A California man was sentenced to prison in a woman’s death more than three years after her body was found in an orchard, where prosecutors said she fought him off before he ran her over with his truck.
Ricky Singh Lasher, of Yuba City, was handed a 24-year sentence on Monday, October 26, for a voluntary manslaughter charge in connection with Amery Sweany’s 2023 death, and on a separate 2024 sexual battery offense, according to a news release from the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office.
“The sentencing marks the end of a difficult investigation and prosecution that strove to bring justice for Amery and several other women whose vulnerabilities Lasher exploited,” the office said.
Lasher, 41, previously pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter on April 10 as part of a plea agreement, according to prosecutors. He also admitted to alleged sexual battery against a woman who came forward about a 2024 assault.
He was initially arrested on a murder charge in 2024, nearly a year after he allegedly killed Sweany in Marysville, about a 40-mile drive north from Sacramento, according to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department.
A passerby discovered Sweany’s body near the road within a Marysville orchard on April 27, 2023, the department said in a 2024 news release. Lasher is accused of killing Sweany a day earlier.
The case would’ve likely remained cold until a witness came forward after seeing a newspaper report about Sweany’s death, according to prosecutors.
The witness told investigators they “hung out” with Sweany “parting ways” at Jack in the Box in Marysville, on April 26, 2023, the district attorney’s office said.
Sweany later visited another local restaurant near an AMPM convenience store, where surveillance footage showed Lasher pull into the lot in a white Chevy truck before speaking with Sweany, according to prosecutors.
“Video showed that Lasher left and returned multiple times seemingly circling Amery, approaching her over and over again,” the district attorney’s office said. “Amery appeared increasingly agitated each time Lasher returned and eventually walked away from him and into the ampm.”
According to prosecutors, Lasher grabbed Sweany’s bag containing her belongings and drove off with it.
Ariana Sweany, Amery’s younger sister, said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee that Lasher, a stranger, had been stalking Sweany and tried to lure her into his truck.
“At every turn, she wanted nothing to do with him. The last time my sister was seen alive on camera, she was still trying to get away from him,” Ariana wrote to the newspaper.
The district attorney’s office said “prosecutors believe that Lasher eventually coaxed Amery into his truck by offering her drugs, just as he had done with other women in the past.”
Afterward, he allegedly drove her to the Marysville orchard and tried to sexually assault her.
Evidence including shoe impressions left behind along the orchard’s dirt road indicated that Amery fought him off and ran away, according to prosecutors.
Lasher is accused of following Amery down the road in his truck and running her over, killing her.
When she was found dead, there were tire marks on her body, according to prosecutors.
In a statement shared by the district attorney’s office, Amery’s sister described her as “compassionate, strong-willed, nurturing, and confident” and “someone who always stood up for others and for herself.”
“Thank you for all your steadfast and diligent work in solving what I know was an incredibly difficult case,” Ariana commented under the district attorney’s office’s news release shared to Facebook.
Ariana added, “Amery was at an extremely vulnerable point in her life and yet still showed such discernment and such incredibly strong will. She fought. She is my big sister and she will always be my hero.”
