Overview
- Chelsea Spillers, 33, was found dead in her Alvarado home on Oct. 18, with preliminary findings indicating blunt force trauma and an affidavit noting neck bruising consistent with strangulation.
- Brandon Ashley was arrested Oct. 20 in Bedias after reports of a shirtless trespasser who asked neighbors for a shirt and said he was avoiding a highway because of too many police.
- Deputies say Ashley disclosed he hid a firearm near a convenience store, and officers recovered an Astra .357-caliber revolver close to where he was taken into custody.
- The arrest affidavit describes a domestic call the day before the death in which Ashley allegedly put a handgun to his head, as well as explicit texts sent from his phone using his wife’s identity to a school employee.
- Ashley is jailed in Johnson County on a murder charge, and police emphasize the investigation is ongoing and that he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.