Arlington Man Charged in a Girlfriend's Death

First-degree murder is the charge the county attorney filed. Vortherms is dead. No jury has heard this case.

Washington County deputies were sent at 3:47 a.m. Friday to a home on Elkhorn Drive in Arlington. Brandon Brown, 43, had called 911 and said he believed his girlfriend was dead. Deputies reached the house at 3:54 a.m. Brown was in the driveway with his hands raised.

Katherine Vortherms, 37, was inside. She had been shot several times in the torso. The county attorney's office said Brown and Vortherms were domestic partners. He was taken into custody at the house. The charges are first-degree murder, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, and first-degree domestic violence.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.