John Jefferson
Left: Korey Wilson (GoFundMe). Right: Lora Flores (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).
An Arizona woman has admitted to fatally shooting her boyfriend after locking him in his home and leaving him to die.
Lora Flores, 40, pleaded guilty last month to a manslaughter charge in the death of Korey Wilson, 40, online court records show.
The probable cause statement obtained by Law&Crime laid out the drama from April 28, 2023. Tempe police received a 911 call at 2:37 p.m. from Flores saying she was in a fight with her boyfriend of seven years, and she shot him.
“I just shot him and f—ing left,” Flores said in the call as she was driving away from the residence, the document said.
When the 911 dispatcher asked her where her gun was at that moment, Flores said she “threw it off the side of the road” in an unknown location.
Then, at one point during the call, Flores told the dispatcher she said “too much already” and needed to call her attorney but also said the victim put his hands on her and “Choked me the f— out” before the call ended.
At the home, police found Wilson in a hallway with an apparent gunshot wound to his upper torso area. The wound appeared to be a “through-and-through,” meaning the bullet enters the body and completely exits on the other side. It was unknown which direction the bullet came from — front to back or back to front, the document added.
Just past where the victim was lying, police found damage from a bullet in a mirror attached to a wall in the hall. Detectives found one fired and one unfired cartridge in the kitchen and an apparent bullet strike in the living room wall. Another pair of fired and unfired cartridges were found in the front door area near the hallway leading to where the victim was found.
By pinging Flores’ phone, police tracked her down to her brother’s house in Chandler, about 14 miles southeast of Tempe, where she was taken into custody.
Flores had several old bruises on her arms and wrists, but no questions were asked of Flores as to how they got there after she said she wanted to speak with her attorney. On Flores’ chest was an old healing wound that had scabbed over, but no fresh injuries were seen, the probable cause statement said.
Police later learned that Flores had sent her brother and her sister-in-law text messages at noon that day asking to pick up her child from school since she had been drinking, according to the document.
At the scene of the crime, a friend of the victim told police Flores had been abusive toward Wilson, who had been looking for a way out of the relationship with Flores.
“The friend indicated the victim told them about Flores striking the victim with open hands and being verbally abusive towards the victim,” the probable cause statement said. “Within the last month, the victim told their friend something to the effect if they (victim) are found dead it was because she (Flores) shot them (victim).”
The victim’s brother elaborated about it on GoFundMe.
“What we do know about the incident is she shot him, locked up the home, and left him there dying,” he wrote. “The reason we started this Gofundme is to raise awareness around tragedies that aren’t always talked about — male victims of domestic violence and abuse. Normally, you may think of a man physically abusing a woman. But domestic violence comes in all shapes and forms. See, in Korey’s situation, there were some red flags that had been identified, but because he is a man and tall in stature, domestic abuse becomes an afterthought. From the outside looking in, Korey appeared to be in a relationship where he did most of the talking and his girlfriend stayed somewhat in the background.”
Flores is set to be sentenced on Feb. 28.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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