A convicted sex offender—who had been released from jail last week—was arrested Sunday, accused of trying to break into a Twentynine Palms home where a 12-year-old girl was home alone. According to a sheriff’s report, the girl notified her parents that a man was trying to break into the house. The parents then asked Sheriff’s deputies to make a welfare check on the girl and the home in the 75900 block of Amboy Road just before 4:30 p.m. A man had fled the home by the time deputies arrived. However, during an area search, deputies located Steven McLaughlin, 31, about an hour later near Amboy Road and Mojave Road. Deputies determined that McLaughlin—who was on parole for kidnapping and was a registered sex offender, and who had been released from jail last Thursday, March 28, for a violation of parole and warrants—was the man who had attempted to break into the girl’s home. Steven McLaughlin was arrested for investigation of attempted burglary, a parole violation and violation of his sex offender status, booked into the West Valley Detention Center and is being held on a no-bail parole hold.
