Man Convicted in Crossbow Shooting

After five hours of deliberation, a jury found Jesse Jeff Solis, 25, guilty of one count of attempted murder for shooting his former lover through the head with an arrow from a crossbow.

Solis, a restaurant manager, could be sentenced to life in prison.

After hearing testimony for one week, the panel of eight women and four men ruled that Solis planned the June 8 attack on 30-year-old Arthur Ekvall, who was not severely injured despite having the arrow pass through his head.

Solis showed little reaction when the verdict was read. He slumped in his chair, hung his head throughout the short proceeding and cried quietly as bailiffs led him from the courtroom.

Ekvall, who has moved to Connecticut, could not be reached for comment.

Ekvall was released from the hospital after only three days of treatment. Doctors used a hacksaw to cut the arrow and pulled the shaft out of his head with pliers.

“He survived a wound that is incredible,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Hammes said.

Ekvall testified that the shooting was the culmination of a stormy on-again, off-again homosexual relationship in which Solis constantly harassed him and vandalized his truck.

Ekvall awoke in agony, feeling as if his brain had exploded, but managed to wrestle the crossbow away from Solis, he testified during the trial.

Prosecutor Hammes has said Solis was a jilted lover who struck back when the relationship went bad.

“The man didn’t want to lose him and, on that particular night it just reached a point--if he couldn’t have him nobody was going to,” Hammes said. “So he went in and tried to kill him.”

Solis countered that Ekvall gave him the HIV virus and physically abused him to the point that he suffered from Battered Woman’s Syndrome.

Superior Court Judge William Kennedy will sentence Solis on Nov. 20. In addition to the charge of attempted murder, Kennedy will take into account jury findings that Solis used a dangerous weapon and that he caused great bodily injury.

The judge will also sentence Solis to up to three years in prison for stealing Ekvall’s Mazda pickup after the attack.

The life sentence means that Solis will be eligible for parole. Officials with the state Department of Corrections will determine when Solis will first become eligible. Usually, that is seven to 10 years after incarceration.