A Bay County judge sentenced Joseph Michael Lynch to 40 years in the Springfield stabbing of Kenny Ashbey.

Thursday's hearing closed the case on a plea. The state attorney's office said the victim's family agreed to the 40-year number, and the prosecutor called it essentially a life sentence. WJHG reported the judge also ordered Lynch to stay away from the family. There was no trial.

Joseph Michael Lynch was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, to 40 years in prison for the July 3 stabbing of Kenny Ashbey in Springfield, Florida, the State Attorney's Office for the 14th Judicial Circuit and WJHG reported. State Attorney Larry Basford's office said Lynch, described there as a 47-year-old Apopka man, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and burglary with assault or battery. Circuit Judge Brantley Clark adjudicated him guilty and sentenced him to 40 years on each count, to run concurrently, the office said. WJHG reported the same concurrent terms and reported the judge ordered Lynch to have no contact with the victim's family. WJHG's July story had called Lynch a Springfield man.

The office said the attack was at Ashbey's home on Ormond Avenue in Springfield. WJHG reported in July that Springfield officers were called about 11:35 p.m. on July 3 to the 2900 block of Ormond Avenue and found a 33-year-old man with stab wounds. Officers tried to keep him alive until Springfield Fire Rescue and Bay County Fire Rescue arrived, and he was taken to Ascension Sacred Heart Bay, where he died, WJHG reported. The state attorney's office said Lynch and Ashbey had disagreed days earlier over the title to a vehicle, and that Lynch arrived armed with two knives, forced the door, and stabbed Ashbey multiple times. The Daily Mail reported the dispute grew out of a Facebook Marketplace car sale and that the argument over the missing title happened at the house that night. The office's account puts the title dispute days before the stabbing.

The office said Ashbey's wife, their young daughter, and three other adults were in the home, and that Lynch took their cell phones before he left on foot. The daughter is not named. The office said he told bystanders outside to call 911, and that when officers found him in a driveway a few houses away he said, "I did it." WJHG's July story reported he was found lying nearby and told officers he was the person they were looking for. The office said investigators recovered one knife inside, near where Ashbey collapsed, and a second knife outside.

At the sentencing, Ashbey's wife, who the office said was home and saw the killing, told Judge Clark, "This loss has shattered this family completely; we have no sense of safety anymore, not even in our own home." Prosecutor Peter Overstreet said, "This was a senseless and violent attack, and for the family members of the victim we are glad that justice was quickly served," and that the family agreed to the plea and the 40 years, "which essentially is a Life sentence for this defendant," the office reported. The Daily Mail spelled the man who was killed as Kenny Dale Ashby. The state attorney's office spelled the name Kenny Ashbey.

The no-contest plea and the adjudication of guilt are the judgment in the case. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.