Ohio man who killed teen girlfriend, left her body on balcony to rot sentenced to prison

CLEVELAND — The 40-year-old Cleveland man convicted of killing his 18-year-old girlfriend, then leaving her body on the balcony to heavily decompose, was sentenced Monday.

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Bennie Washington, 40, was accused and found guilty of murder, felonious assault, and gross abuse of a corpse for Audreona Barnes, 18, his girlfriend at the time.

News Center 7 previously reported that Cleveland Police were called to an apartment on March 17, 2022, in the 4300 block of Warner Road after a building manager found the body on the home’s balcony under a pile of garbage bags and blankets. Officers found Barnes’s dead body severely decomposed, according to a spokesperson with the department.

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Barnes was previously reported missing to Warrensville Heights Police in July 2021, approximately a year before her body would be found.

An autopsy of the body found that the man shot his girlfriend and left her body on the second-floor apartment balcony to rot.

Washington was taken into custody on March 19, 2022, with a jury finding the defendant guilty of murdering Barnes on May 24.

The 40-year-old was finally sentenced in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to life in prison with a chance of parole after 38 years served.

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