LAKE HAVASU CITY – A Lake Havasu City man who killed his best friend 8 years ago faces new charges for violence that, in some ways, parallel events of his first case in 2013. 33-year-old Johnathan Kroll pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault for stabbing to death Brandon Bonnett in the garage of the residence they shared in the 1800 block of South Rainbow Avenue.

Following the deadly assault in Oct. 2013, police disclosed that Kroll had some issue related to Bonnett’s relationship with Kroll’s sister, who was 19 years old at the time. The sister suffered a leg wound when slashed by the knife as she tried to intervene in the dispute between her brother and boyfriend.

More than a dozen family members and friends attended Kroll’s sentencing hearing in Kingman in early 2015, wearing t-shirts displaying images of Bonnett. The Defense Attorney argued that Bonnett was high on methamphetamine and instigated the confrontation twice.

“What you have in this case is a defendant bringing a knife to a fistfight,” countered the case prosecutor.

Kroll began serving prison time in the first case in Feb. 2015 and he was released in Aug. 2020.

Roughly a year after his prison discharge, while on community supervision or parole, Kroll ended up in another Lake Havasu garage setting where his concern over another woman—his girlfriend—being patted on the rump by another party escalated into violence. The incident involved a cutting instrument once again; this time it was a box cutter.

Witness statements contained in Lake Havasu City Police reports indicate a group of people were playing darts in the garage of a residence in the 3600 block of Clearwater Drive on Aug. 29 when Kroll asked who had touched his girlfriend improperly. One witness told police that Kroll was punched by someone at the gathering and placed in his vehicle.

Witnesses said Kroll sped away but returned and ended up slicing a male adult with a utility knife. The victim was released following hospital treatment for non-life-threatening injuries involving a 7” laceration across his neck, and 8” and 9” slashes over his abdomen.

Police reports indicate Kroll sped away from the slashing and was involved in an officer pursuit and vehicular rollover before he was detained following a brief foot chase that ended at Little Chief Drive. The reports said Kroll made a series of incriminating utterances about the altercation.

Those alleged statements to police, as the reports stated, included “I had to do it”; “just shoot me”; and “stop beating me up,” when no one was touching him. The box cutter believed to have been used in the slicing was reportedly recovered from the floorboard of the passenger side of Kroll’s vehicle.

It is noted in the reports that Kroll exhibited signs of being impaired and that the odor of alcohol could be detected upon his person.

Kroll is held in the Adult Detention Center for multiple counts of aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, criminal damage, and unlawful flight.

Dave Hawkins