Last month, the body of 27-year-old Las Vegas man Roy Jaggers was found at the bottom of Cathedral Canyon, a former roadside attraction from the 1970s and 80s that has fallen into disrepair in the Nye County desert of Nevada, said the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Jaggers was forced to walk off a cliff into the canyon, according to a criminal complaint. He was also tortured with a blowtorch, baton, axe and knives, then stripped of his clothes. At the bottom of the canyon, his body was shot multiple times with a shotgun.
Before he became the subject of this gruesome crime scene, Jaggers would occasionally babysit his 27-year-old neighbor Heather Pate’s children or watch her dogs, though he did not know her well, his mother told the Review-Journal.
Now, Pate and two others have been accused of torturing and murdering the young man before his body was found Aug. 1. Police arrested Pate and her boyfriend, 36-year-old Kevin Dent, as well as her former boyfriend, 37-year-old Brad Mehn, within 36 hours of an initial emergency call about Jaggers.
Dent was released from prison in January after pleading guilty in May 2019 to resisting a public officer with a firearm, child abuse and battery constituting domestic violence, prison records show. He previously had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge in 2017, and in 2018 he pleaded no contest to a separate misdemeanor domestic battery charge, court records show.
Pate was arrested in Clark County in 2012, but her misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia charge was dismissed. Mehn had no criminal history in Clark County other than a traffic citation.
Thomas Gibson, Mehn’s court-appointed defense attorney, said that prosecutors are considering the death penalty for his client.
Mehn is accused in the complaint of shooting Jaggers after he went off the cliff and Jaggers’ ultimate cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff’s office.
Pate and Dent are accused of luring Jaggers to Pate’s home because they thought he had hurt Pate’s child, the sheriff’s office has said, according to the Review-Journal.
While Jagger’s parents – Kassy Robinson and Jerry Jaggers – declined to talk about the specifics of the case, but both told the outlet their son was a kind man who would not hurt anyone.
“I know exactly what he was like, what he’s capable of, what he’s not capable of,” his mother said.
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Roy Jaggers was a contractor and electrician but had to rely on side work to get by during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the Review-Journal. He had found work at a convenience store and was living at home to help care for his mother.
He had an interest in martial arts and studied tai chi and kung fu at the Create, Develop and Flow Martial Arts Academy in Las Vegas since he was 15, earning dozens of competition medals and trophies as well as a kung fu black slash, according to teacher Jack Soderberg. Jaggers also taught at the academy.
“He was a kid that appreciated things in life,” Soderberg said. “He had real excitement. He loved things, he loved people.”
Jaggers liked anime, hiking and political activism for Democratic campaigns, his father said. He played saxophone since childhood and performed in the Bonanza High School marching band.
“He used to come in my room and sit on the edge of my bed, and we’d just sit and talk for hours,” his mother said. “And I miss that so bad.”
Other than a misdemeanor citation for trespassing in 2019 that was dismissed, Jaggers had no criminal history in Clark County, court records show.
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Jaggers called his dad to chat about his day July 31, just before he went missing.
“It was a normal conversation, and it ended the same as every call — he told his dad he loved him,” said the Review-Journal.
Around two hours later, the young man was lured to Pate’s home, Jagger’s father said. There, Pate’s 3-year-old and 4-year-old sons witnessed part of the crime, according to court records filed by the boys’ father after her arrest.
“There are video recordings of the crimes being committed, and as disturbing as that is, it is much more disturbing that in one video recording, the children are seen entering the room while the defendant/mother and her criminal co-defendants were committing various physical, criminal acts against the deceased of the criminal action,” according to the court filing, in which the father argued for primary custody of the boys.
Family Court records show that Pate was in a contentious custody battle with her son’s father, said the Review-Journal.
Jaggers was handcuffed and forced into Pate’s car after he arrived at her home, according to the criminal complaint. Pate and Dent then drove Jaggers to the Bell Vista shooting range in Pahrump, Nev., then met up with Mehn. From there, the three later drove Jaggers about 25 miles away to Cathedral Canyon.
By 6:20 a.m. Aug. 1, someone called 911 to report a body found in the canyon. It remains unclear who reported the body, as the nearest structures are about a mile away, said the Journal-Review. However, there was evidence of a camping area nearby.
Police identified Jaggers using his fingerprints, the sheriff’s office has said.
Pate, Dent and Mehn were in custody at the Nye County Detention Center without bail as of Aug. 27. A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday but delayed to Sept. 30.
“How can you do that to another human being?” Jerry Jaggers said of his son’s death in a recent interview with the Review-Journal. Jaggers’ mother said she wants to “make sure that justice is served,” and both intend to travel to Nye County for the case.
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