Aaron Cooney appears in a mugshot in May 2023. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
A man in Las Vegas, Nevada, allegedly killed his mother on Mother’s Day and then threw her body in a backyard swimming pool, police say.
Aaron Cooney, 49, was first arrested on one count of open murder, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He has since been charged with an additional count of murder in the first degree with the use of a deadly weapon where the victim is an older person, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The incident occurred on Sunday morning at a residence on Caprino Avenue near North Jones Boulevard and West Smoke Ranch Road in Sin City, police said in an arrest affidavit released Tuesday and obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Officers responded to a gruesome scene.
There, Linda Coonley was found in the family pool by one of Cooney’s brothers and was pronounced dead at the scene by law enforcement. The deceased woman had been stabbed throughout her body including in her head, chest, legs, one of her armpits, and both of her forearms, the LVMPD reportedly wrote in the court document.
Aaron Cooney’s brother said the alleged killer lived with his mother and several others in the residence, police reportedly said.
When arrested, the defendant was apparently in an advanced state of denial – or perhaps something else entirely.
“That’s not our mom anyways,” Cooney allegedly told his brother when the sad discovery was made earlier that morning, according to the brother’s recollection of events cited in the affidavit. “We need a new one.”
The brother who spoke to law enforcement reportedly said he asked Aaron Cooney where their mother was before finding her in the pool. The defendant allegedly replied: “I stabbed her last night. She’s gone.”
Click below for more information on the arrest of 49-year-old Aaron Cooney for open murder. This incident took place at a residence near Jones & Smoke Ranch.
Anyone with any information should call the LVMPD Homicide Section by phone at 702-828-3521 or contact @CrimeStoppersNV. pic.twitter.com/rImkZQtGPs
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) May 15, 2023
The violence, however, did not seemingly come out of the blue, the brother allegedly told police. Months earlier, the grieving son said, Aaron Cooney had threatened their mother with a knife during an argument about cats, the paper reported, citing the arrest report.
The defendant, for his part, insisted on his innocence.
Aaron Cooney allegedly told law enforcement that his mother died three days before and told police: “You guys know I’m not a murderer.”
He is currently being detained in the Clark County Detention Center; he was initially held without bail due to the murder charge; his court docket currently shows a potential bail condition. The defendant first appeared in court on Monday where he was provisionally granted a court-appointed attorney.
Aaron Cooney’s first formally-designated initial appearance occurred on Wednesday – where he asserted his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, and medical privacy rights, Clark County court records show.
According to the Review-Journal, the defendant previously pleaded guilty to domestic battery and was sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility several years ago after he was charged with kidnapping and grand larceny, but was found incompetent to stand trial.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
