A Maryland woman was stepping into her car when a man opened fire, killing her in an effort to silence a federal witness,though she was not the intended target, authorities said.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher sentenced 44‑year‑old Matthew Hightower to 40 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for “using a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland reported.
Earlier this year, Hightower pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he “plott[ed] the murder of woman, in a case of mistaken identity where the intended target was a federal witness.” The plan ended with the death of 41‑year‑old Latrina Ashburne.
The judge ordered Hightower’s new sentence to run concurrently with the term he began serving in November 2016,a 31‑year term for extorting a debt and using interstate facilities for extortion that led to the death of David Wutoh.
On May 27, 2016, Ashburne was walking to her car on Rosalind Avenue in northwest Baltimore when a man approached.
At that time, Hightower was allegedly conspiring to kill Ashburne’s neighbor, a federal witness, “in retaliation for providing information to a law‑enforcement officer and to prevent her from testifying against him,” federal prosecutors said. The case also involved Wutoh’s death and a healthcare‑fraud scheme in which Hightower participated.
Ashburne lived next door to the federal witness and shared a similar age and appearance, authorities noted. As she reached her vehicle, she saw the man coming, tried to flee, and was shot in the upper body before the attacker fled. He was identified as 46‑year‑old Davon Carter, who reportedly had an accomplice, 49‑year‑old Clifton Mosley.
After the shooting, Ashburne’s neighbor,the intended target,contacted law enforcement, reporting the murder and stating she believed she had been the target, prosecutors said. Investigators traced Mosley’s phone to the vicinity at the time of the attack and found it was in contact with Carter’s phone.
Surveillance footage captured vehicles belonging to Carter’s girlfriend’s mother and to Hightower slowly cruising the area, as if the drivers were searching for someone, according to authorities. Prosecutors highlighted that both Carter and Mosley each drove a vehicle that day.
Carter and Mosley ultimately received four life sentences each in federal prison after convictions for two counts of conspiracy to murder a witness, one count of witness‑retaliation murder, and one count of witness‑tampering murder.
Authorities said that after Hightower was charged in connection with Wutoh’s murder and the fraud scheme, he maintained “frequent and regular contact” with Carter and Mosley.
In court, Hightower apologized, saying he was sorry for ruining two families,Ashburne’s and his own, as reported by local NBC affiliate WBAL.
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