No charges for woman who killed husband

PALMER — A grand jury on Thursday chose not to indict a woman for murder in the shooting death of her husband.

Jason Donlon, 39, was found shot to death Oct. 7 in the Palmer area.

“Lisa Donlon called 911 saying she shot her husband,” Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said, recounting the facts as presented to the grand jury. “He had been shot six times and he was in bed at the time.”

As for why the grand jury chose not to indict, Kalytiak said he couldn’t speak for what the jurors were thinking and that grand jury deliberations are done in private, outside the presence of prosecutors. But, he said, he didn’t think it was a case of the jury believing someone else had shot Jason Donlon.

“I believe that after they looked at all the evidence, essentially they must have decided that the homicide was justified,” he said.

Kalytiak said there was a lot of evidence presented regarding what led up to the shooting.

“Lisa Donlon told the [Alaska State] Troopers that her husband had been abusing, and more particularly torturing, her over the preceding few days and had threatened to continue that behavior that particular day,” Kalytiak said. “She told the troopers that in her attempt to escape the torture, she shot him.”

Kalytiak didn’t get into the details of the abuse, but did say that it was, “more serious than what we see in our domestic violence cases” and that medical exams corroborated Lisa Donlon’s story.

He said he anticipates public opinion would likely be mixed in reaction to the case. One group of people will argue Jason Donlon was shot in the back in bed and was likely sleeping at the time, therefore his wife should have been charged with murder. On the other side, people will argue Lisa Donlon was the victim of abuse, that she saw this as her only way out and that she was justified in taking it.

“That type of debate can be interesting, but to a large extent it’s somewhat moot because the constitution provides for a grand jury. We have a grand jury seated in Palmer. They heard the case and they made a decision,” Kalytiak said.

He said Lisa Donlon was never arrested in the case. Prosecutors instead decided to take the case straight to the grand jury and file charges that way.

Suspects are often left to their own devices while law enforcement puts together its case. But, Kalytiak conceded, going that route is highly unusual in murder cases. This was also an unusual case, he said, because Lisa Donlon was the victim of abuse. And, she was very cooperative with troopers.

“She did not deny that she shot her husband,” Kalytiak said. “I don’t think there was any indication that she would leave. She has children here and of course that’s going to be the subject, what happens with the children.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.