Camden man sentenced to life for two killings

He pleads guilty to murders of girlfriend, her son in ’19

CAMDEN — A Camden man charged in the 2019 slayings of his girlfriend and her child pleaded guilty Monday in a Ouachita District Courtroom.

Jory Worthen, 26, entered the plea to two counts of first-degree murder Monday morning. Worthen was charged with the murders of Alyssa Cannon, 20, and her 4-year-old son, Braydon Ponder, after the two were found dead in Cannon’s home June 25, 2019.

“Judge Robin Carroll accepted the pleas and sentenced Worthen to life in the Arkansas Department of Correction on each count,” Ouachita County prosecutor Jeff Rogers said.

“I think it was a good outcome for the family,” Rogers said. “You can’t undo homicides, but at least the family can feel relief that — barring a governor’s commutation of the sentence — Mr. Worthen will remain incarcerated for his entire natural life.”

Worthen remained in the Ouachita County jail Monday afternoon.

Rogers noted that handwriting samples of a note found in the home were compared with samples of Worthen’s handwriting by the FBI and declared a match.

A warrant filed by Camden Police Department in June 2019 states that the note in the home read: “I’m sorry. I should have stopped drinking, and Alyssa was trying to kick me out because of Sydney. I lost it and finished it with instant regret. I have to die and be with them. I can’t stay here. My dad can have all of my things if he wants them. I should have got help a long time ago. If I can’t have them and be with them nobody can. I wish I could go back.”

Cannon had a restraining order against Worthen at the time of the murders but he was still living with her, according to police records.

Authorities said Worthen fled the state in Cannon’s vehicle after the murders; it was later found abandoned in a parking lot in Seattle.

The Western District of Arkansas’ United States Marshals Task Force was brought in to assist with the investigation and arrest since Worthen had crossed state lines and was believed to be armed and dangerous. He was placed on the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15-most-wanted list in July 2019.

Investigative efforts led authorities to a hotel in Burbank, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2020. After being identified, Worthen ran from law enforcement officers but was found and taken into custo

dy after a short foot pursuit, according to U.S. Marshals.

Worthen lived alone in the motel and did not have a job, Camden Police Chief Boyd Woody said at the time of Worthen’s arrest, adding that Worthen had used an assumed name, Ronald Kleigler.

Worthen had a history of domestic violence, according to court filings.

In October 2017, he was arrested and appeared in court for domestic battery and terroristic threatening against his girlfriend, who that same month filed for an order of protection against Worthen.

In an affidavit, filed Oct. 19, 2017, Cannon described Worthen as becoming “more controlling and possessive.”

Cannon cited an incident at her place of work where Worthen attacked her, pulling her hair and hitting her. She wrote that he threatened to kill her “by driving me down a dirt road and slicing my throat and killing himself.”

“This is not the first time he has threatened to kill me,” Cannon wrote.

“He was always controlling where I went, what I did, what I wore, who I talked to, and controlled my money,” she wrote. “I’m scared to be by myself, scared to be out in public.”