Isaiah Campbell admitted striking Nicole Lopez but denied stabbing her, according to an arrest report in the Florida murder case.
LAKE CITY, Fla. — Blunt-force injuries, apparent stab wounds, blood spatter and blood found on a suspect became key pieces of evidence cited by Florida investigators after 21-year-old Nicole Xenia Lopez was found dead inside a Columbia County home. Her boyfriend, Isaiah Devon Campbell, 19, admitted hitting Lopez but denied stabbing her, according to an arrest report. Deputies arrested Campbell on a murder charge after responding to the residence early Sept. 10.
The physical evidence described by investigators matters because it did not fully align with the account Campbell initially gave authorities. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said Campbell called 911 at about 4:19 a.m. and told dispatchers that Lopez had fallen and struck her head during a physical altercation. But detectives later said they found evidence that Lopez had sustained both blunt-force trauma and stab wounds. The arrest report added further detail, documenting facial swelling, bruising and multiple puncture wounds. Investigators did not publicly disclose a final autopsy report in the sources reviewed for this story, so the complete medical findings have not been established in the public record.
Campbell was at the Northwest Moore Road residence when deputies arrived and allowed them inside, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies found Lopez in the home, where officials said her body was already cold to the touch. Emergency medical personnel pronounced her dead shortly afterward. Campbell was detained while detectives began processing the scene. The sheriff’s office described the case as a domestic violence-related homicide and said investigators determined that Lopez’s injuries had been sustained during an altercation with Campbell earlier that night. That determination led detectives to focus on Campbell’s statements and the evidence surrounding Lopez’s death.
During questioning, Campbell gave investigators an account of an argument that escalated into physical violence. According to the arrest report, he said Lopez struck him in the chest and arm and that he became enraged. Campbell admitted hitting Lopez in the face several times, investigators wrote. The report said he appeared visibly upset and cried during the interview. He also told detectives that he had “blacked out” and did not intend to kill Lopez. Those statements document what Campbell allegedly told law enforcement; they do not establish the facts independently, and the murder allegation against him has not been decided by a court.
The account became more complicated when Campbell described Lopez’s condition after the blows. He told investigators that she said she felt lightheaded and fell to the floor. Rather than immediately checking her condition, Campbell said he went to another room to calm down for about 30 minutes, according to the arrest report. Investigators wrote that he believed Lopez was “playing around and wanted attention.” Campbell said he later returned to find her lying on her back and unresponsive. That claimed half-hour interval is part of the timeline detectives recorded as they reconstructed the period before the emergency call.
Campbell claimed he then performed CPR for approximately an hour. He told detectives he was extremely frightened and did not know what to do, according to the report. At some point before authorities arrived, investigators said, Lopez was covered with a white sheet. The arrest report attributed to Campbell a statement that he had become tired of looking at her. Authorities also documented signs suggesting Lopez had been dead for some time by the time deputies entered. The publicly available reports did not identify an exact time of death, however, and did not provide enough medical detail to independently determine how long Lopez had been unresponsive.
Against that narrative, detectives cited evidence suggesting violence beyond the facial strikes Campbell acknowledged. In addition to Lopez’s bruising and apparent puncture wounds, investigators said there was blood spatter inside the residence. The arrest report said blood was found beneath Campbell’s fingernails and on his shoes. Campbell specifically denied stabbing Lopez, according to investigators. The reports reviewed for this story did not identify a suspected weapon or say whether one had been recovered. They also did not disclose laboratory results tying individual blood samples to a particular person. Those limits are important because preliminary crime-scene observations can later be supplemented, challenged or clarified by forensic testing.
Investigators nevertheless concluded there was probable cause to arrest Campbell, and the sheriff’s office booked him into the Columbia County Detention Facility on a murder charge. At his first court appearance, a judge ordered him held without bond, the agency said. The public notice identified the charge under Florida’s murder statute, but early reports did not describe a conviction, plea or trial. Campbell remains entitled to contest the allegations and the admissibility or meaning of the state’s evidence through the court process. Prosecutors, in turn, may rely on medical evidence, laboratory testing, scene documentation and Campbell’s own recorded statements as the case develops.
The murder investigation began in the middle of an already demanding period for Columbia County authorities. About 12 hours before deputies responded to the Lopez residence, the sheriff’s office had opened a separate homicide investigation into the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old pregnant girl. Officials said the two deaths were unrelated, but both were described in public reporting as cases involving intimate partners. The sheriff’s office thanked its personnel and the Third Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office for working through the night on the investigations. Officials also used the public announcement to warn about domestic violence and to ask residents with information about the cases to contact authorities.
Lopez’s relatives later offered a very different record of the woman whose injuries were being listed in police documents. Her mother, Melissa Lopez, told local news outlets that Nicole was sweet, caring and loving. Family members called her “Miss Smiley” because, they said, she was so often smiling and could brighten a room. Local reports said she was also the mother of a toddler. Those statements gave the public a picture of Lopez beyond the crime scene, while investigators continued focusing on what could be established from the residence, Campbell’s interview and medical findings.
As of Oct. 21, no later resolution of the murder charge was identified in the public reports located for this story. The initial court action left Campbell held without bond, while important evidentiary questions remained outside the early public record, including detailed autopsy findings and any final forensic testing of the scene. The case therefore remains defined by two distinct records: Campbell’s account of what he says happened inside the home and the physical evidence investigators said caused them to charge him with Lopez’s killing.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.