Sheets facing 30 years for assault, kidnapping

GREEN VALLEY -- Justin Sheets, a 27-year-old Sahuarita man who kidnapped and assaulted his estranged girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter last year, will be sentenced for his crimes June 6.

Sheets was convicted of kidnapping, aggravated assault, and sexual assault of a person under 15-years-old April 20 after a five-day jury trial in Pima County Superior Court.

He faces more than 30 years in prison, though Sahuarita resident Gail Love, grandmother and foster mother of the now 3-year-old Ashley Love, wants him to stay locked away forever.

"Ashley has to be medicated in order to sleep, and she still wakes up in cold sweats and screams," Love said during a phone interview Wednesday.

"I want him to get life," she said. "Ashley will be dealing with this for her whole life."

The nightmare began late on a Friday night in January 2004.

Ashley was at her baby sitter's house at the 17000 block of South Country Club in Sahuarita when Sheets arrived and took her away.

At the time, authorities said that Sheets had a history of drug use and had once threatened to kill Ashley.

A statewide Amber Alert was eventually issued for Ashley.

At about 1 p.m. the day after the kidnapping, Sheets called a family member in Tucson and Pima County Sheriff's deputies were able to trace the call to a motel room in Toltec, near Eloy--about 45 minutes south of Phoenix along Interstate 10.

Arizona Department of Public Safety investigators went to the motel, where they found Ashley in Sheets' Toyota Rav 4 with a head wound.

Ashley was taken to a hospital in Casa Grande and later transferred to a Tucson facility, where she was treated with several stitches on her head.

Sheets was booked into the Pima County Jail, where he remains today.

His sentencing is scheduled for June 6, 1:30 p.m. in Tucson before Superior Court Judge Charles Sabalos.

Love, who is in the process of adopting Ashley, said she plans to speak for the family at the hearing.

thull@gvnews.com | 547-9732