Mora man charged with murder after woman found dead in hotel room

Authorities say a Mora man has been formally charged with two counts of murder after a woman was found dead in a hotel room he was sharing with her last week.

According to the criminal complaint, 31-year-old Jackson Johnson was formally charged Tuesday with two counts of second-degree murder. One of those charges is murder with intent-not premeditated and the other is murder without intent – while committing a felony.

The Kanabec County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were called to the AmericInn in Mora at around 12:30 p.m. Friday for a welfare check. When deputies arrived, they found a 40-year-old woman — identified as Christeen Jo Massey, most recently of Mora — dead.

The complaint states the hotel room was in disarray and deputies found the window was open, the screen was pushed out and blood was on the wall next to the window. They also found a single set of footprints leading away from the hotel, which they say appeared to have come from someone who was barefoot.

In addition, deputies discovered Johnson — the other person the room was registered to — was gone.

After authorities watched surveillance video, the complaint states Massey and Jackson, who were in a relationship, checked in shortly after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

Massey is later shown on video putting items outside the room at about 1:14 a.m. on Feb. 11 before re-entering the room, with no one else entering or exiting.

Roughly an hour and a half later, the complaint states the sheriff’s office received a report of a naked man running down the highway, close to the AmericInn. Deputies saw the tracks of a barefoot person, as well as a small amount of blood in the tracks, which led to a makeshift shelter on a property in the woods between the Ann River and a trailer park.

The complaint goes on to say Johnson and Massey were known to have a makeshift shelter in that same area, and when deputies followed the tracks, they led to a trailer home on the 900 block of South Walnut Street.

When deputies learned Johnson was out of the elements, they left because they were unaware of the situation at the hotel, according to the complaint.

However, deputies later returned to the trailer after learning of the body at the hotel but couldn’t contact anyone inside.

Authorities were able to speak with the son of the trailer’s owner, who said he would go in to see if his father was there. He then told law enforcement that Johnson was inside, not his father.

Johnson didn’t have permission to be inside and the owner gave law enforcement permission to enter and remove him.

Members of the sheriff’s office then negotiated with Johnson for hours and eventually called in members of the Pine County SWAT Team and their armored vehicle at around 8:08 p.m. According to the complaint, Johnson still refused to come out.

Authorities say Johnson gave himself up shortly before 9:30 p.m. He was then booked into the Kanabec County Jail. The complaint states he only had a blanket draped around him and was holding a knife.

If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.

Johnson has prior criminal history and currently has other open cases in Minnesota, including for second-degree assault and domestic assault.

The complaint states Massey’s death was ruled a homicide, following an autopsy, and was caused by asphyxiation, with evidence of strangulation and assault.