasn’t able to represent Ash in court.
Ash’s defense attorney was apparently unwilling to present these findings. Furthermore, Detective Grimmit strongly denied Whitney’s claims. According to him, the footprints did match Ash, though nothing cooperating this was ever presented. Detectives felt that this was an openand-shut case with Ash being the obvious perpetrator.
Furthermore, those believing that Ash was guilty point to how he had Brad clean the house before police arrived. It has been said that Ash had firearms and other drugs in the house. An interesting note is that Bradley did not take the shrooms with him, which makes you wonder if they were intentionally left there to fit Ash’s story of blacking out on a bad mushroom trip.
Ash maintained his story the entire time. He said that he was attacked by Hurleene, fell down, hit his head, and blacked out, claiming no memory of the incident. He also asked strange questions in an attempt to be granted bail. At one point, arguing that the pandemic justified his release, and he even asked Whitney whether demonic possession could be used as a defense.
In September of 2021, Ash plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and mayhem as part of a plea deal. His defense attorney, Josh Tomshek, said Ash took the deal to avoid a prolonged trial and to spare Herle’s family from further emotional pain. He emphasized that Ash had maintained a consistent version of events from the beginning and had no prior criminal history.
His attorney also asked the court to impose a maximum sentence of just 4 years. However, prosecutor Jean Carlo Peshy pointed to the sheer brutality of Herurling’s injuries. He argued that those injuries proved that she had been awake during the assault cuz she fought back. Ash should have been fully aware of what he was doing during the altercation.
Then on December 3rd, 2021, during his sentencing hearing, Ash addressed the court and Hurle’s family describing the night, and I quote, “The mushrooms progressively made her more and more violent. I was hallucinating more than I ever had before. I was deeply afraid because I did not understand what was happening or why.
I tried to calm her down by asking what was wrong and suggesting we pray and meditate together. She progressively became more hysterical. Ash also tried to blame paranormal beings. He claimed that Hurling was holding on to a soul and when he asked her to let go of it, she became hysterical. She allegedly spoke of killing children and told Ash they needed to burn together.
Afterwards, she reportedly attacked Ash. Ash claimed to have fought back but lost his senses. Now, to be clear, this is somebody who wasn’t new to psychedelic use. He had done it many, many times before. And furthermore, he said all of this in court in front of Hurlean’s grieving family. Her’s family also gave a very emotional victim impact statement to the court, which we will show for you now.
I do have to caution you, however, that these are hard to watch. It’s hard for me to imagine that Helen could not be subdued without the type of trauma that she suffered. It’s hard for me to imagine that she was so aggravated that this is what needed to happen to her. This man took away the joys of my life. Every moment from here on, the triggers that I will experience because [laughter] of the manner in which he died will destroy the relationships I will have and my family will have with our children, our grandchildren, and
everything thereafter. I was the one person that didn’t get the coroner’s report and I tried to protect my family from it because I knew of the pain that it was going to cause them. I have seen therapists. I have been put on medication. None of which has helped me. Just to lose a child, there’s so much pain.
But to lose a child in this merciless killing is is unbearable. When their life was taken away, my life is taken away. My wife’s life is taken away. [laughter] >> I want to tell you what to do. [laughter] Please, please. [laughter] >> Ash was sentenced to 20 years in prison with eligibility for parole in 2028. He is currently being held at Southern Desert Correctional Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Despite everything, some of his fans have continued to send letters and post messages of support on social media. One fan wrote to the court, “Ashia is deeply respectful of women. I strongly believe that whatever transpired must have been a grave accident. According to another fan, as a teenager, he had an open mind, empathy for women and other oppressed groups, and understood the ways in which sexism has permeated our society.
One friend even started a fan page in his name and posted it shirtless pictures asking the public to pray for him. On the other side of this tragedy, Herlane’s family honored her as the beautiful, kind soul that she was. They arranged for an open casket funeral for her. Because of the damage to her face, Herle’s sister hired a facial reconstruction specialist who flew in from Missouri.
They worked for 15 hours to reconstruct her features. On July 25th, 2020, friends and family gathered at Parker Funeral Home to pay their final respects to Happy Herleene. Afterward, she was cremated in accordance with the seek faith. Her father wrote, “It is like my heart is going to stop at any moment, but it doesn’t.
” Her sister, eight months pregnant at the time, had to stay strong for everyone. A week later, she was rushed into labor and gave birth to a baby boy. She named him what Herleene had wanted, Tegbeer, meaning brave warrior. She later said, “I feel like Herleene’s death took away from the emotions that you’re supposed to have when you deliver a baby.
I associated my son with her passing away.
