Jesse Calhoun, charged with killing 3 women in Portland area, pleads not guilty (2024)

Jesse Lee Calhoun entered not guilty pleas Thursday to all charges in the criminal case accusing him of killing three women and dumping their bodies in rural areas across the Portland area last year.

Calhoun, who was moved to the Multnomah County Detention Center from a state prison Wednesday afternoon, will remain in custody while facing three counts each of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the 2023 deaths of Charity Lynn Perry, 24, Bridget Webster, 31, and JoAnna Speaks, 32.

Wearing thick black glasses that distinguished him from a series of grim mugshots from his two-decade-long criminal career, Calhoun, who stands 6-foot-4, loomed inside the vestibule of the secure courtroom, shifting his weight nervously during the two-minute court appearance. He didn’t speak.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ryan acknowledged the not-guilty pleas submitted by Calhoun’s attorney. Prosecutor Adam Gibbs told the judge a hearing to determine whether Calhoun, 39, will be held without bail will be scheduled at a later date.

Defense attorney Cameron Taylor declined to comment to reporters in the courtroom but released a brief statement saying Calhoun “adamantly denies the allegations against him.”

Calhoun was first revealed to be a person of interest in a series of at least five missing women who turned up dead while struggling with drug addiction or living on the streets, though he faces charges in only three of the deaths during a 50-day span in March and April.

Calhoun had no supporters visible in the courtroom. The lead investigator, Portland Police Bureau Detective Jeff Pontius, sat in the gallery and talked to a group of women representing the family members of the victims.

Speaks’ mother, CoLene Vargas, said the bond between surviving family members has meant “everything.”

“We’re one step closer,” Vargas said after Calhoun’s brief court appearance.

Also attending the arraignment was Melissa Smith, whose 22-year-old daughter Kristin Smith was found dead in woods in Southeast Portland in February 2023. Calhoun isn’t charged in Smith’s death, but her mother said Calhoun is considered a “person of interest” in her disappearance.

She called on anyone with more information to come forward.

“There are a lot of people out there on the streets of Portland that know what happened, and they’ve been too afraid to speak up,” Melissa Smith said. “I’m here to make sure that I do everything I can to still get justice for Kristin.”

Calhoun was one of 41 prisoners whose sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Kate Brown in July 2021 as thanks for deploying as a volunteer firefighter while serving a four-year sentence for burglary and stealing a car.

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt later requested Gov. Tina Kotek rescind the commutation due to unspecified criminal activity on Calhoun’s part in July 2023. Calhoun was arrested and returned to Snake River Correctional Institution in eastern Oregon, where he served out that remainder of his sentence.

Calhoun, whose last listed address was in Troutdale, is accused of killing Perry on March 8, 2023, Speaks 10 days later on March 18 and then killing Webster on April 26. Investigators said all of the women’s bodies had been moved from where they were killed in Multnomah County.

Perry was found in a culvert April 24 near Ainsworth State Park, Speaks’ body was recovered April 8 in an abandoned barn in Ridgefield, Washington, and Webster was found April 30 in rural Polk County. Authorities have released a cause of death only in Speaks’ killing, saying she died of blunt force trauma.

Krista Sinor, an ex-partner of Calhoun, has described seeing evidence on Calhoun’s phone that he and Webster used drugs together and said Calhoun was sexually involved with another woman found dead last year, Ashley Real.

Calhoun hasn’t been charged in Real’s death.

Sinor attended the arraignment before leaving the courthouse with the lead detective.

During a press conference announcing the Calhoun’s indictment last month, Senior Deputy District Attorney Melissa Marrero said detectives continue to investigate the deaths of Real and Kristin Smith, and that Calhoun may face more charges in the investigation.

—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, zsparling@oregonian.com or @pdxzane.

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