Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Most Wanted’ suspect arrested in Stevens County


Mori
 (The Spokesman-Review)

A California murder suspect, featured on the “America’s Most Wanted” television show, was arrested Tuesday in northern Stevens County.

Sheriff Craig Thayer said his officers, along with FBI and Border Patrol agents, arrested Jason Arthur Mori, 26, without incident as he returned to his home on Flat Creek Road, near Northport, Wash.

Mori was a fugitive from Shasta County in Northern California, where he allegedly shot a man to death in Redding on April 9 last year. Thayer said Mori will be held in the Stevens County Jail until his transfer to Shasta County is arranged.

According to the “America’s Most Wanted” show, Mori shot Rodney Bates in the chest with a shotgun when Bates grabbed the weapon to prevent Mori from shooting others.

The killing reportedly had its roots in an argument Mori had two days earlier in a telephone call with a girlfriend who had just broken off their relationship. According to the crime-solving television show’s archives, Mori is an avowed racist and the ex-girlfriend applied a racial slur to him.

Angered, Mori allegedly drove to the woman’s home with a shotgun and threatened to kill her. A friend of hers, John Dell Amico, persuaded Mori to leave. On his way out, Mori fired the weapon without injuring anyone, according to the television show’s archives, which are based on police reports.

The ex-girlfriend called police, and Mori was booked into jail. When he was released two days later, he allegedly returned to the woman’s home. Dell Amico, Bates and a woman named Michelle Toutant were with the ex-girlfriend when Mori arrived and reportedly initiated a heated argument.

Mori allegedly went to his truck and got his shotgun. When Bates was fatally shot, Dell Amico grabbed the weapon and Toutant stabbed Mori in the leg several times, according to “America’s Most Wanted.”

Mori allegedly fled the home, and another girlfriend helped him escape a police dragnet. Police said Mori later admitted the murder in a telephone conversation with them, arranged by the woman who helped him escape.