OAN’s Abril Elfi
11:58 AM – Sunday, April 14, 2024
An 85-year-old Idaho woman fatally shot a home intruder in an act of self defense.
County Prosecutors stated that Christime Jenneiahn committed a “justifiable homicide” after she shot an armed burglar who handcuffed her to a chair and threatened to kill her multiple times.
Jenneiahn shot and killed 39-year-old Derek Condon, presenting “one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation” that Bingham County prosecutor Ryan Jolley has ever heard of, according to an incident review written Tuesday.
According to Jolley’s review, the altercation started on March 13th at around 2:00 a.m. when Condon woke up Jenneiahn at her Blackfoot, southeast Idaho, home.
He wrote that Condon, wearing a black ski mask and military jacket, aimed a gun and flashlight at Jenneiahn.
According to the review, Condon most likely struck Jenneiahn in the head while she was sleeping since blood was discovered on her bedroom floor and pillow by the investigators.
The review states that Condon then handcuffed Jenneiahn and led her to the living room at gunpoint. He asked about her valuables while handcuffing her to a wooden chair there. He put his gun to her head when she said she didn’t have much, according to the review.
It continues by saying that Jenneiahn informed Condon that she had two safes downstairs. Prosecutors claimed that while he searched her house in multiple rooms for her valuables, he left her handcuffed in the living room.
“At some point,” the review says, “he discovered that Christine’s son was also in the home and became angry at Christine for not telling him.”
The review states that Condon began to make repeated threats, indicating his desire to kill Jenneiahn.
She dragged the wooden chair in which she was handcuffed into her bedroom and grabbed her .357 Magnum handgun from beneath her pillow while Condon was looking around downstairs, according to the review.
Once back in the living room, Jenneiahn “waited to see what Condon did next,” hiding the gun between an armrest and a cushion.
“Christine’s memory of exactly what occurred next remains somewhat unclear,” according to the review.
Prosecutors were informed by Jenneiahn that at some point after Condon had searched her house, he came back to the living room and threatened to kill her once more.
“She ultimately made the decision that it was ‘now or never’ and drew her concealed 357 magnum and engaged Condon, striking him with both her shots,” the review says.
According to the review, Condon opened fire again, hitting Jenneiahn several times in the abdomen, arm, leg, and chest with a 9 mm pistol. Condon went to the kitchen, where his gunshot wounds caused his death.
Still wearing her handcuffs, Jenneiahn collapsed and lay on the ground for roughly ten hours until her son came upstairs in the late hours of the morning and handed her a phone so she could dial 9-1-1. Around 12:17 p.m., deputies responded, according to the review.
Jenneiahn was transported to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, according to EastIdahoNews.com.
Based on Idaho’s self-defense law, which states, “No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting himself,” Jolley ruled the killing justifiable.
“This case presents an easy analysis of self-defense and justifiable homicide,” Jolley wrote. “It also presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have ever heard of.”
“Absent a clear attempt by Condon to retreat from the residence or surrender, which based on the evidence clearly did not occur, Christine was justified in taking any and all means necessary to defend herself and her son that night,” he continued.
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