LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The first of three defendants found guilty in the brutal kidnapping, torture and murder of a Las Vegas man learned his sentence today in a Nye County courtroom.
Amid both tears and outrage, the family of Roy Jaggers implored jurors to impose the maximum sentence on Brad Mehn, the man they found guilty earlier this week of first-degree murder after a weeks-long trial filled with gruesome details.
Heather Pate, Kevin Dent and Brad Mehn were all charged with the kidnap, torture and murder of 27-year-old Roy Jaggers on July 31, 2021.
Pate and Dent both took plea deals, leaving Mehn as the only one to stand trial.
Nye County authorities say Pate believed Roy had molested one of her children, which police later said was unsubstantiated.
The three lured Jaggers to Pate's home and beat him before handcuffing him, wrapping him in a tarp, and traveling to Nye County where they tortured him for hours with multiple weapons.
They then took him to Cathedral Canyon where he was stripped of his clothes and forced to walk off a cliff before Mehn shot him to death.
The Jaggers family had their say in court for the first time Thursday, giving victim impact statements to the jury as they considered sentencing for Brad Mehn on the murder charge.
His sister, Heather Jaggers, read the following statement in court:
"Roy Thomas Jaggers wanted to live so bad, he endured and took everything you did to him! And when you kicked him off the cliff he still ran to make sure that he fought every moment for his life until you shot him in the back like the coward you are!"
"The only permanent thing in life is death (she pauses to breathe deeply) and you chose to end my innocent brother's life for absolutely no reason other than for your own enjoyment! All I can do now is hope and pray that your last day of freedom was the day you took my brother's."
Jurors heard Roy's sister and the rest of the Jaggers family loud and clear, giving Brad Mehn the maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The judge will sentence him on the kidnapping charge in August. Heather Pate and Kevin Dent will be sentenced in June.
