LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — A 31-year-old Lake Worth Beach woman has agreed to a sentence of 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in the shooting death of her boyfriend in 2021.
Jasmine Phillips Bent had been charged with second-degree murder but took a plea deal Friday. Circuit Court Judge Caroline Shepherd scheduled formal sentencing for 8:30 a.m. Dec. 19.
At 8:12 a.m. on May 4, 2021, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at a home in Lake Worth Beach to conduct a welfare check. They smelled the odor of decomposition and found the body of Jeffrey Pugh Jr., 30.
The man’s girlfriend shot him in the neck at their home on South M Street before fleeing to Ohio.
Deputies described her actions as "calculated, malicious and well thought out in failing to report the shooting, removing evidence from the scene, destroying evidence, taking flight after the shooting, disguising her identity, and the steps she took in evading capture," according to the arrest report.
Deputies learned Pugh's Buick was abandoned near an apartment complex in Savannah, Georgia.
And on the same day that Pugh's body was discovered, Bent had been arrested on unrelated charges in the Cincinnati suburb of Green Township.
A couple there contacted the police after Bent confessed to the murder.
In questioning by detectives, Bent said she was with Pugh on the night of April 30 when he became violent.