An Inglewood man was charged Monday with murdering two men and trying to kill another man after meeting the victims on an online dating app, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Rockim Prowell, 34, was accused of killing Miguel Angel King, 51, on July 20, 2021 after the two men talked on an online dating app.
Authorities said they believe Prowell shot King to death and stole his car. King’s vehicle, which contained forensic evidence linking Prowell, was later found a few days later near the suspect’s home, the district attorney’s office said.
In August, 2021, King’s remains were found nearly a month later in the Angeles National Forest.
Then two years later in 2023, Prowell was believed to have met Robert Gutierrez, 53, after connecting on the same online dating app. Gutierrez’s family reported him missing two days later.
While Gutierrez’s remains have not been located, investigators found his car in Prowell’s garage and arrested him. It appears Prowell was not charged with Gutierrez’s murder then.
Fast forward to February 2025, Prowell connected with a 40-year-old man on the same dating app. After meeting in person, authorities said, Prowell tied up the victim and beat him with a baseball bat.
When the victim tried to escape, Prowell chased him down in a car, struck him and broke his leg, the district attorney’s office said.
Beverly Hills police released Rockim Prowell’s pictures in 2021 when he was arrested for residential burglaries.
By the time the first alleged murder happened, Prowell already had a brush with the law: He was charged in a series of residential burglaries in Southern California, wearing a mask with hair to steal flat-screen TVs and other items.
He was arrested for the burglaries on April 20, 2021. That means three months after his arrest, Prowell allegedly committed the murder of King, his first known alleged victim.
When investigators took him into custody for alleged murders, Prowell was on probation for burglaries in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles between 2019 and 2021.
The district attorney’s office told NBC Los Angeles that Prowell was convicted in two burglary cases. With one of the cases, Prowell was given two years in probation. For another case, he received 180 days in jail and two years in probation.
“These were predatory acts that showed a total disregard of life,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “This suspect has now been stopped in his tracks because of the diligent and tenacious work done by investigators at both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”
Prowell was scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
