‘I haven’t seen anything like this before.’ Prosecutor details what happened in Bingham County armed home invasion.

By Andrea Olson, EastIdahoNews.com

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    ROSE, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — The man who was shot and killed by an 85-year-old woman during a home invasion had parked at least a mile away from her home, walked, and then broke in through a window with a screwdriver.

The incident happened on March 13 off 134 West 600 North. Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jolley described the home where it all happened as a secluded area surrounded by fields.

“Past the fields, there’s some lava area. That’s where he was parked was in the lava area about a mile away,” Jolley told EastIdahoNews.com.

He came and burglarized the home, according to a report.

On that day, Christine Jenneiahn was sleeping in her bed. The only other person in the home was her adult disabled son, David, who was downstairs in a room. She was suddenly woken by an unknown man in the middle of the night. It was around 2 a.m., according to an incident review by Jolley.

Jenneiahn was threatened, hit with a firearm on the head, and handcuffed to a chair by the man dressed in a military jacket and a black ski mask. According to Jolley, the ski mask never came off during the incident with Jenneiahn.

The man was later identified as 39-year-old Derek Condon.

“He had told the victim that he would kill her,” Jolley said.

At one point, when Condon was rummaging through her home for valuables, Jenneiahn dragged the chair she was handcuffed to into her bedroom and got her .357 Magnum revolver from underneath a pillow.

Jenneiahn ultimately made the decision that it was “now or never” and shot Condon with both her shots in the chest area. He returned fire and shot her multiple times in her abdomen, leg, arm, and chest, the review said. Click here to read the full details of the story.

There was good reason her shot’s found their targets. Jolley learned through investigation Jenneiahn had some involvement with training a shooting team and that she has extensive experience at the shooting range.

He said it’s unclear how many times Jenneiahn was shot by Condon’s 9mm pistol.

“There were at least 11 holes in her…gunshot holes in her,” Jolley said. “I am not positive how many of those were through-and-through shots. I don’t believe that it was 11 separate gunshots that hit her.”

He added Condon had emptied his entire magazine.

“… The firearm that he shot her with had the slide locked back and had an empty magazine in it that was found,” Jolley said. “He shot until his firearm was empty.”

According to the review, Condon went into the kitchen, where he died from his wounds.

Jenneiahn fell to the floor, still handcuffed, in the living room, where she remained for about 10 hours until her son was able to get her a phone to call 911. Jolley said through investigation, her son would come upstairs typically around noon.

“He suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was about 15 years old,” Jolley said. “The victim had indicated… that she was just waiting for him to come up because she knew he would come upstairs eventually.”

Jolley told EastIdahoNews.com it was his understanding that Condon was a former Marine. His obituary confirms this. He said there is no indication that Condon had a criminal past. However, he had some struggles.

“There’s some evidence by way of an interview with one of his family members that indicates that he was not in a good place mentally and that he had apparently made statements or actions that led them to believe that he might hurt somebody else,” Jolley said.

He believes Condon was prepared for what he did that day.

“He had two sets of handcuffs and handcuff keys. He had his ski mask on. He had a suppressed weapon with him. He had parked his vehicle away from the residence so that it would be less likely that he would be seen,” Jolley said. “He had taken steps, in my view, to specifically target her because he believed that she would be an easy target.”

Jolley said the two were known to each other, though it was more informal. He knew her from a pawn shop and a gun range she was involved with.

“He knew her. He also knew that there would likely be valuables in her residence. And he did it in the middle of the night. Pretty despicable act on his part,” Jolley said.

According to the incident review by Jolley, Condon’s death has been ruled as “justifiable homicide” based on information contained in reports, video, photographs, search warrants, and witness statements.

He said the case presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation he has ever heard of. You can read his incident review in the Facebook post below.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before. It reads like what you would expect. A Hollywood movie,” Jolley said. “It’s a pretty miraculous story.”

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