ST. GEORGE — A suspect who reportedly traveled from Louisiana to meet a woman in Utah is in jail facing aggravated assault charges only one month after his release from prison following a deadly home invasion in St. Charles, La. in 2018.
Aaron Charles Kern, 25, of Sulphur, Louisiana, is in Purgatory Correctional Facility, charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault and one third-degree felony count of threat of violence. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.
Officers responded Wednesday to a residence north of Mathis Park in St. George for a welfare check after receiving a call that a woman’s life was in danger, according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
The reporting party also told police the woman was possibly with Kern, who the complainant said the victim had possibly met through an online dating site.
Officers learned Kern had traveled from his home in Louisiana to meet the victim. Within a day or two of the encounter, the report alleges, the suspect assaulted the woman at a residence in Hurricane.
Hurricane Police officers responded to a report involving intoxication but were unable to gather many details during the initial call. Once the suspect was arrested, the case was turned over to the St. George Police Department for further investigation.
Officers learned that earlier that same evening, the two got into a verbal altercation that became physical when the suspect searched the contents of the woman’s cell phone. Kern reportedly threw the victim to the ground and punched her in the face multiple times.
During the attack, authorities allege, the woman lost consciousness and was taken to the emergency room for treatment.
In the meantime, officers in St. George collected video and other evidence indicating Kern had reportedly planned to “drive to Utah and kill’ the victim and would “bring some metal” with him, the officer noted.
When officers caught up with the suspect, he reportedly denied there was ever any physical altercation between the two. Later, investigators allege that Kern admitted to telling the woman “he would kill her.”
During a background check, officers learned that Kern was currently on active parole out of Louisiana following his release from prison one month prior to the incident in Utah. While speaking to the suspect’s parole agent, investigators learned that Kern wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Louisiana under the terms of his parole.
They also learned that Kern had spent nearly five years in prison there on aggravated assault, kidnapping, strangulation, robbery, burglary and other charges related to two cases, including a domestic violence incident reported in 2018.
Once released, the officer noted, the suspect traveled to Utah “and is committing the same crimes he was put in prison for.”
Officers were also working with authorities in Louisiana to have a parole hold placed upon the defendant.
One of the cases filed in Louisiana in 2018 led to Kern’s arrest in Draper, Utah, where he had reportedly fled following a home invasion robbery that turned fatal six months earlier.
In that case, the suspect was identified as one of three suspects involved in a deadly home invasion in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Jan. 25, 2018, according to a news report by the American Press on June 27, 2018.
During the incident, one of the intruders was shot and killed by the homeowner, while the second suspect pleaded guilty to home invasion and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Kern, the third suspect, fled the area shortly after the incident and was charged with criminal conspiracy and aggravated burglary in connection with the incident. Once charges were filed, a $150,000 nationwide warrant was issued for the suspect’s arrest.
The suspect remained on the run until he was arrested at an auto body shop in Draper by the U.S. Marshals Service on June 26, 2018, and he was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail, according to the fugitive complaint filed at the time of the arrest. It also stated that Kern was listed “s the main suspect in the “homicide that occurred during the burglary” in Lake Charles.
The suspect fought extradition, the following month a governor’s warrant was signed by then Utah Gov. Gary R. Hubert and Kern was returned to authorities in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, on Aug. 20, 2018.
It was after his incarceration on the reduced charges from the Lake Charles home invasion that Kern was arrested on the domestic incident reported in Calcasieu Parish on May 26, 2019. This resulted in strangulation, assault and kidnapping charges, according to the warden of the Calcasieu Parish Correctional Facility.
The warden also told St. George News that Kern served 11 months on that case until his release on April 1, 2020.
From there, the suspect spent another stint in custody until June of this year — one month prior to the alleged incident was reported in Washington County, according to the affidavit filed with 5th District court in St. George.
Kern picked up another aggravated assault case in Utah in 2017, following his arrest by officers in Cedar City who had responded to a home on a disturbance call on Jan. 19, 2017.
Kern had reportedly pulled a knife on a woman and held it to her throat during a verbal altercation.
Kern initially denied the allegations but later admitted that he had the knife, but said “he wasn’t sure if he placed it against her throat or cut her.”
The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge that was reduced to a misdemeanor and the sentence was suspended in the case, since by that time, Kern was in custody in Louisiana on an unrelated case, court records revealed.
Following the arrest on Wednesday in St. George, a public safety assessment was flagged indicating an elevated risk of violence and the officer requested that Kern remain in custody without bail. The case was turned over to the Washington County Attorney’s Office for review and on Thursday, the suspect was formally charged with the offenses as listed in the report.
In the meantime, officers in Washington County are working with authorities in Louisiana to have a parole hold placed upon the defendant who remains in custody without bail.
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