CAMP VERDE — Yavapai County teenager Moses Pozza has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and theft of a vehicle in the November 2022 death of 62-year-old Keith McKinney in a remote area near Camp Verde.
Pozza is scheduled to be sentenced May 6 in Yavapai County Superior Court.
The felony charges carry minimum sentences of two and a half years and one and a half years, respectively, and maximum sentences of seven years and three years.
The plea agreement stipulates that Pozza must serve one year in custody from the date of his conviction on the manslaughter charge, followed by three years of probation, with no credit given for any time served since his arrest nearly two years ago.
According to the plea agreement, on the McKinney vehicle theft charge, Pozza will be placed on five years probation and will be required to complete a behavioral health evaluation and undergo a mental health court review. Yavapai County Mental Health Court It is a post-conviction program that aims to “help participants (probationers with severe mental illnesses) achieve a stable, crime-free life.”
Pozza will be required to perform 100 hours of community service and will be banned from having any contact with McKinney's family.
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, Pozza, who was 16 at the time, told police he shot and killed McKinney on Dec. 28, 2022, because he was “trying to get along with my sister. ” He then led detectives to a secluded area off Salt Mine Road, where they found the man's body.
The sheriff's office said Pozza contacted the victim, who was known to the family, after learning McKinney was having a relationship with his sister. Pozza asked McKinney to pick him up under the guise of a hunting trip and attempted to confront the victim, the sheriff's office said.
Detectives said the boy told them he took all of the guns from the man's vehicle and abandoned it. On the way home, the boy left one of the weapons in the desert, where YCSO later recovered it. The boy then took the remaining guns back to his home.
Pozza reportedly confessed to the murders after a family member found a gun in his room on Christmas Day and asked about it.
Prior to the plea agreement, Pozza was charged with first-degree murder, theft of a conveyance, possession of a firearm by a minor, criminal damage to property and theft.
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