A 40-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for fatally shooting his girlfriend and leaving her body buried under clothes on an apartment balcony in Cleveland.
The defendant, Bennie Washington, 40, was found guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count of having weapons under disability, and one count of gross abuse of a corpse during his trial in May.
Washington will be eligible for parole after serving 38 years.
The murder
According to authorities, Washington was evicted from his apartment near Warner Road and Laumar Avenue in Cleveland on March 11, 2022.
On March 17, a manager at the apartment complex went inside Washington's apartment and saw what she thought was a body under some clothes and garbage bags on the balcony.
The manager called the police, who then discovered a severely decomposing body under the rubbish. The body was later identified as 18-year-old Audreona Barnes. An autopsy revealed she had been shot in the head.
Washington was arrested two days after Barnes' body was found.
Missing
Barnes' family said she disappeared from Warrensville Heights after visiting a Cleveland Armed Service Recruiting Office in July 2021.
After the discovery of her body, Barnes' mother told News 5 that police didn't do enough to find her daughter after she went missing the year before.
"Now I gotta spend the rest of my life spending every birthday without her, and know she didn't get to get past her 18th birthday," Barnes' mother said.
RELATED: Mother grieves after missing daughter found dead on balcony
You can watch more about Barnes in the player below:
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