Taya Ashton.Photo:Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty

Dozens of people mourn the loss of Taya Ashton, a 20-year-old transgender woman who was shot and killed at her apartment in Suitland, Maryland on July 17, 2021.

Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty

A man who pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend after learning she was transgender will spend close to 50 years in prison, according to multiple reports.

Price was sentenced to 60 years in prison, with 12 years suspended, meaning he will spend the next 48 years in prison, according to the reports.

Prosecutors said Price and Ashton were in a relationship, and that he shot her after learning she was transgender.

DeAllen Price.Prince George’s County Police

DeAllen Price, Man connected to Prince George’s County transgender woman’s death in 2021 faces sentencing

Prince George’s County Police

“[Price] told the court that he was engaged in an intimate relationship with Taya and that that evening was when he first learned" about her trans identity, Assistant State’s Attorney Sherrie Waldrup said, according to DC News Now.

After that, Waldrup said Price shot Ashton.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Waldrup reportedly called the admission “chilling.”

Shortly after the death of Ashton, the Human Rights Campaign released a statement.

“Taya was just at the beginning of her life — a life that she deserved to live to its fullest,” HRC Associate Director of the Transgender Justice Initiative Lindsey Clark said. “Black transgender women continue to be killed in this country, and this violence is unacceptable. Everyone, from friends and family to community organizers and allies, needs to speak out with urgency. We must end the stigma and violence that all transgender and gender non-conforming people face.”

source: people.com