Loved ones honor Kayli Arseth after 'rejection killing' sentencing

Thank you all for being here today. I'm Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. A short time ago, Jose Luis Lopez Xique was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Last week, he was found guilty at trial for the murder of Kaylee Arseth on June 16, 2025. Mr. Lopez Xique was convicted of the following counts. First degree premeditated murder, second degree intentional murder, aggravated harassment, using a dangerous weapon in the commission of an offense. Kaylee Grace Arseth was killed because Mr. Lopez Xique's refusal to accept that he had been rejected by her. He killed Kaylee because he felt entitled to a relationship with her that she made clear she did not want. This is not a case of domestic violence. This is commonly referred to as a rejection killing. Rejection killings are deeply rooted in misogyny and the feeling of entitlement toward a woman's body or role in her life. This is a part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence and femicide where women are targeted for asserting autonomy over their bodies. Rejection killings are very different from domestic violence and intimate partner violence. Because they are commonly counted together, we lack statistics on exactly how common these killings are. That needs to change. While it's important to talk about why Kaylee was murdered, I really want to center the rest of my time on her as does her family who are up here with me. Kaylee loved music and art and her family and friends. She was restoring a motorcycle while working as a behavioral technician for children with special needs. She should be with her family and loved ones right now. Instead, they are filled with grief and grappling with the loss of their daughter, sister, and friend. I want to thank our trial team, our victim witnesses staff, and the jury for their service, as well as law enforcement for their extremely thorough investigation. I know the family wants to say something. Hi, my name is Heather Arseth. I'm Kaylee Grace Arseth's oldest sister. This is Sydney Arseth. She was the middle sister. And this is a photo frame of Kaylee Arseth, our youngest sister. She made this for me on one of my birthdays. This is my mom, Caroline Arseth. This is my father, Paul Arseth. Our family is eternally grateful to this competent team who worked day in and day out to bring justice for Kaylee. We want to thank our amazing attorneys, Aaron and James. We had incredible victims' advocates as well. We want to thank the community. We had people like Richard Bergstrom and Hannah Bunny who helped to make sure that the right witnesses were available, the right evidence was there so that a monster could be put behind bars and it would be ensured that he would not hurt anyone anymore. We need to bring attention to this type of misogyny. This was specifically not a domestic violence crime. but a case where a man could not take no for an answer on the kindest possible request. My sister Kaylee spoke kindly and clearly to tell him that she did not want to be in a romantic relationship with him, but her kind nature and she offered to remain friends with him. However, in an act of revenge, he took her life from her. after only knowing her for three and a half weeks, stalking her, stalking my parents, stalking myself, stalking my sister, and of course, stalking Kaylee. This was a revenge killing, as Attorney Moriarty mentioned. Men who try to control women to be what they want them to be for themselves should get stiffer sentences, long prison time, so it does not escalate to women getting murdered by these women. Let Kaylee be a memory and an example so that we can set new precedences, new laws, and make changes so that this type of crime does not happen again, so that we can protect our community and make sure that nothing else like this ever happens. Women have the right to stand up for themselves without fear for their safety, especially in their own homes. Today, we want everyone to remember and say her name, Kaylee Grace. Thank you. Any questions? I know there was a change in the court about bringing in more evidence. The question is about a change in law that came down in this case by the Minnesota Supreme Court. There may be an appeal. There probably will be an appeal. But I think our team and the judge did an excellent job of trying to accommodate that new law and put out a very good record on that, so we're not particularly concerned if it's appealed. What is that added to the law? What came out of this case specifically? This is Erin Lutz, one of the trial attorneys. Good afternoon. There was a change in the law. The Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent with respect to what a defendant has to do in order to assert an alternative perpetrator, which means to point the finger at another particular person and say, I didn't do this, X person did. So the Supreme Court modified sort of the findings a judge needs to make in order to allow that type of defense in. So we had had a pretrial ruling under the old law, and then the judge had to re-examine under the new Supreme Court case that had come out and came to the same conclusion. What is the guy's record? He didn't have any criminal convictions. Did he raise an alternative? Yes. Can you share about the matching pins you're wearing? Is there a significant difference? Yes. For those who've noticed, we have a pin of a dragonfly. We also have matching bracelets. For those who don't know, dragonflies signify new beginnings. which is something that was taken