Amy Preasmyer is currently in prison, serving a life sentence at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, without any possibility of parole. She was in 2009 convicted of conspiracy to murder, murder, and solicitation to murder.
Amy Preasmyer is an American woman who gained public and media attention in 2005 after she was arrested for hiring a hitman to kill her boyfriend, Rick Cowles Jr., in August 1997. She was at that time 16 years old while Rick was 21. Read on to find all the truths behind this story.
Where is Amy Preasmyer Now?
Amy Preasmyer is currently at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, where she is serving her sentence for her crime. Initially, when the investigation started, she was acquitted due to a lack of evidence but was rearrested eight years later in 2005.
In 2022, Amy Preasmyer allegedly published a letter on the prison writer’s site; in it, she spoke about prisoners’ standard of living. Precisely, she asked that inmates be treated well and with more dignity as legal citizens of America.
Is Amy Preasmyer Still in Jail?
Yes, Amy Preasmyer is still in jail. She has been serving her jail term at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, for about 54 years now.
Amy Preasmyer’s Release Date
Amy Preasmyer’s actual release date is not known. Her conviction states that she got a life sentence with no parole, but it seems to have been amended. According to the prison website, she will be eligible for parole in March 2029.
How Long Will Amy Preasmyer Be In Jail?
According to the sentence she got, Amy Preasmyer will spend the rest of her life in prison with no parole. However, the judgment seems to have been amended, as the current prison records show that she will have a right to parole in March 2029. Until then, fans and the general public await the outcome.
Amy Preasmyer and Jennifer Kellogg’s Relationship
Amy Preasmyer and Jennifer Kellogg met and became friends in high school. Against the thought that she had got a best friend for life, Kellogg ended up being the one that led Amy into a tragic ending.
Meanwhile, Amy Preasmyer got into a relationship with her boyfriend, Rick Cowles Jr., in 1997 when they were both teenagers – while Rick was 19, she was 16. They met at a house party; at that time, Rick had just graduated and was working as an electrician in his family business, while Amy was in her second year at a local high school.
They started as friends, and shortly after, their friendship blossomed into a romantic relationship that seemed harmless. They shared a deep connection and love for each other and spent much time together. However, trouble came into paradise when Amy found out she had gotten pregnant for Rick.
This was not an exciting development for her as the pregnancy began to limit her normal lifestyle. She started getting depressed as the days went by and was filled with the thoughts that her boyfriend intentionally wanted to ruin her life by getting her pregnant.
She resented him, and Rick, seeing how she felt about the whole thing, showered her with more love and care. Regardless, their relationship hit rock bottom, leading to frequent arguments.
How did Amy Preasmyer Go To Jail?
Amy Preasmyer went to jail in 2005 after she was found guilty and convicted of murdering her boyfriend, Rick Cowles Jr. With each passing day, Amy’s bitterness and resentment towards Rick kept on getting worse, and so she began to look for a way to get back at him. She conceived in her heart to look around the city for someone who could help her kill him.
On her search, she met a local store clerk, William Billy Hoffman, who, after some negotiation, agreed to carry out the malicious work for her for a fee. She liaised with her girlfriend, Jennifer Kellogg, and the three of them proceeded with the plan of how to murder Rick Jr. Amy and Jennifer sneaked Hoffman into the apartment Amy shared with Rick and then went further to deliberate on how to get dispose of Rick’s body.
Billy spent some time monitoring Rick’s movement and then ambushed him in the bedroom of the two-story building located in the 43400 block of Gadsden Avenue, Lancaster. He hit him with a claw hammer multiple times and eventually shot him in the head with a 32-caliber semi-automatic handgun.
One hour after the incident, Amy returned home to meet Rick in a pool of his blood. Frantically, she called 911 to report the murder and was heard screaming, “Oh my God. Help me, please.” She was about 15 weeks gone at that time.
Amy Preasmyer’s Trial
After spending about three years in prison and having converted to Christianity, Billy became remorseful of his crime and wrote a letter to the late Ricky’s family. In the letter, he admitted to having committed the crime and revealed that Amy set him up to kill the young man.
On getting the information, Rick’s family reopened the case, and in 2005, Amy was arrested for conspiracy, lying in wait, and solicitation to murder. She pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against her throughout her trial, but two years after her arrest, the prosecutors were able to gather enough evidence to prove her guilty.
Two years later, in 2009, she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, her girlfriend, Jennifer Kellogg, and a man named David Ashbury were also arrested in connection to the crime. While Jeniffer pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit murder and was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment in 2008, Ashbury was sentenced to two years imprisonment for being an accessory to murder. However, prison records later showed that Jeniffer Kellogg earned parole and has now been released.
The Actual Killer was Later Found to be William Billy Hoffman
Upon the police’s arrival at the crime scene, they suspected that the murder was an aftermath of a robbery attack. However, further investigation revealed that there was no forced entry into the apartment and that nothing was found missing in it. So, they eventually concluded that it was a premeditated murder that an insider assisted.
As the investigation was going on, the police were informed that William Billy Hoffman had confessed to being the culprit. He was arrested, and upon questioning and interrogation, he confessed that he was hired by Amy to kill her boyfriend, Rick Jr. Although that did not serve as direct evidence, Amy was arrested but was later released.
Meanwhile, William Billy Hoffman was in October 1999 sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
FAQs
Who Killed Ricky Cowles?
William “Billy” Hoffman killed Ricky Cowles. However, it was Amy Preasmyer who hired him to do so.