Bensalem Teen Who Killed 'Best Friend' Sentenced To 40 Years In Prison

LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA —A Bensalem Township teenager faces up to 40 years in state prison for shooting their friend at a trailer park in November 2022 and then chatted about it with an acquaintance on Instagram regarding how to clean up the crime, authorities said.

Ash Cooper, 18, originally charged as Joshua Cooper, was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in state prison on Thursday after entering a guilty plea to charges of third-degree murder and other charges, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.

Cooper admitted that she shot and killed her 12-year-old best friend Morgan Connors, of Abington, at the Top of the Ridge Trailer Park on Gibson Road on Nov. 25, 2022. Sources said the pair were "best friends," the Courier Times reported.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Cooper to 15 to 40 years in state prison and a consecutive sentence of seven years of probation. Additionally, Cooper was ordered to follow all the rules and recommendations of adult probation and parole and undergo psychological and psychiatric evaluations.

During sentencing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristin M. McElroy read an impact statement from the victim’s grandfather who described the “intense pain and heartbreak” of losing his granddaughter Morgan Conners.

“The human heart is not built for such heartbreak,” the letter read.

Bensalem Township Police received a 911 call about a possible homicide with the caller stating that her daughter received an Instagram video chat from a 16-year-old acquaintance, police said.

During the video chat, Cooper stated that she had just killed someone. She then flipped the video image and showed the legs and feet of someone covered in blood. She then asked for assistance with the disposal of the body, police said.

When police went to check the property, the juvenile ran out of the back of the trailer. When officers entered the mobile home, they observed a deceased juvenile female on the floor of the bathroom with an apparent gunshot wound.

The investigation revealed that Cooper used a firearm from his father’s gun safe in the home to shoot the victim. Cooper was able to get into the safe by replacing the batteries his father had removed to make the combination lock inoperable.

Cooper has been incarcerated at the Bucks County Juvenile Detention Center in Doylestown Township since her arrest.