A woman who allegedly shot her boyfriend while he was wearing a bulletproof vest was indicted Tuesday for murder.
A Henderson County grand jury indicted 36-year-old Lauren Jarvis in connection to the March shooting death of Ryan Jobe. Jarvis is scheduled to appear in Henderson County Circuit Court for arraignment at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 13.
Jarvis was initially charged with manslaughter in connection to the March 10 incident. At a probable cause hearing later that month, the charge was amended up to murder, and District Judge Jill Brady set the case to be heard by a grand jury.
The incident revolves around a night in a detached garage at a home on Rudy Road that Jobe and Jarboe were sharing. According to testimony at the hearing, Jobe was drinking and shooting a gun at himself while wearing a bulletproof vest the night of the death. Additionally, Jobe also continually encouraged Jarvis to shoot him while he was wearing the vest, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.
Henderson County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Brooks testified that Jarvis told him that while Jobe was wearing a bulletproof vest and with his back turned to her, she pointed a .22 rifle at him, closed her eyes, and when she opened them, Jobe fell to the floor. Brooks asked her if she pulled the trigger, and she said, “I think I did,” but then said she doesn’t remember, the detective said.
Brooks said that a projectile went through the fabric of the back of the bulletproof vest just above the vest’s steel plate. He said this was the same area where the gunshot wound was found on Jobe.
Attorney Dax Womack, representing Jarvis, argued that Jobe’s death was unintentional. He said that someone who intends to kill another person doesn’t wait for that person to put on a bulletproof vest.
“This is an accident,” Womack said at the March probable cause hearing. “If it’s not an accident, at worst, it’s reckless homicide.”
Bobby Norris, a prosecutor with the county attorney’s office, argued at the hearing that enough evidence was present for the murder charge. He said that just pointing a gun at someone is enough for a first-degree wanton endangerment charge.
“Here we have pointing a gun at somebody, pulling the trigger and a death resulted,” Norris said, adding that’s more than enough evidence for the charge of murder pursuant to the subsection.
At the end of the 38-minute March hearing, Brady agreed with prosecutors that there was probable cause the incident fit the description of murder with a subsection involving wanton behavior.
Jarvis is currently lodged in the Henderson County Detention Center on a $150,000 cash bond, according to HCDC’s website.