Cash Feenz murder: Cape Coral woman earns resentencing in '06 case

Tomas Rodriguez, Fort Myers News-Press
·2 min read
15

A Cape Coral woman sentenced to life for a double homicide she committed as a minor will get a new chance after she challenged her sentence through a Supreme Court ruling.

Ashley Toye, now 34, will face resentencing Sept. 5 before Lee Circuit Judge Frank Porter, court records indicate.

Toye's resentencing doesn't mean she will be retried, only that a new sentence will be imposed.

Toye was convicted in the murders of 14-year-old Jeffrey Sosa, 14, and his 18-year-old uncle, Alexis Sosa that took place at a Cape Coral home in October 2006.

According to police reports, the Cash Feenz, the name a group of teen rappers gave themselves, tortured the Sosas for hours on end by binding them, beating them, carving the initials of the rap group — "CF" — into their backs, pouring bleach into the fresh wounds, dragging them into the trunk of a car, where they were shot. The car was then set on fire.

Toye was sentenced to life in 2007 and also given two 25-year sentences for kidnapping that are not affected by the reversal.

But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2012 declared that the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for defendants younger than 18. Toye was 17 at the time of the crimes.

Her appeal was denied and she was sentenced to life again in 2015.

The denial to her appeal was reversed in December 2019. The reversal was officially filed Jan. 23, 2020, and entitles her to a special hearing to determine the new length of her sentence.

In court documents on the reversal, the state's recommendation was to give Toye something less than a life sentence.

Toye's case advances to resentencing about three months after another then-minor, David Snipes, now 45, had his life sentence reaffirmed before Lee Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle.

Snipes had been sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 murder of Marcus Mueller in Bonita Springs.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cash Feenz murder resentencing set for Ashley Toye, then a minor