Kevin Wells faces a Nov. 20 sentencing hearing after jurors convicted him in the 2025 shooting death of Lisa West.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Kevin Wells is due back in court Nov. 20 for sentencing after an El Paso County jury convicted him of murdering his girlfriend, Lisa West, turning a case once fought over probable cause and premeditation into one awaiting punishment after a guilty verdict.
The path to that verdict shows how the legal status of evidence changed as the case moved through court. At a July 2025 preliminary hearing, prosecutors needed only to establish that the murder charge should continue, and Wells’ defense challenged whether the state had shown premeditation. The judge permitted the prosecution to move forward. In September 2026, the case reached a jury under the far higher beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used at trial. Jurors convicted Wells on Sept. 25. Public reports reviewed for this story do not contain a complete trial transcript, but earlier court testimony provides a detailed record of the issues that shaped the case before trial.
One of those issues was whether anyone other than Wells could have been responsible for the shooting. During cross-examination at the preliminary hearing, lead Colorado Springs homicide Detective Shelby Johnson acknowledged that a witness had told investigators about a “suspicious person” at the apartment complex on the morning West died. The defense cited weaknesses in the state’s case while arguing against sending a first-degree murder count forward. Judge Amanda Philipps nevertheless ruled that prosecutors had met the threshold required at that stage, while explaining that she was required to evaluate the evidence using the preliminary-hearing standard rather than decide guilt.
Another issue was the state of the apartment itself. Detective Ashton Lofgreen testified that investigators executing search warrants found multiple bullet casings, an empty handgun safe and a shattered sliding glass door. The damaged door was noteworthy in a case that began with Wells reporting a possible break-in. The public account of the preliminary hearing does not establish that the damaged glass alone proved staging, nor does it show precisely how prosecutors treated every item at the later jury trial. It does show that investigators were testing the physical scene against Wells’ original account rather than simply accepting the burglary report at face value.
That original account came from Wells. At about 11:35 a.m. on May 13, 2025, he called 911 and said somebody was trying to break into his apartment at the Mountain Shadows Apartments on Fontmore Road, according to arrest papers. Wells told dispatchers he was away but that his girlfriend was inside. Colorado Springs officers were sent to investigate a possible burglary and discovered West dead from a single gunshot wound. Officer Tyler Bresson later testified that the exterior initially gave him little reason to expect what officers would find inside and that a phone conversation with Wells did not alert him that he was approaching a homicide scene.
Information from Wells’ own family soon became central to the investigation. His father contacted police roughly 30 minutes after the emergency call and said Wells had admitted shooting his girlfriend. The father later told detectives that Wells described an argument in which West struck him and threatened to bring other people to the apartment. According to that account, Wells said he told West to leave and shot her when she refused. Wells’ father said he encouraged his son to surrender. An employer later gave police a separate report, saying Wells sent a message acknowledging that he had shot his girlfriend.
Those reports did more than conflict with the claim that an unknown person was breaking in. They gave investigators statements attributed to Wells about a direct confrontation with West. At the preliminary-hearing stage, prosecutors could use those reports as part of their showing that the case should proceed, while the defense could challenge the weight, interpretation and legal significance of the state’s evidence. The eventual jury conviction established guilt after the case moved beyond that preliminary process, but the limited public reporting on the September trial does not identify which particular testimony or exhibits proved decisive in the jury room.
West’s communications added another part of the pretrial record. Johnson testified that West sent a friend a text on the day of the shooting saying, “I wish I could leave, but I literally have nowhere to go and no money.” Prosecutors described the couple as having a history of domestic violence and portrayed West as wanting to leave because of abuse. The text did not describe the shooting or identify a plan by Wells. Its importance in the public record is narrower: It documented West’s stated desire to leave and her belief that money and housing left her with few options on the same day she was killed.
Testimony about the apartment arrangement reinforced that limited point. Lofgreen said Wells was the sole person on the lease and the only resident listed as paying utilities. West had sought to be added as a roommate but had been denied. The details supplied context for her message without independently proving the homicide charge. They were part of the circumstances prosecutors laid before the judge when they described the relationship and argued for the case to continue.
Law enforcement testimony also documented Wells’ location after West was found. Colorado State Patrol Trooper Mathew Tillman said he assisted after authorities issued information about Wells’ vehicle. Wells first told Bresson that he was heading to Denver and later said he was in Monument, according to the earlier court testimony. Investigators used cellphone tracking that showed him moving south, and law enforcement took him into custody roughly 60 miles from the apartment. Tillman said Wells was compliant during the arrest. That evidence described Wells’ movements but, like the other preliminary-hearing material, was originally presented before a judge deciding whether the charge should advance rather than a jury deciding guilt.
The distinction matters because the legal process did not end when Philipps bound the case over for trial. A preliminary hearing asks whether there is enough evidence for a felony prosecution to continue; it does not decide the ultimate charge. The defense’s unsuccessful effort to stop the case there therefore should not be confused with the later verdict. Wells remained presumed innocent through the prosecution until jurors returned their decision in September 2026. Only with that verdict did the case move from allegations about Wells’ responsibility to a formal finding of guilt.
The reports available after the verdict are considerably more concise than the accounts of the 2025 hearing. KKTV reported that Wells was convicted of murder on Sept. 25, while Law&Crime reported that court records showed the trial had taken place during the preceding week. Neither report reviewed for this story supplies a full witness list, complete closing arguments or jury instructions. That limits what can responsibly be said about the exact route jurors took to the verdict. The conviction itself, however, is confirmed across the later reporting, as is the scheduled Nov. 20 sentencing date.
The public record also contains a minor unresolved discrepancy over West’s age. Court and arrest reporting from The Gazette identified her as 34, while a Colorado Springs police identification reported by KKTV listed her as 35. No reviewed source explains the difference. Rather than choose between them without documentation, the discrepancy remains unresolved. It does not change the chronology: West died May 13, 2025, at the Fontmore Road apartment; Wells was arrested later that day; the murder case survived a preliminary challenge; and an El Paso County jury convicted him in September 2026.
With the adjudication phase complete, the focus now moves to the judge and the sentencing hearing. As of Nov. 9, reliable reports continue to list Nov. 20 as Wells’ sentencing date, and no reviewed source reports that the proceeding has been postponed. The case that began with officers being dispatched to a supposed break-in is therefore entering its next stage with the central question of guilt already answered by the jury.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.