Kevin Wells reported an intruder at his apartment before his father and employer told police he had admitted shooting Lisa West.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — An El Paso County jury has convicted Kevin Wells of murder in the 2025 shooting death of his girlfriend, Lisa West, closing the trial phase of a case that began when Wells called 911 with a very different account: He said someone was trying to break into his apartment while West was alone inside.

That account began to fall apart within hours. Police responding to the Mountain Shadows Apartments on Fontmore Road on May 13, 2025, found West dead from a single gunshot wound. About 30 minutes after Wells’ emergency call, his father contacted police and reported that Wells had admitted shooting West, according to arrest records described by local news organizations. Wells’ employer later contacted authorities and reported receiving a text in which Wells also acknowledged the shooting. More than a year later, jurors found Wells guilty on Sept. 25, 2026. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 20.

The emergency call was the first version of events investigators received from Wells. According to KKTV and court reporting from The Gazette, Wells called at about 11:35 a.m. and said somebody was trying to get into his apartment. He told dispatchers that he was away from the residence and that his girlfriend was there. Colorado Springs officers arrived expecting to investigate a possible burglary. They instead found West dead inside. At an earlier preliminary hearing, Officer Tyler Bresson testified that the outside of the apartment did not initially appear suspicious and that Wells gave him no warning during a subsequent phone conversation that officers were about to find a homicide scene.

Investigators soon received information that pointed away from the break-in report. Wells’ father called police around noon and said his son had told him he shot his girlfriend, according to the arrest affidavit described by The Gazette. The father said Wells told him the couple had argued and that West had hit him. Wells also said West threatened to bring other people to the apartment, according to the father’s account to investigators. The father said he urged Wells to turn himself in before the call ended. Later that afternoon, Wells’ boss contacted police and said Wells had sent a message acknowledging that he had shot West.

Earlier court proceedings provided investigators’ account of what they found when they searched the apartment. Detective Ashton Lofgreen testified at the July 2025 preliminary hearing that officers recovered multiple bullet casings and found an empty handgun safe. Investigators also found a shattered sliding glass door. Those details became part of the evidence examined as authorities worked to determine whether there had been an outside intruder or whether the reported break-in was an attempt to explain what officers would find. Public reporting on the verdict did not give a full, item-by-item account of the evidence presented to jurors at the 2026 trial, so evidence described at the preliminary hearing remains identified as such.

West’s own communications became another important part of the earlier court record. Lead homicide Detective Shelby Johnson testified at the preliminary hearing about text messages West sent to a friend on the day she died. One message said, “I wish I could leave, but I literally have nowhere to go and no money.” Prosecutors described West as wanting to leave Wells because of abuse and said there had been domestic violence in the relationship. The message gave the court a contemporaneous account of West’s circumstances hours before the shooting and stood in sharp contrast to Wells’ later statement, relayed through his father, that he had ordered West to leave the apartment.

The preliminary hearing also showed that the case was not presented without points for the defense to challenge. During cross-examination, Johnson testified that another person at the apartment complex had reported seeing a “suspicious person” there on the morning West was killed. Defense attorneys asked the judge not to send the first-degree murder charge to trial, arguing that prosecutors had not established the required showing of premeditation at that stage of the case. Judge Amanda Philipps nevertheless ruled that the charge could proceed, explaining that she was required at the preliminary stage to consider the evidence under the standard that applied to the prosecution’s burden there.

The apartment itself was another focus of the earlier testimony. Lofgreen said Wells was the only resident listed on the lease and the only person listed as paying utilities for the unit. West had previously applied to be added as a roommate but had been denied, according to the detective’s testimony. That housing arrangement adds context to West’s text saying she wanted to leave but had nowhere to go and no money. It also helps explain why investigators examined both the couple’s relationship and Wells’ control of the residence as they reconstructed the hours surrounding her death.

Authorities were also working to find Wells while the apartment investigation was unfolding. Colorado State Patrol Trooper Mathew Tillman testified at the preliminary hearing that he helped locate Wells’ vehicle after law enforcement agencies were asked to look for him. Wells initially told Bresson that he was heading toward Denver and later said he was in Monument, according to testimony reported by The Gazette. Cellphone tracking placed him traveling south. Authorities eventually took him into custody roughly 60 miles from the apartment, and the trooper testified that Wells was compliant when he was arrested.

The sequence gave police several separate pieces of information to compare on the day of the killing: Wells’ burglary report, what officers found inside the apartment, what his father said Wells had told him, the message reported by his employer and Wells’ movements away from Colorado Springs. Investigators also had Wells’ reported explanation to his father that the shooting followed an argument in which West struck him and threatened to bring others to the apartment. By the time the case reached the preliminary hearing two months later, prosecutors were openly arguing that Wells, rather than an unknown intruder, was responsible for West’s death.

The case moved from accusation to adjudication in September 2026. KKTV reported that an El Paso County jury convicted Wells of murder on Sept. 25. Law&Crime reported that online court records showed his trial had begun earlier that week. The publicly available verdict reports are brief and do not provide a complete trial transcript, detailed closing arguments or a full breakdown of every exhibit jurors considered. What they establish is that the jury rejected the case for acquittal and returned a murder conviction after more than a year of court proceedings stemming from the shooting.

Published reports have given slightly different ages for West. The Gazette and later coverage described her as 34 at the time of the shooting, while KKTV’s May 2025 identification report listed her as 35. The discrepancy does not affect the central facts of the case: West was found dead at the Fontmore Road apartment after Wells reported a possible burglary, investigators focused on Wells that same day, and he was later prosecuted and convicted in her killing. The available reports do not explain the age difference.

Wells now awaits the next formal step in the case rather than a determination of guilt. The Sept. 25 verdict resolved the jury’s role in deciding whether prosecutors proved the murder charge, but sentencing remains pending. As of Nov. 9, no reliable report reviewed for this story showed that the Nov. 20 sentencing date had changed. The hearing will bring Wells back before the court nearly 18 months after officers arrived at the apartment expecting a break-in investigation and instead began a homicide case.

Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.