WASHINGTON COUNTY : Man, 22, gets life without parole for ex-girlfriend’s murder
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/230893/
A Fayetteville man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Washington County Circuit Court to shooting his ex-girlfriend and her co-worker in January at a Springdale hotel.
Judge William Storey sentenced Jonathan Lawrence Dean Lee, 22, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for capital murder and attempted capital murder, with the sentences to run consecutively.
On Jan. 15, Lee shot Kathryn “Katie” Arnold, 19, three times as he jumped over the front desk at the La Quinta Inn and chased her into the lobby.
Arnold died at the scene.
During the attack, Lee shot hotel trainee Edward Niccum in the stomach. Niccum, 59, of Huntsville survived but is paralyzed from the waist down because the bullet hit his spinal cord, said Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Threet.
Police were called to the motel at 1300 S. 48 th St. just before 10 p. m. by witnesses — including motel guests — who called 911 reporting gunfire, screaming and blood in the lobby. Officers found Arnold dead and Niccum wounded in the front desk office area. Hotel video showed a man, later identified as Lee, walking out of the motel carrying a chrome, long-barreled revolver.
Police arrested Lee at 5 a. m. the next morning at a friend’s house in Tontitown.
Storey also sentenced Lee on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for stealing the revolver that he used to shoot Arnold and Niccum.
The state agreed to the negotiated plea and sentence at the request of Arnold’s family, which did not want to go through the agony of a trial, said Threet.
“I was intending to seek the death penalty,” Threet said.
Arnold had broken off her relationship with Lee the day before the attack. The couple had been dating for a few months.
In April 2006, Lee was arrested after an exgirlfriend told Bentonville police he’d threatened over the phone to kill her.