JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A Carthage man has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a man at a storage unit in Joplin in December.
Mason S. Roach, 24, is accused of killing Jonathan Powell, 36, at the storage unit in west Joplin. He was also charged Friday with armed criminal action. Roach was being held in the Ottawa County Jail in Miami, Oklahoma, on unrelated charges.
On the night of the shooting, Roach forced a witness to go with him to the storage unit, according to a probable cause statement. The woman told police Roach was upset because he found messages between her and Powell. Her relationship to the two men was not disclosed in the statement.
Powell was outside the storage unit when Roach and the woman arrived. Roach shot Powell three times as he walked to the car, according to the statement.
Powell allegedly told three people in the month before he was arrested that he killed Powell, according to the statement.
Online court records do not name an attorney for Roach.