JERSEY CITY — A Jersey City woman charged with shooting her ex-boyfriend in the back of the head in 2014 has pleaded guilty to the homicide and will face a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Cheryl Nisbett, of New York City, was charged with murdering Robert Ashbourne, 46, of Mt. Vernon, New York, inside his car on Aug. 5, 2014 in Jersey City. After he was shot, Ashbourne’s car cruised through the intersection of Waverly Street and Palisade Avenue in the Heights section of Jersey City, smashing into a parked vehicle.
Nisbett’s trial was to begin today but she pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter on Thursday before Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City. Young will sentence her on May 4.
Witnesses thought Ashbourne had been knocked unconscious in crash when he was found slumped over in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Emergency responders found him alone in the car and bleeding from the gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
A Hudson County grand jury indicted Nisbett in June 2015 and she was taken into custody in New York without incident a week later. She fought extradition to New Jersey for several months before making her first appearance on the murder charge in Jersey City in October 2015.
The father of nine children, Ashbourne worked as a limo driver, sometimes chauffeuring for celebrities, including Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Beyonce, Queen Latifah and Patti LaBelle, according to his daughter, Krystle Clarke.
The case was handled by Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Karyn Darish and Nisbett is represented by defense attorney Michael Robbins.
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