Mora man receives 36-year prison sentence for hotel room murder
Mugshot of Jackson Duce Johnson Credit: Kanabec County Jail
Court records show a Mora man has been ordered to serve decades in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder.
According to online court records, 32-year-old Jackson Duce Johnson was sentenced by Judge Stoney Hiljus to 439 months (36.5 years) in prison during Friday morning’s sentencing hearing. Judge Hiljus also allowed Johnson to receive credit for the 295 days already served.
As previously reported, Johnson entered a guilty plea for one count of second-degree murder on Aug 31 for the Feb. 11 death of his then girlfriend, 40-year-old Christeen Jo Massey.
Johnson was originally charged with two counts of second-degree murder, and due to his history of domestic violence, a grand jury indicted him on one count of first-degree murder in June. However, a plea deal with the prosecution involved the first-degree murder charge being dropped in exchange for the maximum 40-year sentence for a second-degree murder conviction. A first-degree murder conviction would have carried an automatic life sentence without parole.
Massey’s body was found around 12:20 p.m. in a room at the AmericInn located on Frontage Road in Mora.
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No one else was inside, but the room’s window was open with the screen pushed out. A set of barefoot tracks leading away from the building were seen directly before the second-floor window.
Deputies then tracked Johnson to a nearby trailer park and arrested him after finding Massey’s body.