Man convicted in 2023 BG murder case

Published 11:24 am Friday, June 19, 2026

A Bowling Green man faces a life sentence after being found guilty Thursday of murder and other charges in connection with the death of his girlfriend.

A jury in Warren Circuit Court deliberated for about an hour before returning the guilty verdict against David A. Proffitt, 28, following a three-day trial.

The jury of eight women and four men found that Proffitt intentionally murdered Alexandra Hemmann, 22, in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 2023, at her Winners Circle apartment, also convicting him of first-degree strangulation.

Hemmann’s body was not found until Aug. 12, 2023, after friends of hers contacted the Bowling Green Police Department to conduct a welfare check at her residence.

Proffitt was arrested that same date in Fishers, Indiana, and gave a confession to BGPD Detectives David Grimsley and Kyle Scharlow.

“I hope that this verdict helps bring closure and some comfort to (Hemmann’s) family and their continued journey for healing and I do feel like justice was served today based on what he did,” Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner said after the trial.

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Just before the trial began, Proffitt pleaded guilty to charges of abuse of a corpse, theft by unlawful taking and three counts of second-degree forgery, and the jury also convicted him of being a second-degree persistent felony offender, enhancing his punishments for the other criminal counts and recommending that he serve the sentence on each count consecutively for a total sentence of life in prison plus 70 years.

Retired state medical examiner Amy Burrows-Beckham testified that Hemmann died from asphyxiation due to a carotid sleeper hold and manual strangulation.

Jurors heard evidence that, after the slaying, Proffitt sexually abused the body, then used Hemmann’s checkbook to write a check to himself that he cashed on Aug. 4, 2023, sold some items at Gamestop and drove Hemmann’s car to Greenwood, Indiana, where he paid for a motel room and spent time with friends.

Proffitt returned to Bowling Green on Aug. 9, 2023, to pay that month’s rent on Hemmann’s apartment with her checkbook, leaving the check in a plastic bag outside the door for the landlord to collect, then wrote a second check to himself that he cashed at a bank before returning to Greenwood, renting a different room at the same motel.

Indianapolis-area law enforcement used license plate reader cameras to track Hemmann’s car and located Proffitt at Topgolf in Fishers, arresting him outside the business.

Details about the homicide were provided by Proffitt himself during his roughly two-hour police interview, portions of which were played for the jury on Wednesday.

Jurors learned that Proffitt had accompanied Hemmann and her coworkers from Lowe’s to Double Dogs for dinner and drinks on the night of Aug. 3, 2023, the Lowe’s employees celebrating a successful inventory check.

The celebration continued at Hilligan’s on College Street, but an exchange of text messages between Proffitt and Hemmann indicated that he was not comfortable being at the bar.

The couple returned to Hemmann’s apartment roughly around midnight, and an argument between them ensued, both verbally and through text messages.

At some point in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, Proffitt went up the stairs of the townhouse-style residence to the bedroom he and Hemmann shared, Proffitt describing to police that he put his hands around Hemmann’s neck.

“She was begging me to stop, saying we can fix everything, but I just didn’t listen,” Proffitt told Grimsley and Scharlow in the interview. ” ‘I love you, please stop, I can’t breathe’ were her last words and it just plays in my head nonstop.”

Proffitt said that Hemmann was able to break free and walked to the spare bedroom a few feet away to put on some clothes, but Proffitt wrapped his arm around her neck from behind, the two fell to the floor and Proffitt told detectives he “locked in” for 3-4 minutes while his body weight was on top of Hemmann.

Proffitt chose not to testify at his trial, and his legal team of attorneys Steve Wilson and Jill Elkind of the Department of Public Advocacy rested without presenting any evidence.

Three of Hemmann’s friends testified Tuesday about their frequent communications and get-togethers with her, keeping up with one another typically through phone calls, Snapchat and Life360, a location-tracking app.

Madison Mercer testified that she received several texts and Snapchat messages from Hemmann’s number between Aug. 4-12, 2023 that purported originally that Hemmann was sick, then that Proffitt had been hospitalized with an illness that ended up being a brain tumor that required surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Mercer said she also received text messages from Proffitt’s phone number in which he described both he and Hemmann feeling ill.

Similar messages were sent from Hemmann’s phone to two other friends, but they all testified that they were unable to reach her through phone calls and they last heard her voice on Aug. 3, 2023.

Ronda Fields, who managed the Lowe’s, also received supposed updates over text from Hemmann’s number about Proffitt’s health.

Mercer, who lived in London, Kentucky, at the time, told jurors that she contacted three hospitals in an effort to send Proffitt a care package, only to learn that none of the hospitals had any record of him being a patient.

Two of her friends in Bowling Green contacted city police, and were on hand after officers arrived to go through the apartment.

Hemmann a loyal friend, dedicated worker

Fields told jurors she saw potential in Hemmann when she visited the Lowe’s in Somerset where she worked and recruited her to work at the Bowling Green store as its asset protection and safety manager.

Hemmann was stressed out about the three-day inventory process, but Fields said when the assessment was complete, it was the first successful one there in five years, making it a cause for celebration.

Mercer, who worked with Hemmann for a time at the Bowling Green store, said the two became fast friends.

“I would consider it more like a sisterhood than even a friendship,” Mercer told jurors Tuesday. “There was some kind of fire in her soul that I absolutely fell in love with.”

Rena Hemmann, Alexandra’s mother, testified during the trial’s penalty phase on Thursday that she spent time on the phone with her daughter the week of the inventory assessment, got a happy call from her after it was completed successfully and later left a voice mail letting her daughter know how proud she was of her.

Asked by Bumgarner about the effect of Alexandra’s death on the rest of the family, Rena Hemmann offered a tearful response.

“If it weren’t for my other kids I’d never celebrate another Christmas ever again,” Hemmann said. “It’s so painful … it’s like the air has been taken out of our family.”

Jurors were asked to consider verdicts on charges of intentional murder, wanton murder and first-degree manslaughter.

During his closing argument, Wilson said that the circumstances of the events surrounding the homicide did not justify a conviction for intentional murder, telling jurors that Proffitt acted while in a state of extreme emotional disturbance.

Bumgarner countered that Proffitt had already been put on notice when he let go of Hemmann after the first strangulation incident when she said she could not breathe, and that he made a conscious choice to choke her a second time, fatally.

During her closing argument, Bumgarner illustrated her point by sitting down in a chair silently while a timer ticked down from three minutes.

“I did not announce to you that it was my intent to grab my chair and sit in it for three minutes, but you figured it out,” Bumgarner told the jury. “Actions speak louder than words and someone’s choices and actions can tell you what’s in their mind.”