from Kaylee, my baby sister. She also just before passing got a tattoo of a dragonfly on her back. It wasn't completed yet but it stays with us in our hearts. As for the bracelets, we have two different ones. We have one that's lime green and one that's light blue, her two favorite colors. The lime green one says, well, you're stuck with me. And that's something that Kaylee would always say. And we thought it was the perfect saying because we are stuck with her. She's in our hearts forever. The blue one says, I love you times 3,000. That is also something that Kaylee would say to us. She was a loving, kind, compassionate, caring individual and the last person this community would want to lose. So we made these bracelets and have these pins so that everyone can see that she was loved by so many people. Before you step away, I'm fresh to this case, so I don't know all the details. Where did she meet the man? Is that okay to ask? I think that's important to mention, actually. They met on a dating website, Hinge, uh three and a half weeks before he decided that her not wanting to be in a relationship with him was enough for him to take her life dating apps are supposed to be safe they're used by a lot of people in fact she actually unmatched with him thinking that his profile was a scam and he told her he was not. She never gave him her phone number, her address. He found all that information through stalking her, through using websites like Info Tracer, I think it's called, where he was actually had his profile taken away because he was doing things that weren't appropriate um so i think it's a really important question to bring um knowledge and you know just spread word to other women that you know we hope that everyone out there is a good person um that's not always true so just for everyone to make sure as individuals and for their friends That they really, though we hope everyone's optimistic, really put your own safety first and make sure that your friends are safe, you're safe, everyone around you whom you love is safe. Could that be a source of where this family does advocacy, like making these type of social outlets safer? Yes, yeah, that's definitely something we've discussed and we want to move forward with. We would really like to take advantage of making sure Kaylee's remembered, making sure that she's able to, even in her death, help protect other people who may be in the same situation as her. She was only 22, and at 22, there are a lot of women and men who utilize dating apps, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to help Kaylee as we know she would want to protect her community around her. Just in your own words, what made Kaylee special? There were so many things that made Kaylee special. The courtroom was packed with people who loved her. In fact, it was the newest courtroom, the biggest courtroom, and it was still packed with friends and with family. She loved children. She loved the people around her. She was endlessly giving. This is an example of a gift that Kaylee made for me. She never just gave a store-bought gift. She would sit down and make sure to make something that meant something to the person she was giving it to, no matter how much time it took her. She loved arts and crafts. She would go out of her way to make sure her friends felt loved. One of her close friends, who actually just gave a victim's impact statement with us, she mentioned how she didn't really have any friends before Kaylee but she met Kaylee at work Kaylee went out of her way to not only be friends with her and to spend time with her but to introduce her to her own friends she threw uh Kaylee threw her friend the first birthday party this friend had had in years and that's just the type of person Kaylee was and unfortunately her kindness her compassion her empathy is something that this murderer took advantage of when she was only trying to give back to the community around her her friends her family and be a supportive pillar for everyone thank you i just wanted to amplify the family's message here about dating apps there is absolutely no doubt that she was definitive in that she would remain friends but she did not want a romantic relationship so there was no hedging on that even if there was it wouldn't matter but there's plenty of evidence here that she was very kindly saying to him I do not want a romantic relationship and so I want to amplify that because I think this calls out for if a man in this situation is told no that means no that means no and that simply didn't happen here and as the family said that was after only three and a half weeks question is was there any other evidence or any evidence that he stalked any other women And I don't know. No, no, the answer is no. But I will say there was some very chilling evidence in this case about the level of stalking he did to Kaylee. In terms of proving premeditation, was that, I did not attend the trial, but was that a difficult task? Or was the evidence regarding that pretty clear? The evidence regarding premeditated first degree murder was overwhelming. In fact, I'm not sure I've seen that much evidence in a case to prove that this was premeditated, that he was stalking her for quite some time, that he prepared by going to a store and gathering items that he used. So there is absolutely no doubt in our minds and obviously in the jury's minds, despite the fact that he testified that this was premeditated murder. Mary, he's certifying public. Paid. And in victory. Yes. How long was the jury out for? Hour and a half, two hours. Thank you very much.