Arizona man held in hatchet death of transient

A Kingman, Ariz., man has been arrested after police said he used a hatchet to kill a transient man he was trying to evict from his home in northwest Arizona.

Kingman Deputy Police Chief Rusty Cooper said police were told that Joshua Matthew McCoy, 28, killed a man during a fight and that he was hiding the victim's body in the garage of his home in the 3100 block of Prescott Avenue.

Cooper said police contacted McCoy Thursday and found a body wrapped in plastic in the garage.

He said the name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of kin, but that the 61-year-old male transient from the Phoenix area had been allowed to stay in the garage after he had been removed from a homeless shelter.

Cooper said investigators determined that a fight occurred Tuesday when McCoy told the man he would have to leave the residence.

"McCoy grabbed a hatchet and struck the man multiple times in the head, killing him," Cooper said. "McCoy had planned to bury the body under the porch in the backyard of the home."

Cooper said McCoy admitted involvement in the man's death and that he was booked into jail on second-degree murder charges.