Lemen Arana: 24-Year-Old Woman Shot In Head By Boyfriend, Police Say

Lemen Arana, 24, was shot in the head in April 2014 by her boyfriend, who initially told police that three Hispanics had did it. He later confessed to authorities and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

It's been four years since authorities declared Arana Lemen brain-dead after she was shot in the head by her boyfriend in a case that he originally said was accidental. Police charged  Juan Montalba, 25, with first-degree murder in the April 2014 shooting.

Montalba originally told officers that two Hispanic men shot her. But he later told police he accidentally shot [Arana] when he began poking her with a pistol,” police reports state.

Officers responding to an "unknown trouble" call arrived at a home in the 8400 block of Stanton Road around 3 a.m. Sunday, April 13, 2014. where they found Montalba "acting hysterical and screaming" as he ran at the officers' patrol cruiser, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.

The Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs said that Arana was declared brain-dead around noon the next day. She has been on life support at UAMS Medical Center. 

The media was initially told that Arana was declared dead at 11:49 a.m. that day  but the coroner clarified her status. Hobbs indicated that Arana's organs would be harvested.

"She's giving her heart, her tissue, her eyes," her best friend Max Cabrera told Fox 16 News.
"It means she's living on, she's living on, her heart is living on, her tissue is living on, and you know we all know her spirit is going to live on, but it's a great thing that she's helping somebody even when she passed."

Montalba, who had no prior criminal record, was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting. One year later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.