Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect Montez was found shot and later died.

A woman recently convicted in the death of a transgender woman will spend the next 55 years behind bars.

A jury needed just two hours of deliberation to convict Chloe Huehlefeld in late October of murder and engaging in organized criminal activity in the death last year of Elizabeth Stephanie Montez.

The sentence was handed down Tuesday by 117th District Judge Sandra Watts. She will be eligible for parole in 27 1/2 years, or after having served roughly half her sentence.

Huehlefeld is one of four people who were charged in Montez's death.

She took the stand in her own defense, and her lawyers argued she was "a victim of circumstance;" She conceded she was present when the fatal shooting occurred, but didn't take part in planning the crime.

More:Suspect in Elizabeth Stephanie Montez killing takes stand to "tell my side of the story"

Others facing charges are Cedric Green, Randy Dorsey and Jace Montange.



Dorsey accepted a plea deal with prosecutors in October. Green and Montange's trials are set for December. Huehlefeld is expected to testify in their trials, in accordance with the agreement.

Prosecutors have argued the four created a plan to kill Montez over stolen money. She was taken to a barn, where she was shot.



Montez was found on County Road 61 on the outskirts of Robstown in October 2017. According to an affidavit, Montez was "bleeding and not communicating effectively" when found by authorities.

An autopsy by the Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office later found that she suffered five gunshot wounds.

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