A 17-year-old girl reportedly gave her 33-year-old boyfriend a five-hour ultimatum to murder his mother, threatening to commit the crime herself if he did not comply, according to law enforcement officials.
In 2023, Jonathon Jones, aged 33 at the time, was ordered to stay away from Kaitlyn Coones, a teenager, following his conviction on charges related to their illicit relationship. Coones, who was only 15 when she started seeing Jones, led to Jones pleading guilty to child endangerment.
Upon his release, Jones was mandated to wear a GPS tracking device. However, he violated this court order by meeting with Coones once again.
Coones reportedly escaped a children’s home in Canton, Ohio, to rendezvous with Jones at a local restaurant in April 2023.
Authorities became increasingly worried about Coones’ well-being as she did not return to the children’s home, given the history between her and Jones.
A detective for the Sylvania Township Police Department testified in court, as reported by WOIO: “Kaitlyn had told Jonathan, that they needed to do something about his mother because she was preventing them from being together and she gave him five hours to do something about her, and at one point in the interview, she even mentioned to killing her.”
When the initial five-hour period lapsed without action from Jones, Coones allegedly extended the deadline by another hour.
Prosecutor Andy Lastra claimed that Coones then attacked Nicole, Jones’ 53-year-old mother, in her Sylvania Township home while she was standing in front of the refrigerator, unaware of Coones’ presence.
Although Jones did not directly kill his mother, he did assist Coones in disposing of the body, according to WEWS. During the crime, Jones supposedly went to a store to purchase garbage bags to cover and move his mother’s body to a dumpster at an apartment complex.
Thanks to Jones’ GPS tracker, police quickly located the pair as they attempted to flee to Mexico. They were eventually apprehended in Chihuahua, possessing Nicole’s identification and credit cards.
During an interview with FBI agents, Coones admitted to killing Nicole.
When the case made it to court, Jones received an initial 54-month sentence due to his earlier charges related to his involvement with Coones.
While Coones’ attorney argued that she was a ‘victim’ of Jones, due to the order prohibiting him from contacting her, she was nonetheless tried as an adult. Now 18, Coones faced charges of aggravated murder, murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse, receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Jones, now 34, was handed the same sentence.