WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — The 11th District Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Warren man who pleaded guilty last year for the shooting death of an 88-year-old woman.

The court ruled Monday that an appeal by Shamar Askew, 20, ruled that a question filed by his attorneys around his guilty pleas last September is without merit, according to a news release from the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office.

Askew pleaded guilty Sept. 9 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge W. Wyatt McKay to two counts of murder, discharging a firearm at or into a habitation and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the Feb. 27, 2021, shooting death of Ruth Lewis in her home in the 3000 block of Starlite Drive NW.

Prosecutors said Askew was a passenger in a car driving by the house and he fired several rounds at the house from a handgun. He later got rid of the gun.

Lewis, who was helping to plan a funeral for a family member, was hit by a bullet in the back. Police said Askew confessed.

His lawyers appealed his conviction and sentence, saying Lewis may have made the pleas without knowing if the trial judge would grant a defense motion to suppress statements he made to the police, according to the news release.