Teen Kills Girlfriend for ‘Texting One other Man,’ Leaves ‘Publish-It Be aware’ to Look Like Suicide: Prosecutors

She was affected by a single gunshot wound to the neck and had a gun in her hand. The sufferer was pronounced lifeless on the scene.

As they started to analyze the scene, officers found a “Publish-It Be aware” in a downstairs bed room, in keeping with a press launch from the Peoria County State Lawyer’s Workplace, that appeared to color an image of what might need occurred.

The be aware purportedly learn, “I, Mary Elyce Halcomb, promise to by no means break Nathanial Archuleta’s coronary heart, and if I do, Nathaniel Archuleta has each proper to euthanize me, vice versa, I really like you.”

Nathan Archuleta, 19, reportedly gave police “conflicting accounts” of what occurred that night time as investigators began to rule out suicide because the attainable reason behind Halcomb’s demise. A big issue on this was a blood path from the bed room to her last resting place within the touchdown space, suggesting her physique had been moved after she was shot.

An post-mortem of Halcomb’s physique additionally revealed that the gun that had shot her within the neck was fired from two to 3 toes away, per the Peoria JournalStar on the time.

Whereas talking with detectives, Archuleta first instructed them that his girlfriend had dedicated suicide. Then, his story shifted to an admission that he’d been cleansing his gun and it by chance went off, although police couldn’t discover something that could possibly be used to scrub a firearm within the dwelling.

That rationalization additionally doesn’t clarify why her hand was wrapped across the gun on the touchdown, with prosecutors arguing in courtroom Monday that Archuleta “staged her demise to look as a suicide.”

In response to the State Lawyer’s press launch, although, Archuleta allegedly made a jailhouse confession, telling a fellow inmate that he had shot Halcomb as a result of he “caught her texting one other man.”

In a report on the time of his arrest by native radio station WMBDArchuleta additionally allegedly “admitted to signing the sticky notes.”

In courtroom on Monday, prosecutors talked about how her loss has impacted her household. “They spoke of sleepless nights, nightmares, and chronic heartbreak. They described their overwhelming sense of loss, lack of sisterly moments, shared goals, and life milestones that may by no means come,” they mentioned, per the discharge.

“Mary’s family members described battling belief, worry, melancholy, and nervousness,” prosecutors continued. “They referred to as Archuleta’s actions egocentric and unforgivable, stating that blood will eternally be on his arms and that justice should now be served.”

Throughout the listening to, Nathaniel Archuleta pleaded responsible to the first-degree homicide of Mary Halcomb. His trial had been set to start July 28, per the Peoria JournalStar.

As a part of his plea settlement — which is supported by Halcomb’s household, in keeping with the State Lawyer’s Workplace — he was sentenced to 45 years with out the potential for parole.

In her obituaryit was revealed that Halcomb was working as a CNA whereas attending courses towards changing into a nurse, “a objective pushed by her deep compassion and need to assist others.”