A man attempting to sell his car on Facebook Marketplace was stabbed to death, allegedly by the person who turned up to buy it.
Kenny Dale Ashby, 33, was selling his 2002 Dodge Neon at his home near Panama City, Florida, when he was brutally murdered on July 3.
On Thursday, Joseph Michael Lynch pleaded no contest to the attack, which prosecutors called ‘senseless and violent’.
The 47-year-old allegedly arrived at Ashby’s home around 11.30pm on the night of the murder.
The pair are said to have got into an argument about the car’s missing title, with Ashby heading inside his house to look for it.
Reportedly, Lynch became enraged by how long it was taking, kicked down the front door, and stabbed the unsuspecting dad multiple times with a knife.
‘The victim’s wife, young daughter and three other adults were in the home,’ state attorney Larry Basford shared in a press release, adding he ‘took their phones before fleeing’.
According to The Daily Mail, Ashby’s wife, Ashlee, made the buyer aware there were children in the room, which led to him dropping the phones.
In the affidavit, she wrote that she then called the police and said her husband was ‘not breathing’.
Police found Ashby severely wounded, with ‘broken glasses and other items strewn about the kitchen’.
He was taken to hospital but died in the early hours of July 4.
Lynch was arrested after being found near the home, despite fleeing the scene, lying face down on the ground and admitting to the crime.
‘I’m the one you are looking for’, he reportedly told officers while being arrested. He had also told bystanding teenagers to call the cops as ‘something bad had taken place’.
During the trial, Prosecutor Peter Overstreet read a statement from Ashby’s wife which read: ‘He was not just taken from us, but violently taken and in front of us, leaving a void that can never rebuild.
‘This loss has shattered his family completely. We have no sense of safety anymore, not even in our own home.’
Lynch pleaded no contest to the counts of murder in the second degree and burglary with assault or battery.
He has been sentenced to 40 years in prison by Circuit Court Judge Brantley Clark.
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