Katie 
McNeal, Arizona: At approximately 1:00 am on Thursday, September 8, a Cochise County Sheriff's Deputy was flagged down on Central Highway by a man later identified as 52-year-old Jay Albert Stevens.
The deputy asked the man if he was alright to which Stevens responded that he had shot and killed someone in a nearby residence.
Stevens was unable to provide the address, but led deputies to a residence where they discovered the body of 61-year-old Mark Kilbourne outside. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Stevens was taken into custody and booked on a charge of first-degree murder.
Following his arrest he spoke with investigators about what had led up to the shooting.
"This has been building in me for a long time," Stevens told investigators. "What I did today was just probably 20 years of ****."
Stevens told investigators that he had moved to Arizona several years ago in order to help care for his mother whose health was failing. In part, he seemed to blame her heath on Mark who he accused of "brainwashing" her into becoming an alcoholic.
According to Seven's statements, he and Mark, who he alleged had spent much of Wednesday drinking beer, had gotten into a fight in the garage earlier in the day after Mark accused him of not reading the Bible because he didn't understand the book.
Eventually Mark reportedly told Stevens, "If you don't like it, you can get out."
Stevens told investigators that he retreated to his bedroom in the home and "stewed" over things for several hours.
"It took me a while to get the gumption to go out there with the gun," he said. But once he did, he pointed the gun directly at Mark and shot him once in the chest. "I was attempting to kill him." When he realized that Mark was still alive, he shot him again and then proceeded to punch him in the face out of "anger and rage."
Stevens told investigators that he then drug Mark's body out of the house with the initial intention of burying him or dragging his body behind a truck in the desert, but soon determined that he would be caught regardless of what he did.
"I was gonna bury him, but I'm too lazy to dig a hole that big," Stevens said. So he opted for taking his dogs to his sister's home so that they would be taken care of and there told her that she should call the Sheriff's as he had killed their stepfather.
From her residence, he made his way to Central Highway where he found and flagged down the Sheriff's Deputy.
Stevens remains in the Cochise County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond. Stevens made his first appearance in court on Friday, September 9, and an additional charge of abandonment or concealing a dead body has been filed against him.
His next court date is not known at this time.
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