Ohio teen allegedly killed boyfriend’s mom with rock after giving him an 'ultimatum'
11/22/2023 12:40 pm PST
CANTON, Ohio (TCD) -- Prosecutors are accusing a 17-year-old girl of beating and strangling her 33-year-old boyfriend’s mother to death because she allegedly believed the mom was preventing the couple from being together.
On May 5, the Canton Police Department reached out to Sylvania Township police and requested they conduct a welfare check on 53-year-old Nicole Jones. Officers went to her home on Timbers Edge Boulevard and did not find her, but there was evidence she was "the victim of a homicide."
Sylvania Police issued an arrest warrant for a juvenile female, later identified as Kaitlyn Coones, on charges of aggravated murder and tampering with evidence.
The U.S. Marshals joined the search for Coones and her boyfriend, Jonathan Jones. Coones was reported missing in April, while Jones had a warrant out for his arrest out of Wood County for pandering obscene material and child endangerment.
According to WOIO-TV, Coones ran away from a group home in Stark County and allegedly texted a nurse in the home that she killed two people.
WJW-TV reports the second person Coones claimed to have killed at a bus stop in Arizona did not actually get hit by gunfire or die.
U.S. Marshals caught up with the couple in Mexico and arrested them. The couple allegedly had Nicole Jones' Social Security card, license, and other forms of identification on them, as well as a backpack with "burgundy stains."
On Friday, Nov. 17, a Lucas County judge determined Kaitlyn Coones will be tried as an adult for allegedly killing Nicole Jones. Sylvania Police Department Det. Jake Albright noted in a police report that Coones allegedly told Jonathan Jones they "needed to do something about his mother because she was preventing them from being together."
Albright reportedly wrote in the report that Coones confessed to killing Nicole Jones after giving Jonathan Jones an "ultimatum." WJW reports Coones allegedly told Jonathan Jones he "had five hours to decide what they were going to do about his mother."
According WOIO, Lucas County Prosecutor Andy Lastra alleged in court Jonathan Jones did not take any action after six hours, so Coones "went outside retrieved a rock and when Nicole Jones was standing in front of the refrigerator in the kitchen, unaware of Kaitlyn’s presence, bludgeoned Nicole Jones a number of times and strangled her."
The couple reportedly put Nicole Jones' body in trash bags and a tarp, then left her body in a dumpster. The trash was taken to a landfill and still has not been found.
Jonathan Jones was reportedly wearing a GPS ankle monitor because he had been convicted in the past of having a relationship with Coones, who is underage.
WJW reports Jonathan Jones has been charged with aggravated murder, murder in the commission of a felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
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