An Arizona couple’s charges were upgraded to first-degree homicide after investigators uncovered what they called a premeditated plot to kill a registered sex offender in the desert.
Jacob Middlebrook, 35, and Layne McIntosh, 36, were arrested Saturday after Las Vegas Metro Police located them at a Nevada casino with the victim’s missing vehicle, Bullhead City Police said in a social media post. The pair initially faced second-degree homicide charges in the death of Arron Christopher Warren, 29, but prosecutors elevated the counts Monday as disturbing details of an alleged scheme emerged.
A motorist discovered Warren’s body Saturday along Silver Creek Road in the 3100 block, prompting detectives to launch a homicide probe when the circumstances appeared suspicious. Investigators identified Warren as a Bullhead City transient and soon tracked his missing vehicle across the state line to Laughlin, where Middlebrook and McIntosh were taken into custody and booked into Clark County Detention Center pending extradition to Mohave County, Arizona.
“Detectives discovered that the couple had expressed distaste for registered sex offenders and had planned the homicide in advance,” police wrote on social media. “The couple reportedly pre-determined the desert location where they intended to leave Warren’s body. They also reportedly measured furniture/beds that could be large enough to cover the victim’s body along the side of the road. Warren was a registered Level 2 sex offender.”
The three had known each other for several months, detectives determined. All were described as “local transients” in the tight-knit community along the Colorado River.
Bullhead City Police Chief Paul George addressed the case in a statement that sought to distance his department’s sex offender notification practices from any vigilante motive. “When a Level 2 or Level 3 sex offender moves into our area or, more commonly, changes addresses, the Bullhead City Police Department shares that information as a public service to help keep residents informed,” he said. “While required notifications are mailed to residents living within an approximate 1,000 feet radius of an offender’s registered address, we go a step further by sharing these notifications on social media to reach a broader audience.”
George continued, “Our goal is to provide information, not create fear or alarm. We believe an informed community is a safer community.”
The chief added a direct warning against exploiting the registry for violence. “I will not tolerate anyone using this information as a reason to threaten, intimidate, harass or harm another person,” he said.
The department’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations conducts monthly address verification checks to monitor compliance, George noted. “Our responsibility is to protect our community, keep residents informed and to enforce the law. We take all three of these seriously,” he continued.
The alleged measurements of furniture and beds to conceal Warren’s body suggest methodical planning that could complicate any defense claim of spontaneity or provocation. The desert roadside location, chosen in advance according to police, lay far from populated areas where the killing might have drawn immediate attention.
Middlebrook and McIntosh remain in Nevada custody as extradition proceedings move forward.