Redwood Valley Man Found Guilty of Last Year’s Covelo Drive-by Homicide

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its efficient deliberations late Thursday morning to announce that it had found the trial defendant guilty as charged.

Defendant Jameson Wolfgang Jackson, age 35, of Redwood Valley, was found guilty of murder in the first degree and attempted murder in the first degree.

The jury found true a special circumstance alleging that the defendant committed the murder by firing a handgun from inside a motor vehicle.

The jury also found true the special allegations that the defendant personally and intentionally fired the firearm causing the murder and personally and intentionally fired the firearm in an attempt to murder a second man.

After the jury was thanked and excused, the defendant’s case was referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study and sentencing report.

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Pronouncement of sentence is now calendared for September 16, 2021 at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department A of the main courthouse in Ukiah. Any person interested in this case or this defendant is welcome to attend that hearing.

As required by law, the penalty for a non-death penalty murder in the first degree with special circumstances is life in state prison without the possibility of parole. The finding that the defendant personally and intentionally used a firearm to commit that murder carries an additional 25 years to life.

The penalty for the separate attempted murder in the first degree is life in state prison with the possibility of parole (7 years to life), plus an additional 20 years for personally and intentionally using a firearm in the attempt.

The law enforcement agencies that developed the evidence used to convict defendant Jackson were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the California Highway Patrol, the Round Valley Tribal Police Department, the California Department of Justice forensic laboratory, and the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations.

District Attorney Eyster also extends a special thank you to Pure Gold Forensics for their speedy DNA work on the case.

The prosecutor who presented the evidence to the jury and argued for today’s convictions is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder presided over the eight-day trial. Judge Faulder will preside over the sentencing hearing on September 16th.

Unfortunately, as some remember, these are not this defendant’s first violent convictions.

In 2001, Jackson was convicted and sentenced as a juvenile for the robbery/murder of Joan LeFeat, a Brooktrails shop owner.

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Jackson’s co-defendant in those violent crimes, Christopher Matthew Coleman (then also 15 years old), was certified to adult court, convicted, and ultimately sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. Coleman, now age 36, remains housed in a CDCR state prison facility in San Diego County serving his life sentence.

While Coleman was certified to adult court, a local judge denied the prosecution’s efforts to also certify Jackson to adult court.

Instead, Jackson was convicted in juvenile court and sentenced to serve time in the California Youth Authority until the age of 25.

However, he was paroled two years early from the CYA in 2008, just after his 23rd birthday, having served only 7 years for his involvement in the LeFeat robbery/murder. Jackson then timed out on his parole in August 2010 when he turned 25.