ST. GEORGE — A man was arrested on suspicion of burglary after a woman allegedly found him inside a home in Brookside on Sunday night.
Washington County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 46-year-old Aaron Keith Brown after they found him in the laundry room shortly after 10 p.m.
The arrest stemmed from a call to 911 by a woman who told emergency dispatch she was tasked to take care of a relative’s animals while they were out of town. When she entered the home, she noticed a thick layer of dust on the floor and then heard a man’s voice coming from the inside of the laundry room, according to the probable cause statement written in support of the arrest. The man said his name was Aaron and that “people were trying to kill him,” police recounted from the caller’s statement in the report.
The caller said she never saw the man, only heard him, as the laundry door was closed. She quickly left the residence and called police, telling deputies she had no idea who the man was and that no one was supposed to be in the home while her relatives were away.
Deputies entered the home and found the laundry room door partially barricaded by a washing machine. Pushing open the door, they found a man sitting on the floor in the corner of the room who was then ordered to stand up, and he was handcuffed.
Brown was identified by an ID card found in his wallet, and he was escorted to the front porch were he spoke to police. The suspect was covered in chemical dust blown out of a fire extinguisher that he allegedly took from the garage and deployed inside of the home.
The man allegedly told police he had been using methamphetamine and that “people were trying to kill him,” although he didn’t know the individuals’ names and said he had not seen them yet that day.
Officers also noticed that Brown could not sit still, was sweating and appeared very paranoid. The suspect reportedly told police he entered the home through a back door and admitted he never knocked on the door nor did he know who owned the home.
The suspect “just opened the door and went inside,” the deputy wrote.
Officers also noted there were no signs of a fire inside of the home, which gave the suspect no reason to deploy the fire extinguisher that did not belong to him.
The suspect was transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility where he was booked on second-degree felony burglary of a dwelling and misdemeanor theft and criminal mischief, since the home would need to be cleaned and ventilated to clear the chemical residue released by the extinguisher.
The report also states that Brown has an extensive criminal history in multiple states and appears to be a transient to Washington County.
Ed. Note: A new Utah law generally prohibits the release of arrest booking photos until after a conviction is obtained.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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