CLEVELAND, OH – An Ohio teenager is being tried as an adult for her alleged role in the brutal death of her boyfriend’s mother. Kaitlyn Coones, 17, of Cleveland, reportedly gave her 33-year-old boyfriend, Jonathan Jones, an ultimatum of five hours to kill his own mother, Nicole Jones, 53, who was strongly against their relationship. When the hours lapsed without any action from Jones, Coones purportedly decided to deal with Nicole herself.
According to the prosecuting attorney, Coones took a rock from outside and assaulted Nicole in the kitchen, striking her incessantly and later strangling her. Jonathan was supposedly in the living room and later helped Coones in concealing the crime.
The prosecuting authority reports that the couple went on a shopping trip to purchase tarp and trash bags, which they used to package the body and clean the crime scene. Then, they placed the body into Jonathan’s car, drove to a nearby apartment complex, and discarded it into a dumpster which was subsequently transported to a landfill. It is unlikely Nicole’s body will ever be recovered.
The evidence indicates that the couple crossed the southern border into Mexico after disposing of the body. Thanks to an active ankle monitor that Jonathan was wearing due to a prior related guilty plea, Detective Jake Albright of the Sylvania Township Police Department could track the perpetrators to Ahumada, Chihuahua, in Mexico. Upon arrest, Coones reportedly confessed to the killing, and the details agreed with GPS data retrieved from Jonathan’s mobile phone and watch.
The charges against Kaitlyn Coones include murder, aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, as well as abuse of a corpse. Meanwhile, her lawyer, Ann Baronas, proposes that the teenager was a victim of Jonathan, as he had previously been ordered to avoid contact with her owing to charges relating to their relationship. This includes nude and explicit photographs of the minor discovered on Jonathan’s phone. Now, Jonathan also faces charges connected to his mother’s murder, with his bond established at $1.125 million.