Life sentence in slaying of rodeo queen.
The man admitted to killing ex-girlfriend – a Berthoud rodeo queen, 18 – with a gun
Tanner Flores is sentenced to life in prison in the killing of his former girlfriend, Berthoud rodeo queen Ashley Doolittle.
Tanner Flores, found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend, Berthoud rodeo queen Ashley Doolittle, after she broke up with him, was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday afternoon for first-degree murder and kidnapping.
In a statement that Doolittle’s mother, Ann Marie, read to the court prior to the sentencing, she said, “Our hearts go out to the Flores family.”
“Part of me feels bad for him,” the teen girl’s mother said, “but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be punished for his actions.”
The courtroom was packed with friends and family of both teens.
Family and lawyers for Flores, and prosecutors left the Larimer County Justice Center without comment.
Eighth Judicial District Judge Gregory Lammons sentenced the 19-year-old to life without parole on the murder charge and gave him an additional 32 years for kidnapping.
A jury in Fort Collins found Flores guilty Wednesday after a seven-day trial. Because prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty, the maximum penalty Flores faced was life without the chance for parole.
Flores shot and killed Doolittle in his pickup on June 9, 2016, after she met him at the Lon Hagler Reservoir to discuss their relationship. During the trial, Flores testified that he took a gun from the back seat and shot the 18-yearold rodeo queen in the head.
He repeatedly testified that he didn’t plan to kill her, but instead he acted impulsively. “Part of me just can’t really describe it,” he testified, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. “It wasn’t an intentional thing. It was just something that happened.”
Prosecutors showed jurors video of a Mesa County Sheriff’s Office investigator’s interview with Flores on June 10, the day he was taken into custody.
In the interview, Flores said Doolittle grabbed the revolver from the back seat and pointed it at herself. He told the investigator that the gun went off as he wrestled to get it away from her. He said he shot her again 5 to 10 seconds later to end her pain.
After the investigator said he doubted the story, Flores admitted that when Doolittle glared at him and looked out the passenger window, he grabbed the gun and shot her twice in the back of the head. When she didn’t die instantly, he shot her again.
He then drove her body to his deceased grandfather’s property on the Western Slope, where he was arrested.
Doolittle, the 2016 Boulder County Rodeo Queen, graduated from Berthoud High School shortly before her death and had enrolled at Colorado State University.