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A 17-year-old Ohio girl accused of bludgeoning her boyfriend’s mother with a rock will be tried as an adult, a Lucas County judge ruled Friday.
Kaitlyn Coones is facing murder charges in connection with the death of Nicole Jones, 53. The defendant is accused of giving her boyfriend, 33-year-old Jonathan Jones, an ultimatum of getting rid of her mother or she would do it herself.
In court Friday, Detective Jake Albright of the Sylvania Township Police Department testified that Coones gave Jonathan Jones five hours to kill Nicole Jones. When he failed to do so, Coones waited another hour, then took measures into her own hands.
“Kaitlyn 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,” Albright said, according to Cleveland 19 News reports.
Coones was a foster child in the custody of the Stark County Children’s Services, and according to prosecutors, disappeared in April. She later allegedly sent a text message to the group home leader and admitted to killing two people.
Police subsequently performed a welfare check at Nicole Jones’ home and discovered she wasn’t there.
Lucas County Prosecutor Andy Lastra alleged that Jonathan Jones picked Coones up from a restaurant, and took her back to the victim’s home, where she carried out the murder. The pair then took the victim’s body to a dumpster and disposed of her.
“She 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,” Lastra said.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Coones and her boyfriend fled following the murder. The U.S. Marshals Service captured them in Mexico on May 9.
Jonathan Jones was reportedly in the living room of his mother’s home when Coones approached Nicole from behind, hit her with the rock, and strangled her. A detective testified that the pair worked together afterward, going to a store to buy a tarp and trash bag before disposing of Nicole in a nearby apartment complex dumpster.
Kaitlyn Coones remains missing but presumed dead. Prosecutors said the the dumpster was taken to a landfill and there is a possibility she may never be found.
Coones’ lawyer, Ann Baronas, told the court that the teen was Jonathan Jones’ victim and wasn’t supposed to have any contact with her.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo: Kaitlyn Coones/Cleveland Division of Police]
