SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — An Oregon State Penitentiary inmate serving a 30-year term for killing his girlfriend in Bend nearly 35 years ago has died in the Salem state prison, the Oregon Department of Corrections said Monday.
James Byron Coon, 76, died on Sunday morning in the infirmary while on hospice care. As with all in-custody deaths, the Oregon State Police have been notified, the agency said.
Coon was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the February 2021 killing of Patty Darlene Flynn, 41, The Bulletin reported at the time. That included a mandatory 25-year term for Flynn’s murder and five years for threatening to kill the woman if she testified against him in an earlier domestic violence case…