Kylie Marie Weitz was remembered as an athlete, waitress and lifeguard as prosecutors secured a murder conviction against her boyfriend.
GARRISON, Ky. — The murder conviction of Damien Hebbeler in Lewis County this month gave a court ruling to a loss that had been felt in Garrison since Aug. 9, 2023, when 20-year-old Kylie Marie Weitz was shot and killed inside a residence on Willis Lane.
Jurors found Hebbeler, 23, guilty of intentional murder on March 24 and recommended that he serve 50 years in prison. Prosecutors said he shot Weitz in the face at close range, then the case moved through investigation and trial until the jury accepted the Commonwealth’s version of events. The verdict answered the criminal question that had hung over the case for more than two years, but it also returned public attention to who Weitz was, how the case affected a small Kentucky community, and what happens next at sentencing on June 5.
Before the case became known for a striking piece of trial testimony about a “special bullet,” Weitz was remembered in local memorial notices in ordinary and affectionate terms. Family accounts described her as a loving daughter, sister and grandchild. They said she enjoyed cheerleading, running track, playing volleyball, traveling, going out to eat and being with friends. She also worked as a waitress and lifeguard, according to obituary notices published after her death. Those descriptions became part of the public memory of the case because they stood in direct contrast to the violence described later in court. They also help explain why the verdict carried emotional weight beyond the legal finding itself.
The first public reports after the shooting were brief and confused. Kentucky State Police and local outlets said dispatchers sought help after receiving information about a deceased or unresponsive woman at a Garrison home. Early reporting said the first 911 description suggested Weitz had accidentally shot herself. Investigators arriving at the house instead found her dead with a gunshot wound to the face. The coroner pronounced her dead at the scene, and troopers began treating the death as a homicide case. Within about three hours of the first call, Hebbeler was arrested and charged with murder, according to local coverage from August 2023. For neighbors following the case in real time, that sudden shift changed the story from tragedy to accusation in a single evening.
As the case moved toward trial, the state’s presentation became sharper and more direct. Investigators said Hebbeler told them he had pointed a loaded pistol at Weitz’s face and pulled the trigger. After the verdict, the Kentucky Attorney General’s office added another detail from the trial: Hebbeler had said he carried a “special bullet” with him, and that the same round was used to kill Weitz. Prosecutors also said evidence showed he had made statements less than a year earlier about wanting to kill her. Those details turned the state’s theory into one of intent and premeditation, not mishandling or panic. The jury’s guilty verdict showed that jurors accepted that framework after hearing the evidence in Lewis County court.
State officials cast the case as part of a broader effort to prosecute domestic violence aggressively. Attorney General Russell Coleman said the verdict delivered “hard-won justice” and affirmed that Weitz’s life mattered. Kentucky State Police handled the investigation, while Assistant Attorney General Tony Skeans and Special Prosecutions Unit Executive Director Tim Cocanougher prosecuted the case for the Commonwealth. Aaron Ash with the Office of Victims Advocacy provided services to Weitz’s family. Those roles mattered because they showed the case had grown beyond a local emergency response into a full state-backed prosecution with victim services attached. In rural communities, that kind of visible state involvement can shape how a case is understood long after the crime scene is gone.
The community context also helps explain why memorial language remained part of the coverage even after the verdict. A homicide case can be reduced to charges, evidence and sentencing ranges, but in a place like Garrison the victim is often known through schools, workplaces, sports and family ties. Public comments left with her obituary described pride in the woman she had become and grief that she was taken too soon. Those voices do not decide guilt, yet they reveal the larger damage surrounding the killing. By the time the jury returned its verdict, the case had already spent more than two years in local memory as both a criminal prosecution and a family loss.
The court process now narrows again to one date. Hebbeler is scheduled to be sentenced June 5, when a judge will decide whether to adopt the jury’s recommendation of 50 years or impose another lawful sentence for intentional murder. Any appeal would follow only after final judgment. That means the next public development is likely to be shorter and more procedural than the trial itself, even though it will determine the official punishment. The conviction has settled the question of guilt, but the case is not fully closed until sentencing is complete and the judgment is entered.
For now, the story stands in two registers at once: a murder conviction in court and the remembered life of a 20-year-old woman in the town where she lived.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.