Man may get life for girlfriend's murder

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Oct 10, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Christopher John Jones

/ contributed photo

A man who brutally beat his longtime girlfriend to death last summer and told police she asked for it pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

Christopher John Jones, 24, of Gresham faces a possible sentence of life in prison with a possibility of parole in 25 years, according to Measure 11 minimum sentences. He will be sentenced on Thursday, Oct. 19.

Jones killed his girlfriend of about seven years, Jessica Nicole Koon, 24, in their Gresham apartment on July 18, 2005. Passersby noticed her bruised and battered body from a stairwell at the DelRay Apartments in the 200 block of Northeast 162nd Avenue.

About an hour later, a Troutdale police officer recognized a man at a MAX station as the victim’s boyfriend from his mugshot. Officers arrested the man on unrelated warrants, but the next day charged him with his girlfriend’s murder.

Koon lived in the same complex where her body was found. She shared an apartment with Jones and his aunt. Jones and Koon also had a daughter, now 6, who police don’t believe witnessed her mother’s murder, said Sgt. Jeff Hansen, a Gresham police spokesman.

The woman died of closed-head trauma, or a bleeding and bruised brain, and was repeatedly beaten throughout her relationship with Jones, Hansen said. A medical examiner noted that Koon had four broken ribs, burn marks on her palms, five marks on her neck consistent with ligature strangulation, bruises on her arms, legs, chest and back, plus internal bruising on one kidney and a lung.

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