Ariel Spillner, a 26-year-old White woman, was shot and killed on the night of November 4, 2025, inside a residence at 5102 N. 39th Street near Lancaster Avenue on Milwaukee’s north side. Spillner was a Concordia University Wisconsin pharmacy student who was nearing completion of her studies when the shooting occurred. Milwaukee police were dispatched to the home at approximately 9:43 p.m. and found Spillner unresponsive, face down near a sectional couch, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Milwaukee Fire Department personnel pronounced her dead at approximately 9:52 p.m. Jamica Simone Mills, a friend of Spillner who lived at the residence, was also found inside with a gunshot wound to her abdomen and was transported to Froedtert Hospital for treatment.
According to the criminal complaint, Mills told investigators that she and Spillner had known each other for approximately a year. On the evening of the shooting, the two reportedly went to a store before returning to Mills’ home, where they smoked marijuana. Mills initially gave detectives different accounts of what had happened, at one point saying she could not remember the shooting and later suggesting that Spillner might have shot her first. When detectives continued questioning her, prosecutors say Mills gave another account in which she acknowledged firing the fatal shot.
Mills told investigators that Spillner had been planning to cut the hair of Mills’ dog and had been looking for scissors. Mills said she became paranoid and began believing that Spillner might stab her. According to the complaint, Mills went into her bedroom, retrieved a Ruger. 380-caliber handgun, and returned to the living room. She said Spillner then made a hand movement, and Mills fired one shot. Investigators emphasized that Mills acknowledged she had not actually seen Spillner holding scissors and that Spillner had made no threat to stab her. After the shooting, Mills said she walked toward the front door and accidentally shot herself in the abdomen, although she could not explain exactly how the second shooting occurred. A person who was elsewhere in the residence told police that shortly before hearing two gunshots, she heard someone say, “bitch you tripping.”
Police recovered a Ruger LCP. 380-caliber handgun and two spent cartridge casings from the residence. Purchase paperwork found with the gun was in Mills’ name, and investigators also located. 380-caliber ammunition in her bedroom. A preliminary examination determined that both recovered casings had been fired from the Ruger found at the scene. Investigators also recovered bloodstained clothing associated with Mills, including a shirt with evidence indicating a close-range gunshot. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Spillner died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The projectile entered the upper left side of her chest and traveled through both lungs, the left pulmonary artery and the aorta before being recovered from the right lung.
Prosecutors charged Jamica Mills with first-degree reckless homicide while using a dangerous weapon. The homicide charge is a Class B felony carrying a potential maximum prison sentence of 60 years, with the dangerous-weapon enhancer allowing as much as another five years. Mills appeared in court shortly after the shooting, and cash bond was set at $150,000. At a December 2025 preliminary hearing, a Milwaukee County court commissioner found sufficient probable cause for the case to proceed. Detective Zachary Cvetan testified about Mills’ statements, the recovered firearm and the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Mills was subsequently arraigned on January 9, 2026, and entered a plea of not guilty.
The defense later requested an evaluation relating to a possible insanity plea. By April 2026, the resulting medical report did not support that special plea, and the criminal case continued through the Milwaukee County court system. Spillner’s family publicly expressed frustration with the reckless-homicide charge and sought greater accountability, questioning whether the circumstances warranted an intentional-homicide prosecution.
By September 1, 2026, the case still had not been resolved. A plea hearing scheduled for that day was postponed until November 12 because prosecutors and the defense had not reached a plea agreement. Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan indicated in court that negotiations could continue but also said that if the case ultimately went to trial, he intended to amend the charge to first-degree intentional homicide. Mills therefore had not been convicted or sentenced, and the allegations against her remained pending in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
Spillner had been pursuing her goal of becoming a pharmacist when her life was cut short. In May 2026, Concordia University Wisconsin honored her by awarding her pharmacy doctoral degree posthumously at commencement. Members of her family accepted the degree on her behalf, marking a milestone she had worked toward but did not live to experience. Her death left her family, friends and university community mourning both the sudden violence that ended her life and the future she had been preparing to begin.
