A 42-year-old Mesa man is facing a felony charge after he allegedly married a second woman without ever legally ending his first marriage, telling police he simply could not track down his original wife. Charod Lee Choice was arrested Tuesday morning and booked into jail on one count of bigamy.
Police arrested Choice around 10 a.m. in the Stoneybrook neighborhood near Higley and Brown roads, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Court records cited by the station show Choice married Shakia Jackson in Tucson on December 25, 2013, filing that first marriage license in Pima County. More than a decade later, on February 22, 2026, he recorded a second marriage license in Maricopa County, this time wedding Christina Arrington in Phoenix.
Arizona law is unambiguous about the situation Choice allegedly created. Under a statute from the Arizona Legislature, a person who has a living spouse and knowingly marries another person is guilty of a class 5 felony. A related statute makes clear that the second spouse can also face felony exposure if they knowingly marry someone else's husband or wife.
Choice Admitted He Never Found His First Wife
According to the report, Choice confirmed his February 2026 marriage to Arrington and admitted he was still legally married to Jackson at the time. He reportedly told police he could not find his first wife, though the article noted it remains unclear what steps, if any, he took to locate her before remarrying.
Jackson told investigators, per court documents cited in the station's reporting, that she wanted criminal prosecution against her husband. The report also stated it was unclear how Jackson discovered the second marriage, and it left open whether Arrington knew about Choice's first marriage before the wedding.
Booked and Released on His Own Recognizance
Choice was booked into Mesa City Jail on the single bigamy count, and a judge granted his release on his own recognizance. The case was documented using records including an Arizona Form IV final release questionnaire, booking records, and an officer-submitted probable cause addendum out of East Mesa Justice Court in Maricopa County.
Bigamy prosecutions tend to surface in clusters of strange circumstances rather than routine enforcement, and a case out of Nevada earlier this year illustrates just how elaborate such schemes can get. Jiaying Chen, 33, agreed to plead guilty to one count of bigamy and one count of obtaining money under false pretenses in Clark County, according to the Los Angeles Times. Authorities said Chen wed more than a dozen men in Las Vegas, often while already married to someone else, allegedly to fund gambling. The paper reported that from March 2019 through May 2026, Chen submitted 15 marriage applications in Clark County, resulting in eight marriage certificates, and that she allegedly used the alias Vicky Liang to file eight more applications between April 2025 and June, yielding seven additional certificates. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported slightly different figures, putting the total at 14 applications and seven certificates.
Choice's case, by contrast, involves just two marriages roughly a decade apart. The outcome of his prosecution was not addressed in the available reporting, and no further court dates have been reported.
