A Warren man was sentenced Tuesday for the shooting death of a mother of four children.

Twenty-year-old Noel Flores appeared before Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Logan on Tuesday and was sentenced to 14 to 19-and-a-half years in prison for the shooting death of 26-year-old Ashantae Kirksey in her home on Francis Avenue SE back in November of 2023.

Kirksey's family did not show up for the sentencing, but Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker says he is satisfied with this sentence.

Becker told 21 News if this case went to trial, the defense could have argued that the shooting was done in self-defense and possibly had Flores acquitted, but this did not happen.

"This is a problem in this case [because] an individual in the house where miss Kirksey was fired a weapon from inside the house. Mr. Flores was outside the house when he fired the weapon back, so the whole trial was going to come down to who you believe fired first," Becker said.

Flores pleaded guilty last month to one count of involuntary manslaughter with firearm specifications, as well as one count of improper discharge of a firearm into a habitation with firearm specifications and three counts of illegal possession of a firearm on liquor permit premises.

Kirksey was a nurse and mother of four children who had just moved into the Francis Avenue home about two weeks before her death according to neighbors.

Following the shooting, Flores fled the area and was in hiding until his arrest by U.S. Marshals in St. Petersburgh, Florida. He was found with a weapon that police say matched the description of the weapon used in the murder.

According to the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office Flores could have faced maximum consecutive sentences totaling 34 years in prison. 

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