Oregon governor re-imprisoned after cancelling pardon for convicted prisoner released 2 years ago.
A ‘person of interest’ identified by the police in connection with the deaths of four women recently found dead in the Portland area has been arrested and re-imprisoned in prison.
He is a convicted prisoner who was released with an amnesty in 2021 for theft along with model prisoners. Gov. Tina Kortek cancelled the pardon for Jesse Lee Calhoun, 38, who was arrested and ordered him to serve the remaining 11 months of his sentence.
Calhoun had been pardoned along with 40 other prisoners by former Gov. Kate Brown. According to police, the bodies of four women, were found in separate forests in Portland between the months of February and May.
The police did not disclose how these women were murdered and their bodies abandoned, or why Calhoun was singled out as a person of interest. Calhoun has not yet been formally charged.
The Multnomah County Prosecutor’s Office said it had “at least one person of interest” brought to the fore during the investigation and said it had heard testimony from many. Calhoun was arrested and served time in 2019 on charges such as theft and carjacking, and he was pardoned the following year, along with her fellow convicts who collaborated in fighting wildfires in 2020.
At the time, Governor Brown had commuted their sentences, saying that they were judged not to harm the safety of society. Deputy Attorney General Todd Jackson said Calhoun was involved in another crime after being released from prison and is currently under police investigation.
Governor Kortek accepted this, and Calhoun returned to prison on the 7th and began serving the remainder of his sentence, Jackson added. As the bodies of the mysterious women were found one after another, rumours spread on social media that these cases were linked.
Police denied that there was any evidence to support this until last month, but finally changed their stance on the 17th and joined the view of other investigative agencies that there was a connection to these cases.
An official said that nine local law enforcement agencies, including Oregon’s three county prosecutor’s offices and the state police department, are jointly investigating the case. The state coroner’s office has not revealed the cause of death of the victims or the details of the killings.