Murder Suspect Taken Into Custody By Police

After an early morning altercation ended in murder, Police caught a man who they believe killed his life partner.

According to the initial police report, at 4:22 p.m. Monday, officers responded to the 900 block of West Eighth Street on a call from Jonathan Stuart Kenney, 26, who found Jesus Tovar, 43, unresponsive in their apartment.

At that time, Tovar’s death was being investigated by homicide detectives but originally ruled as a unexplained death, pending a report from the medical examiner’s office.

But the autopsy report showed Tovar died from blunt force trauma to the head; the incident has since been ruled as a homicide.

An arrest affidavit released by DPD shows that earlier in the day Kenney had been in an altercation with Tovar but did not tell police when they first arrived on scene. During the altercation, he slammed Tovar’s head into the roadway a block away from the apartment.

The abuse continued at their residence where an apartment manager heard Tovar telling Kenney, “Get off me.” The manager tried to bang on the ceiling to stop the noise and said the two are always fighting and arguing.

In a taped statement from Kenney, he admits to slamming Tovar’s head into the concrete and continuing the assault when they returned to the apartment.

This morning, at 10:49 a.m., DPD confirmed that they took Kenney into custody.