A 32-year-old man in Oregon will spend decades behind bars for killing his ex-girlfriend, fatally shooting the 40-year-old victim as her family — including her two children — watched in horror.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jenna Plank on Tuesday ordered Richard D. Simms Jr. to serve a sentence of 29 years in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of Nicole L. Davis, court records show.

The sentence was handed down after Simms was convicted on charges of first-degree manslaughter, unlawful use of a weapon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to a series of news releases from the Portland Police Department, officers at about 4 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2023, responded to a report of someone being shot outside of an apartment complex in the 11100 block of Northeast Weidler Street in the Parkrose Heights neighborhood. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located an adult female — later identified as Davis — suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds to the back. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suspected shooter was quickly identified as Simms, who had fled the scene before police had even been called.

With the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service, police units in March 2024 located Simms and took him into custody for killing Davis.

Prosecutors said that Simms and Davis had been in a relationship, but were estranged at the time of the shooting because he had punched her in the face two days earlier, giving Davis a black eye, Portland NBC affiliate KGW reported.

Simms had been at the apartment earlier on the day of the shooting and left, but later returned because he was upset with Davis for allowing several of her family members to stay at the apartment for Thanksgiving.

When Simms came back to the apartment, he reportedly argued with Davis and several of her family members. At some point during the confrontation, Simms pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Davis, pulling the trigger several times, but the gun malfunctioned. As Davis began walking back into the apartment, Simms was able to get the gun working and fired three shots into her back, local CBS affiliate KOIN reported.

“Domestic violence is one of the most insidious crimes we confront because it usually occurs in the shadows of intimate relationships,” Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Glen Banfield said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “This case, however, was among the most callous acts of indifference to human life I have ever witnessed — Ms. Davis was shot in the back in front of her own family, by a person who claimed to have loved her. It is a stark reminder of the devastation domestic violence brings, not only to the victims, but to their loved ones and our entire community.”