Prosecutors said Damien Hebbeler killed Kylie Marie Weitz at close range in Garrison, and jurors recommended a 50-year sentence.

VANCEBURG, Ky. — A Lewis County jury found Damien Hebbeler guilty of intentional murder on March 24 in the 2023 shooting death of his girlfriend, 20-year-old Kylie Marie Weitz, at a home in Garrison, Kentucky officials said. Jurors recommended that Hebbeler, now 23, serve 50 years in prison.

The verdict moved a case that began on an August evening in 2023 from investigation to punishment. State prosecutors said Hebbeler intentionally fired a loaded pistol into Weitz’s face at close range, while evidence presented at trial included testimony that he carried what he described as a “special bullet,” the same round used in the killing. The case also drew notice because authorities said Hebbeler had made statements less than a year earlier about wanting to kill Weitz. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 5.

The shooting happened on Aug. 9, 2023, at a residence on Willis Lane in Garrison, according to early reports from Kentucky State Police and local news outlets that covered the arrest. Lewis County dispatch requested help from Kentucky State Police Post 8 after a report involving an unresponsive woman. Investigators later said the first information relayed to 911 described the wound as self-inflicted. By the time troopers reached the house, however, officers found Weitz on the floor near the front door frame with a gunshot wound to the face. Lewis County Coroner Tony Gaydos pronounced her dead at the scene, and the case quickly shifted from a death investigation to a homicide inquiry.

Authorities said the break in the case came during interviews with Hebbeler. Investigators said he told them he had pointed a loaded pistol at Weitz’s face and pulled the trigger, causing the firearm to discharge into her face. At trial, according to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, Hebbeler also said he carried a “special bullet” with him and that the round was the same one used to kill Weitz. Prosecutors treated that statement as powerful evidence that the shooting was intentional, not accidental. The attorney general’s office also said investigators found evidence that less than a year before the shooting, Hebbeler had made statements that he wanted to kill Weitz. Public summaries of the trial do not spell out every exhibit shown to the jury or how the defense tried to counter that evidence, but the verdict made clear jurors accepted the Commonwealth’s account.

The state framed the case not only as a homicide prosecution but also as a domestic violence case with a long lead-up. Attorney General Russell Coleman said after the verdict that Weitz’s life mattered and that Kentucky would continue to pursue domestic violence offenders. That language signaled how prosecutors wanted the public to understand the case: not as an isolated shooting in rural Lewis County, but as a killing inside an intimate relationship. Kentucky State Police investigated the case, while Assistant Attorney General Tony Skeans and Special Prosecutions Unit Executive Director Tim Cocanougher handled the prosecution for the Commonwealth. Aaron Ash of the Office of Victims Advocacy provided services to Weitz’s surviving family, according to the attorney general’s office. Those details showed how multiple parts of state government remained involved well after the shooting itself.

Weitz was remembered publicly in sharply different terms from the courtroom record. In her obituary, family and friends described her as a loving daughter, sister and grandchild who enjoyed cheerleading, track, volleyball, lifeguarding, travel and time with friends. She worked as a waitress and lifeguard, according to memorial notices published after her death. Those remembrances help explain why the case carried weight in Garrison, a small Lewis County community where a violent death can echo far beyond the courthouse. The jury’s recommendation does not erase that loss, but it marks the point where the public record moved from the shock of the killing to a formal statement of criminal responsibility. In that sense, the trial answered the central question left open in the first hours after the shooting: whether Weitz had died in a tragic accident or because someone meant to kill her.

The legal process is not over. Under Kentucky procedure, the jury’s 50-year recommendation does not become final until sentencing, which is set for June 5. Public reporting available so far does not show any post-trial motions that would alter the schedule, and no appeal can be filed until a final judgment is entered. Once the sentencing order is issued, the case could move into a new phase focused on whether the conviction or sentence will be challenged. For now, the conviction stands as the most important court action in the case, and the next public milestone is whether the judge follows the jury’s recommendation or imposes a different sentence allowed under law for the offense of conviction.

Even in a case defined by stark facts, the courtroom language pointed to the human stakes. Coleman said the verdict delivered “hard-won justice” for Weitz. Prosecutors emphasized close range, prior threats and the defendant’s own words. In local coverage from the time of the killing, the case first reached the public as a confusing and fast-moving emergency call in Garrison. By the time jurors weighed the evidence more than two years later, that uncertainty had been replaced by a far more direct account from investigators and prosecutors. The shift from an apparent accident to a murder conviction became the central arc of the case.

The case now stands at the sentencing stage, with Hebbeler due back in court June 5 and the jury’s recommended 50-year term awaiting a judge’s final decision.

Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.