A Northern Kentucky man who admitted shooting and killing his girlfriend while carelessly handling a firearm at a home in Covington was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.
That prison term was handed down to 55-year-old Ryan Sherman by Kenton County Circuit Judge Patricia Summe. It matches a recommendation from prosecutors reached as part of Sherman’s February guilty plea to manslaughter, tampering with evidence and illegal possession of a firearm.
Sherman was the only other person present at the Wheeler Street residence when 51-year-old Laverne Wilson was shot in the chest in February 2023, investigators said in a criminal complaint.
Prosecutors say Covington police interviewed Sherman that same day and he admitted to investigators that he moved the handgun from the floor to the bed but denied shooting Wilson.
Sherman wasn’t arrested during that interview and police could not locate him for several weeks after, though he was eventually apprehended in Dayton, Ohio. He fled to avoid being arrested in connection with Wilson’s death, prosecutors said in court filings.