A Nicaragua native already charged in the shooting of his girlfriend will now face a first-degree murder charge after county coroner’s officials pronounced the victim brain dead Wednesday.
Although Little Rock Police Department officials said Lemen Arana died at 11:49 a.m. from a gunshot wound in the head, Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs said the Little Rock woman’s family was waiting for her organs to be harvested before taking her off life support.
Arana, 24, has been on life support since early Monday, after officers found her slumped in a parked car and her boyfriend, Juan Montalba, waiting for officers.
Montalba, 25, was charged with first-degree battery Monday, but those charges were upgraded to murder Wednesday afternoon, police officials said.
Little Rock officers went to the 8400 block of Stanton Road about 3 a.m. Monday and nearly hit Montalba, who ran at the car in the middle of the road, acting hysterically and screaming at officers.
He led officers to a parking lot at 8485 Stanton Road, where he opened the door to a rented 2013 Toyota Camry and officers saw Arana motionless and bleeding. According to police reports, Montalba had to be handcuffed and controlled until officers could make sense of the woman’s injuries.
Montalba told officers that two men shot his girlfriend, but the blood on the car’s interior, as well as the blood pooling on the car seats, made detectives suspect the woman was shot inside the car.
During questioning, Montalba eventually admitted shooting Arana in the head but claimed it was an accident that happened when he started “poking” her with a pistol.
Arana’s death raises the city’s homicide total to 14 so far this year.
Montalba is in the U.S. illegally, police said, and has remained in the Pulaski County jail in lieu of a $2.5 million bond since Monday morning.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 04/17/2014