KINGMAN – A young man facing possible life behind bars instead gained freedom when a Mohave County Superior Court jury acquitted him at his sex offense trial in Kingman Wednesday morning, May 15. Keith Jones, 22, was charged with five counts each of sexual assault and sexual conduct with a minor for alleged activity with an underage female teenager in Kingman. Determining insufficient evidence to merit conviction, Judge Derek Carlisle dismissed three of the ten charges late Tuesday before jurors returned to deliberate the other counts Wednesday. 40 minutes later, the panel acquitted Jones of all of the other charges….

KINGMAN – The arraignment of defendants in criminal court proceedings is most commonly mundane, ministerial and uneventful. It was no different when Daniel Avila finally made his first local court appearance on May 16, nearly two years after he allegedly killed a Kingman area couple. Avila, 26, El Mirage, faces prosecution for the June 27, 2022 shooting deaths of Retta Atkins, 73, also known as the “Gold Lady”, and Darren VanHouten, 50, at their home on the backside of the Hualapai Mountains from Kingman. Eerie surveillance system video from their residence in the 2900 block of Dilligaf Road reveals a subject…