A California man has been charged with murdering two men he met on a dating app and attempting to kill another, the authorities said this week.
Rockim Prowell, 34, of Inglewood, Calif., lured two men in their 50s into meeting via a dating app, attacked them and stole their cars, prosecutors with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a release on Monday. In one case, Mr. Prowell hit one of his victims with a car and broke his leg, prosecutors said.
Mr. Prowell, who was arrested on Sept. 4, was charged with two counts of murder with a special circumstance allegation; one count of attempted murder; two counts each of carjacking and second-degree burglary; and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. A special circumstance allegation makes a defendant eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
He is being held without bail at the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles and is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 16. A lawyer was not listed for Mr. Prowell in court records.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Prowell met with Miguel Angel King, 51, in July 2021 after they had connected online. Mr. Prowell fatally shot Mr. King and stole his car, which was discovered more than a week later, several miles from Mr. Prowell’s home, prosecutors said. Forensic evidence recovered from the vehicle was later linked to Mr. Prowell, they said.
Mr. King’s remains were found in the Angeles National Forest in August 2021.
Two years later, August 2023, Mr. Prowell and Robert Gutierrez, 53, connected on the same online dating app (which was not specified in the court documents) and agreed to meet about a mile from Mr. Prowell’s home.
Mr. Gutierrez’s family reported him missing two days later. Investigators who arrested Mr. Prowell last week found Mr. Gutierrez’s car in his garage, and additional evidence linked Mr. Prowell to Mr. Gutierrez’s killing, prosecutors said. Mr. Gutierrez’s remains have not been found.
In February 2025, prosecutors say, Mr. Prowell used the same online dating app to arrange a meeting with Jordan Andrews, 40, about four miles from Mr. Prowell’s home. They said that Mr. Prowell bound Mr. Andrews, stole his wallet and beat him with a baseball bat. Mr. Andrews escaped, but Mr. Prowell chased him in a vehicle, hitting him and breaking his leg, according to prosecutors.
In a statement, Nathan J. Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said Mr. Prowell committed “predatory acts that showed a total disregard of life.”
“Imagine the terror and horror these victims felt after being duped into believing they were meeting for one reason, only to face inexplicable violence,” Mr. Hochman said.
At the time of his arrest, Mr. Prowell was on probation for a series of burglaries he had committed in the Beverly Hills and Los Angeles areas from 2019 to 2021, prosecutors said. Court records show that Mr. Prowell was arrested in 2021 and, under a plea deal, was placed on probation in 2022.
According to KCBS-TV, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, Mr. Prowell wore a prosthetic face mask that helped police link him to two residential burglaries.
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