Category: Court News

BULLHEAD CITY – After separate judges rejected two previous plea agreements deemed too lenient, a third plea deal has been accepted for a Bullhead City man who was charged in separate assault cases. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert also imposed a five year prison sentence for Luis Romero, 26 on August 7. Lambert told attorneys when he rejected a previous plea on July 23 that he would not approve any deal involving less than five years. Terms of the agreement dismiss the case involving Romero’s assault of his girlfriend last year, leaving her with badly blackened and swollen…

Identification still pending KINGMAN – A Kingman couple who reportedly admitted killing a woman in a child custody dispute was indicted by a Mohave County Grand jury last month. Carrie Vanover, 23, and Mark Baldonado, 31, are charged with first degree murder in the death of Vanover’s mother. The defendants whose confessions are detailed in court records were upset that 62-year-old Shawn Vanover had custody of her granddaughter, Carrie’s five year-old daughter. The probable cause affidavit said Carrie was late term pregnant when they decided to kill her mother because she allegedly had threatened to seek custody of her son…

KINGMAN – A Kingman school teacher has been arrested for alleged sexual activity with a 15-year-old boy. 29-year old Brent Michael Miracle was arrested Monday and booked into the Mohave County Adult Detention Center on sexual conduct with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor charges. Public Information Officer Jennifer Sochocki said Kingman police opened an investigation on August 7 after being advised that a Kingman Unified School District (KUSD) employee was possibly sexually involved with a teenager. “The investigation revealed that Miracle met a juvenile victim on a dating app and engaged in sexual conduct with…

BULLHEAD CITY – Court records indicate a Bullhead City man stabbed his mom in the chest so hard that the knife pierced through her chest. Details of the Sunday murder in the Colorado River community are laid out in a probable cause statement filed in Bullhead City Justice Court. The affidavit said that Bette Jean Vaughn, 74, was seated at the kitchen table in her Jasper Avenue home and was using a laptop computer when she was attacked by Travers Wesley Proulx, 43, at 4:15 a.m. Proulx reportedly used a large butcher knife, stabbing her in the chest two or…

KINGMAN – The death of an inmate at the Adult Detention Center in Kingman is under investigation by the Mohave County Sheriff’s office. Agency spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said a detention officer began CPR after being alerted to an unresponsive inmate around 6:24 a.m. Tuesday. Resuscitation efforts failed and the inmate, Kim Maurice Monahan, 57, was pronounced dead. Mortensen said the medical examiner believes the death to be of natural cause and foul play is not suspected. Monahan was jailed in June and was awaiting trial for aggravated assault charges

BULLHEAD CITY – A Mohave County Superior Court jury has returned a guilty verdict in the case of a man charged with fondling a young girl in a Bullhead City motel room 13 years ago. The panel deliberated about 90 minutes on Wednesday, August 7 before convicting Jay Beatte, 44, of one count of child molestation. Deputy Mohave County Attorney Jacob Cote said the victim was the daughter of Beatte’s girlfriend and that the illegal touching occurred in other states before the incident in 2006 when they were living in the motel. Cote said the girl was 10 or 11-years-old…