Violent Felon Whose Sentence Was Commuted By Oregon Governor Now Suspected Of Multiple Murders
Another day, another democrat in power facilitating chaos and violent crimes in society. Today’s episode features former Oregon governor, Kate Brown, who granted clemency to Jesse Lee Calhoun and commuted his sentence in 2021. Calhoun is now a “person of interest” in a rash of at least four serial murders in the Portland area.
The deaths of four women previously said to have been unrelated have now been linked to a person of interest, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Working together, investigators from several local law enforcement agencies said they uncovered information that links Kristin Smith, Charity Lynn Perry, Bridget Webster and Ashley Real.
Through interviews, authorities said they discovered at least one person who connects the four women, however, no charges have been filed in the investigation.
Multiple sources at different agencies confirmed to KOIN 6 that the person of interest is Jesse Lee Calhoun, which was first reported by Willamette Week. Calhoun is now in custody.
According to the Department of Corrections, in 2019 Calhoun was charged with three counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle, one count of assaulting a public safety officer and one count of first-degree burglary.
However, in 2021, then-governor Kate Brown signed a commutation order providing clemency to certain prisoners who met the criteria. Calhoun was one of those prisoners and was released on Jul 22, 2021.
Calhoun had been serving a prison sentence after taking a series of sweetheart plea deals in 2019. He was originally charged with several counts of burglary, identity theft, assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest, possession of meth, assaulting a law enforcement animal, aggravated theft, criminal mischief, theft, unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, possession of stolen vehicle, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. These charges were spread over three separate cases from 2018 into 2019.
He plead guilty to only a few of the charges and Multhomah County District Attorneys dismissed the rest.
Calhoun had also been charged in two other cases in 2018, but all charges were dropped.
Calhoun, reportedly a talented artist who told booking officials he earned his living painting designs on vehicles, has a long record of felony convictions dating to 2004. After arresting him in 2018 with meth, several guns, and more than 500 rounds of ammunition, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office called him a “prolific thief and career criminal.” Calhoun’s most recent convictions came in November 2019, when he pleaded guilty in separate cases to a raft of felonies, including burglary, unauthorized possession of a stolen vehicle, and injuring a police officer and a police dog when they attempted to arrest him.
Those convictions earned Calhoun four concurrent sentences, the longest of which was 50 months, which included the nearly nine months he’d already served. His projected release date, after a 20% reduction due to good behavior, was June 30, 2022, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections.
But another 11 months were shaved off after he joined a group of inmates fighting wildfires. He was released on July 22, 2021.
During the pandemic, Gov. Brown began a process of granting mass commutations—early release to prisoners who were well behaved, nearing the end of their sentences, and particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
When the Labor Day fires in 2020 that would burn 700,000 acres exhausted firefighting resources, the Oregon Department of Corrections deployed some inmates to join the fire lines. Records show that Calhoun was one of them. On March 5, 2021, Brown issued a “conditional commutation” for 41 of the inmate firefighters, knocking the last 12 months off their sentences. That sent Calhoun back to the streets of Multnomah County in July 2021.
Nearly two years later, on June 1, 2023, The Oregonian reported the discovery of the bodies of six young women: Kristin Smith, found Feb. 19 in Southeast Portland; Joanna Speaks, found April 11 in Ridgefield, Wash.; Charity Perry, found April 24 at Ainsworth State Park in east Multnomah County; an unidentified woman, also found April 24, in Lents, although the Portland Police Bureau said it did not suspect foul play; Bridget Webster, found April 30 in Polk County; and Ashley Real, found May 7 in Clackamas County.
Online sleuths ran with that information, raising questions about whether the six deaths were linked. On June 4, the Portland Police Bureau issued a statement in response to widespread speculation, saying, “PPB has no reason to believe these 6 cases are connected.” It is unclear whether the Police Bureau was deliberately withholding information or if new information has emerged since then.
On June 6, officers from agencies that included the Multnomah and Clackamas county sheriff’s offices and the U.S. Marshals Service moved to arrest Calhoun on a parole violation.
When officers contacted Calhoun, who records show is 6-foot-4 and 266 pounds and has a history of resisting arrest, he plunged into the Willamette River in Milwaukie and tried to escape. Officers subdued him and initially booked him on a parole violation on June 6 in Clackamas County (where one of the six women’s bodies was found), transferred him to Multnomah County (where three women were found) the next day, and then moved him to Snake River, a state prison near the Idaho border. (The lawyer who most recently represented Calhoun says he no longer does. It is unclear whether Calhoun has an attorney currently.)
Had the democrats in charge of everything in Oregon pursued the full charges and sentences on a known violent serial offender, these young women would still be alive today. But the democrats would apparently rather have violent criminals prowling the streets.
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