DENVER – A Denver man was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and false imprisonment in the death of his girlfriend last Thursday night at a home near S. Pennsylvania Street and E. Ellsworth Ave.
Denver police responded to a death investigation shortly before midnight last Thursday night and later said they were treating the scene as a death investigation that was domestic-related.
According to an affidavit released Tuesday, Micah Kimball, 43, was arrested hours later for the death of his girlfriend, who was not identified. He was charged with the aforementioned counts on Tuesday – the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The affidavit says that a person called 911 just before midnight to report domestic violence. Kimball also called 911, but what he told dispatch was redacted in the affidavit received by Denver7. When officers arrived, they found the woman dead in the home’s bedroom with a gunshot wound to her head.
She was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. An unidentified witness told officers at the scene they had heard the woman screaming for help and crying before she died.
Officers arrested Kimball for suspicion of domestic violence and brought him to police headquarters for questioning, the affidavit said. Meanwhile, officers were interviewing other witnesses as well.
One told detectives she had heard loud banging, a man yelling and a woman crying. She said she saw Kimball go into a shed in the backyard and heard a woman screaming that he was hurting her and crying. She said she called 911 and then also heard the woman “kicking or throwing her body against the side of the shed after Micah left,” the affidavit says. The witness said she heard the woman yell for someone to help.
Kimball agreed to speak with detectives at headquarters without a lawyer present, the affidavit says. Much of the portion of the affidavit that details what he told officers is redacted, however.
But it does say that a detective confronted Kimball “about shooting his wife” and that body camera from one of the responding officers showed her “flat on her back, on the bed with the handgun lying on her open left hand despite her being right handed.”
The next few sentences are also redacted, but the affidavit ends by saying “Due to the inconsistencies, Detective Meoni arrested Kimball for First degree murder.”
Court records show he was involved in a divorce case in 2015 and was convicted earlier this year of DUI and careless driving charges in Routt County. They also show Kimball is being held without bond after his Tuesday court appearance. His next appearance is currently scheduled for Thursday.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner said Tuesday afternoon that the woman killed at the home was identified as Michelle Jacobson, 43, and that her cause and manner of death were pending.
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to show that Jacobson was Kimball's girlfriend and not his wife, as was stated in the affidavit.
