An Idaho woman, 85, is being praised as a “hero” for using a handgun she had hidden beneath her pillow to shoot and kill a home invasion suspect who had allegedly bound her to a chair, pistol-whipped her, and made repeated threats to murder her, according to the authorities.
Christine Jenneiahn, turned the tables and shot her alleged attacker twice with her .357 Magnum at her home near Blackfoot, Idaho, authorities said. The alleged home invader was later identified as 39-year-old Derek Condon, who died in her kitchen.
She told detectives that she felt the suspect would kill her if she didn’t use lethal force, so she made the decision to use it “now or never” to protect herself and her disabled son.
“This case presents an easy analysis of self-defense and justifiable homicide,” Bingham County, Idaho, Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jolley said in a statement released this week. “It also presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have heard of.”
Jenneiahn, the mother of a disabled son, told police that she was awakened around two in the morning on March 13 by a figure standing over her bed, aiming a gun and a flashlight at her while donning a black ski mask and military jacket, according to authorities.
Investigators believe Condon broke through a window to enter the house and struck Jenneiahn in the head with a pistol while she was in bed.
According to an incident report, Jenneiahn told detectives that he led her into her living room, handcuffed her to a wooden chair, and “asked her where the valuables were kept in her home, and placed a pistol against her head.”
According to the complaint, the woman informed Condon that she didn’t have much but that there were two safes downstairs.
Jenneiahn told detectives she dragged the chair she was shackled to back to her bedroom to get the revolver she kept under her pillow when the attacker went downstairs. According to the report, she told detectives she returned to the living area, concealed the handgun between the armrest and cushion of the couch she was sitting next to, and watched to see what Condon would do next.
According to the investigation, when he came back Condon became enraged with Jenneiahn for not informing him that her son was inside the house and once more threatened to kill her. At that moment, she reached for her hidden gun and opened fire, hitting Condon twice.
According to the report, Condon allegedly returned fire and emptied his 9mm pistol. Jenneiahn sustained gunshot wounds to her belly, leg, arm, and chest.
The report states that Jenneiahn was chained to a chair and bleeding on the floor of her living room for ten hours until her son came upstairs and gave her the phone to dial 911. Condon reportedly fell in the kitchen and died during this time.
Citing Idaho’s “stand your ground law,” Jolley argued that Jenneiahn had a right to protect herself with any means required.
“Any reasonable person would believe it necessary to defend themselves or their disabled child under such circumstances,” Jolley said in his decision released Tuesday. “That Christine survived this encounter is truly incredible. Her grit, determination, and will to live appear to be what saved her that night.”
He said that if Condon had survived the incident, he would have been charged with felony attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated battery and grand theft.
