5 Ex-Employees of Boys’ Ranch Face Murder Charges

PHOENIX —  Five former Arizona Boys Ranch employees, once indicted for manslaughter, now face first-degree murder charges in the death of a California teen, a defense attorney said Monday.

The criminal complaint, filed in Pinal County Superior Court, also accuses the defendants of child abuse in the March 1998 death of 16-year-old Nicholaus Contreraz of Sacramento, said Darrow Soll, a lawyer for defendant Montgomery Hoover. “This is absolutely beyond reality,” Soll said. “No one has ever thought that this was a first-degree murder case.”

The complaint says the defendants committed first-degree murder by killing Nicholaus as they committed, or attempted to commit, child abuse. Under Arizona law, first-degree murder charges may be filed when a death occurs during the commission of a felony.

Hoover, Geoffrey S. Lewis, Michael M. Moreno, Troy M. Jones and Linda Babb were indicted Sept. 30 on manslaughter charges but those charges were dismissed on a technicality. There was no immediate comment from the prosecution about the new filing.