by A teenage girl who left a group home to be with an elderly man is facing charges for allegedly stoning the man's mother to death after giving him an ultimatum to kill her himself.
Caitlin Koons, 17, of Cleveland, Ohio, gave her boyfriend Jonathan Jones, 33, five hours to kill his mother Nicole Jones, 53, earlier this year, prosecutors say.
“Caitlin 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 that she killed her.” Detective Jake Albright with the Sylvania City Police said in court Friday.
But when Jones failed to do so, Ms. Kunes reportedly gave him an extra hour before taking matters into her own hands.
“He went outside and got a rock and when Nicole Jones was standing in front of the refrigerator in the kitchen, oblivious to Kaitlyn's presence, he struck Nicole Jones multiple times and strangled her,” Lucas County District Attorney Andy Lastra told the court.
(Cochise County Sheriff's Office)
A judge ruled Friday that Ms. Coones will be certified as an adult in the case. He is charged with aggravated murder, murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Jones, who had a previous conviction for his relationship with the underage Ms Kunes, was said to have been sitting in the living room while the brutal murder took place.
In August, Jones was charged with aggravated murder, murder, felony murder, burglary, aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse, according to court records.
A few days earlier, Ms. Coones had been reported missing by Stark County Children's Services after running away from a group home.
(Cleveland Police District Two Community Relations Commission)
Canton police then contacted Sylvania Township police to check on Nicole Jones' safety. They told the department that the teenager allegedly sent a text message to a group nurse at the home saying she had killed two people and was on the run.
At one point, Ms. Kunes was picked up from a restaurant by Jones, who took her back to the home he shared with his mother. He had to crawl through a window so his mother wouldn't know he was there.
Prosecutors allege Ms Kunes gave Jones the ultimatum to kill his mother because she felt she was interfering with their “relationship”.
In court on Friday, Detective Albright testified that after the brutal murder, Ms Kunes and Jones drove to a local store and bought a tarp and rubbish bags.
They then wrapped Nicole Jones' body and drove it to a nearby apartment complex, where it was placed in a dumpster that was eventually taken to a landfill. Police do not believe the body will ever be found.
(ABC13)
In May, Ms Coones and Jones fled to Mexico where they were arrested. They later gave detailed statements and admitted to killing Nicole Jones during an interview with FBI agents, ABC13 reported.
Details in the interviews matched GPS information traced on Jones' phone to the dumpster where the body was dumped and the stores where the supplies were purchased.
Coones' attorney, Ann Baronas, argued in court Friday that the teenager is a victim of Jones who should have had no contact with her. He also claimed that investigators do not know who sent the text message about the teenager who allegedly confessed to two murders.
