Wichita man acquitted of murder in girlfriend’s fatal shooting
A Wichita man was acquitted this week of murdering his girlfriend in her west-side home in 2021.
Attorneys for Jon Lovell said jurors returned a not-guilty verdict Tuesday after deliberating his case for about eight hours. Prosecutors tried the 43-year-old on one count of first-degree premeditated murder in the March 19, 2021, shooting death of 38-year-old Natasha Arvidson, who was found dead in the basement of her home at 10629 W. Taft Court by her mother and a friend.
Court records say Lovell called and drove Arvidson’s mother to the address to check on her after the couple had a fight where he kicked in her front door and she allegedly threatened him with a knife and broke some car windows. But he denied harming her.
Arvidson died from a gunshot wound to the back of her head, court records say.
A legal assistant for Lovell’s lawyer, Gerard C. Scott, said Thursday by email that the acquittal came after the defense argued failures Wichita police made “in their gathering of evidence, including surveillance video, had deprived Mr. Lovell of critical evidence that would have helped to exonerate him.”
Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said the killing was a “domestic violence homicide” and that “the jury was unable to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the murder” following a multi-week trial that included testimony from more than two dozen witnesses.
Lovell’s trial started on Feb. 10.
