A 26-year-old Arkansas man will spend the next 35 years behind bars after admitting to murdering a woman in Weld County in 2017.

According to the Weld County District Attorney, David Houston-Harvey appeared before a judge for sentencing on Wednesday, September 2. He was previously indicted in May 2019, for Murder in the First Degree, Murder in the Second Degree, Robbery and First Degree Aggravated Motor Vehicle Theft.

Houston-Harvey is accused of shooting and killing 23-year-old Laramie Cline of Ozark, Alabama.

According to police, the two were traveling through Weld County from Wyoming to Denver in August 2017. Houston-Harvey told investigators that Cline wanted to stay in Colorado, while he wanted to return to either Arkansas or Alabama instead.

During the initial investigation, Houston-Harvey told police that Cline had pointed the gun at him, so he reacted by trying to grab it. He claimed that when he tried to grab the gun, it discharged and killed Cline.

However, Houston-Harvey later admitted to his girlfriend that he actually shot and killed Cline while she was asleep. He then hid the victim's body in a suitcase and drove her car back to Arkansas, with her body in the trunk. Houston-Harvey dumped the body in Arkansas.

Houston-Harvey is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for abandoning Cline's dead body.

The 35-year sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections stems from part of the defendant's plea agreement, in which he pled guilty to Murder in the Second Degree in Weld District Court in June. Following the 35 years, he will also have five years of mandatory parole. The Colorado sentence will run concurrent to his Arkansas sentence.

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