A 17-year-old girl walked through the desert to a Chipotle restaurant near 7th Street and Buckeye Road in Phoenix and called 911 for help, telling investigators she had been bound, gagged and sexually assaulted by two men she met through a dating app. Preston McKee, 22, of Apache Junction, and Brodie Hester, 21, of Florence, were arrested on Wednesday, August 5, on multiple felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor.
According to court documents detailed by FOX 10 Phoenix, McKee and Hester met the teenager on the Duet dating app and then drove roughly six hours to New Mexico in a blue BMW to pick her up. The girl reportedly told the men she was 18 and said she was trying to leave an abusive situation. The station reports that Maricopa County Superior Court records provided the details in the case.
Court records indicate the men brought the teenager back to Phoenix and took her to a hotel room, where she says they sexually assaulted her while she was tied up and gagged. The girl told investigators the men put a kinky mask over her face and a ball gag in her mouth. Per the victim's account, as outlined in the court filings, McKee and Hester bound her during the assault.
Suspects Say They Found Her ID, Then Left Her in the Desert
Investigators say McKee and Hester found a state ID in the teenager's purse that revealed she was not 18, as she had claimed, but was actually 17 years old. The suspects then tried to buy the teenager a Greyhound bus ticket to send her home, according to court records cited by the station's report. McKee ultimately left the teenager in the desert, after which she walked to the Chipotle and called 911.
A New Mexico detective later informed McKee and Hester of the teenager's true age, the report states. Hester initially claimed to investigators that only kissing had taken place between him and the girl, but later admitted having sex with her after realizing she was 17, telling investigators he had sex with her four times.
McKee similarly admitted to having sex with the girl after knowing her age, according to the same court records. He reportedly told investigators he did not think it was a big deal because he and the teenager had already had sex earlier, before he learned how old she was. Court records indicate DNA evidence was collected from both suspects.
Tip Led to Arrests Weeks Later
Phoenix police received a tip about the investigation on June 17, months before the arrests were made, per the court records described in the article. McKee and Hester were taken into custody near 7th Street and Buckeye Road in Phoenix on August 5.
McKee faces two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and is being held on a $200,000 bond, while Hester faces three counts of the same charge and is held on a $251,000 bond. In Maricopa County, criminal bonds of that size must be paid in person at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Bond and Fine Room at the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix, since electronic or remote payments are not accepted, according to Maricopa County court procedures. Both men await their next court dates on August 12.
What Arizona Law Says About the Charges
Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1405, sexual conduct with a minor who is at least 15 years old is a felony, and penalties increase to a Class 4 felony with a mandatory one-year jail term if probation is granted, in cases where the defendant is over 21 and more than 60 months older than the victim, according to the Arizona State Legislature. A conviction under that statute typically also carries lifetime sex offender registration under a separate section of state law, as explained by the Tamou Law Group.
Arizona does provide an affirmative mistake-of-age defense, but it applies only when a defendant is under 19 or still enrolled in high school and no more than 24 months older than a victim aged 15 to 17, per the Tamou Law Group's analysis. That narrow window means claims that a 17-year-old victim lied about her age would not establish a valid legal defense for adult suspects aged 21 and 22 under Arizona law.
Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure require that anyone arrested on felony charges receive an initial court appearance within 24 hours to be informed of the allegations and have release conditions set, according to the Nova Law Group. To move the non-indictment felony charges toward trial in Maricopa County Superior Court, prosecutors must next establish probable cause either through a preliminary hearing before a court commissioner or by presenting the evidence to a grand jury, per Maricopa County's own explanation of the process.
Local Investigative Protocols and Broader Context
Because the case involves alleged child sex crimes and kidnapping-adjacent conduct, it falls under Phoenix Police Department protocols directing that such investigations be handled by specialized units like the Violent Crimes Bureau or Family Investigations Bureau rather than routine patrol officers, according to the department's own operations order. The Phoenix Police Department also coordinates victim assistance and medical forensic exams for sexual assault survivors through the Phoenix Family Advocacy Center and its victim advocate programs.
Public health data compiled by the Arizona Department of Health Services shows that 41.3% of women in Arizona experience some form of sexual violence contact during their lifetime, compared with a national average of 33.6%, according to AZIHE. Statewide, felony sexual assault arrests, charges and case outcomes are tracked through the Arizona Computerized Criminal History repository maintained by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.
