A 23-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison plus 26 years after fatally shooting his girlfriend 11 times while driving in Tempe in June 2023.
Prosecutors said Adrian Aguilar shot 19-year-old Amira Crofton over a 45-minute period after seeing a text message from another man on her phone. Aguilar demanded Crofton inform him whether she was cheating, and he threatened to shoot her if she refused.
She denied it, so he opened fire.
The couple had been together for around three months, according to court documents reported by the Arizona Republic in 2023. On the day of the shooting, they had left a pool party in Tempe, where Aguilar admitted to consuming several drinks and snorting a gram of cocaine.
After seeing the texts, Aguilar shot Crofton in the leg near Rural and Broadway roads, then kept driving and shooting her at other spots, including near her home. Crofton wept and begged him to stop. At one point, she attempted to seize the gun, leading the car to crash into a curb.
Aguilar then left the truck and repeatedly shot Crofton before turning the gun on himself when police arrived.
He originally claimed the car was shot up by someone else, but subsequently confessed, telling detectives he thought Crofton “had disrespected him,” according to authorities.
Crofton was shot in the head, neck, and body, and suffered severe injuries to her face, head, and hands.
In February, a jury found Aguilar guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and two counts of aggravated assault.
“This young woman placed her trust in the defendant, and he repaid that trust with brutal violence,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said. “His actions were callous, calculated, and rooted in jealousy.”
Aguilar went to a Department of Corrections facility on Tuesday.
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