Two out-of-state men accused of conspiring with a Murrieta woman and her alleged hired gun in the killing of her ex-boyfriend were charged Monday with first-degree murder and other offenses.
Kenneth Maxwell, 39, of Midfield, Alabama, and Jerry Wheeler, 34, of Brookhaven, Georgia, allegedly joined the plot to kill 30-year-old Aaron Parr in January.
Court records indicated that, along with murder, prosecutors on Monday filed special circumstance allegations against both Maxwell and Wheeler of lying in wait and killing for financial gain.
Maxwell was arrested without incident last Wednesday near his home by FBI agents executing a warrant on behalf of the Murrieta Police Department. Wheeler was taken into custody uneventfully the same day by local police, who executed the out-of-state warrant at his residence. The defendants are being held without bail at detention facilities in their respective counties, awaiting extradition to California.
In early February, Ignacia Cadaos Perkins, 40, of Murrieta, and James Lawrence Petri, 43, of Birmingham, Alabama, were arrested in connection with Parr’s death.
Both defendants are charged with first-degree murder, special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing for financial gain. Petri is additionally charged with sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
Perkins, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, was arraigned on Feb. 3 and is slated to appear for a felony settlement conference on April 23 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
Petri is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center and is due for arraignment at the Murrieta courthouse on the day of Perkins’ next hearing.
Murrieta police Capt. Jeremy Durrant said Parr was found dead on the morning of Jan. 13 in his residence at the Arbors at California Apartments on Jackson Avenue.
Patrol officers were summoned after discovery of the body and immediately identified signs of foul play, turning the investigation over to homicide detectives, Durrant said.
“Detectives worked tirelessly to gather evidence and pursue all available leads to identify those responsible, and because of their investigative efforts … the individuals were arrested in connection with this murder,” the captain said.
He said Parr and Perkins were involved romantically at one time, but there was no word on the duration of the relationship or how it ended. The police spokesman and court documents indicated that the homicide was motivated by money, but specific details were not disclosed.
According to Durrant, Perkins and Petri were known to one another, but nothing else was divulged about how the woman allegedly enlisted his help — or that of the other two men — in carrying out the alleged attack on the victim.
Perkins has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. Background details on Petri, Maxwell and Wheeler were unavailable.