Ex-boyfriend Indicted in Murder, Kidnap

April 16, 2021 – The former boyfriend of a Whitehaven woman has been indicted on multiple felony counts for allegedly shooting and abducting her last summer after killing a man at her home, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Defendant Kevin B. Wright, 54, was indicted on counts of felony first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony.

The 42-year-old woman had taken out an order of protection requiring Wright to stay away from her, but he broke into her home in the early-morning hours of July 19 last year and ambushed her and a male friend when they arrived.

Investigators said Wright immediately shot the woman in the leg, then went into another part of the house where he shot Arbin Bell Jr., 44, multiple times, killing him. The woman managed to crawl to her cell phone, call 911 and whisper “He shot me” before Wright forced her to leave with him in her car.

She persuaded him to take her to a nearby hospital, but when he saw police cars there he drove away at a high rate of speed. He later dropped her off in the Medical Center, a block from Regional One Health. Wright was arrested several days later in Lee County, Miss., and was returned to Memphis. He remains in custody without bond.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Cavett Ostner of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit which prosecutes cases of domestic assault and homicide committed by intimate partners in General Sessions Division 10 and in Criminal Court Division 5.