A feisty Idaho octogenarian is credited with killing a home invader who allegedly battered her, handcuffed her to a chair in the middle of the night and shot her multiple times.
According to new information provided by Bingham County prosecutors, 39-year-old Derek Condon broke into the remote home of 85-year-old Christine Jenneiahn last month while she was asleep and likely bashed the victim in the head as she laid in bed. Blood stains on Jenneiahn’s pillow led investigators to believe that’s where the 2 a.m. robbery began.
Wearing a black ski mask and a military jacket, Condon allegedly pointed a gun and flashlight at the victim, moved the disoriented woman into her living room and cuffed her to a wooden chair.
Officials told East Idaho News the attack didn’t appear to be random, but it’s unclear how the alleged gunman knew Jenneiahn.
Condon rifled through the victim’s home as she assured him there wasn’t much to steal. She told him two safes were kept in the home’s lower level, which is where the alleged burglar found the victim’s disabled adult son in his bedroom.
The thief became enraged that Jenneiahn didn’t say her son was there and threatened to kill her as he continued to ransack the home.
That’s when the victim reportedly dragged the chair she was handcuffed to into her bedroom, where she keeps a .357 revolver under her pillow. She fetched the gun, dragged herself back into the living room and waited to see what Condon planned to do.
“Her memory of exactly what happened next remains somewhat unclear,” according to investigators, but at some point during the burglary — and “amid numerous threats” made by Condon — a gunfight ensued.
Jenneiahn “engaged Condon, striking him with both her shots” in his chest, authorities said.
He reportedly fired back, emptying his 9 mm pistol into the elderly woman’s arm, leg, abdomen and chest before making his way into the kitchen and dropping dead.
Jenneiahn lied on her living room floor for nearly 10 hours until her son came upstairs and fetched a phone so she could call 911. First responders brought Jenneiahn to a hospital where she was treated for her wounds and survived.
“This case presents an easy analysis of self-defense and justifiable homicide,” Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley concluded in his report. “It also presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have heard of.”
