Tuolumne deputies arrest suspect in homicide at alleged marijuana garden

Deputies made an arrest Tuesday night in last week’s death of a man at his alleged marijuana garden in Jupiter, a remote spot in Tuolumne County.

Matthew Grogg, 23, is accused of killing fellow Jupiter resident Scott Andrew Rockey, 31, the Sheriff’s Office reported. He was booked on a murder charge at the Tuolumne County Jail on $1 million bail.

The motive and other details of the homicide are being withheld as the investigation continues, said Sgt. Andrea Benson, a department spokeswoman. She said the arrest was made with help from narcotics detectives, the High Risk Supervision Team and the Crisis Response Unit.

Jupiter is a lightly populated area in the Stanislaus River canyon about seven miles northeast of Columbia.

Deputies responded on the night of Oct. 16 to a report of a man shot at a home on Italian Bar Road, near Rose Creek. They reported finding Rockey dead in a marijuana garden outside his home.

Tuolumne County Child Welfare Services took custody of a 3-year-old who lives there, but details on the child were not released. A plastic slide was in the foreground in a photo of the marijuana garden that the Sheriff’s Office posted with a news release last week.

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 2:06 PM.