Officials said Reina Jackson fled to Guatemala with her daughter before her 2023 arrest in Atlanta.
COQUILLE, Ore. — Reina Gabriela Jackson was sentenced May 1 to life in prison for murdering her ex-husband, Dr. Craig Jackson, after years of divorce, custody and support disputes in Coos County.
The legal end of the murder case left a separate family question unresolved. Authorities said the couple’s daughter, Isabella, was taken to Guatemala after Craig Jackson was killed and has not been in contact with his family. Prosecutors told jurors that Reina Jackson’s anger over custody, money and Craig Jackson’s new marriage led her to join two men in a fatal home invasion. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder April 24 after a three-week trial.
Craig and Reina Jackson’s relationship began in Guatemala, where he attended medical school after serving in the United States Navy. She was then known as Reina Gabriela Matute-Ruano. They married in 2008, moved to Florida while he completed medical training and had Isabella in 2013. The family moved to Oregon in 2014. Two years later, Reina Jackson filed for divorce. The divorce was granted in 2016, but the fight over their daughter continued. A judge later awarded Craig Jackson full custody, a decision prosecutors said became one of the pressures behind the killing.
The conflict did not remain only in court. Authorities said Reina Jackson broke a window at Craig Jackson’s home in 2018 after seeing him with another woman and assaulted him. In one earlier case, she pleaded guilty to burglary charges after breaking into his house, assaulting him and sending Isabella to Guatemala in violation of a parenting time agreement. Prosecutors said Craig Jackson later remarried after meeting a woman from China. His spousal support payments to Reina Jackson were also set to end in 2021, the year he was killed.
The killing happened early Aug. 2, 2021, at Craig Jackson’s home in North Bend. His wife told deputies they were sleeping when intruders entered. Craig Jackson woke up and fought with two people, she said. She hid under the bed and heard a gunshot. When she came out, she found him in the hallway outside the bedroom. She called police, but had trouble communicating because of a language barrier and reached out to a friend who helped relay information. Deputies arrived with paramedics, and Craig Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators said the home invasion showed signs of planning. Surveillance video showed three masked people near the house, described as two men and one woman. Prosecutors said Reina Jackson was the woman. At her home, officers found a fire burning so hot that windows were open. In her vehicle, police found a map of Craig Jackson’s home, though she denied ever being inside. Investigators also found a $40,000 check from Craig Jackson. Friends said he would not have given Reina Jackson that amount, and police believed the signature was forged.
After Craig Jackson’s death, Reina Jackson left the United States with Isabella. Officials said she withdrew the girl from school and went to Guatemala. Nearly two years later, a Coos County grand jury returned a secret indictment charging Reina Jackson with second-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. U.S. marshals arrested her in Atlanta in June 2023 after she returned to the United States. At an early court appearance, an interpreter was present, and a judge appointed a lawyer for her. Her bail was set at $2 million.
At trial, prosecutors described Craig Jackson as a father who had been trying to build a stable life for Isabella after the custody fight. Attorney General Dan Rayfield said Craig Jackson “served his country, built a career dedicated to caring for people, and was building a new life for himself and his daughter.” Rayfield said the killing was “brutal and calculated.” The state said Reina Jackson’s jealousy and anger over Craig Jackson’s remarriage mixed with the custody ruling and the end of support payments, creating a motive to have him killed.
The defense challenged that theory by pointing to another person in the house. Defense attorney Andrew Coit told jurors that Craig Jackson’s wife at the time should be blamed and cited marital problems and divorce papers found at the scene. Prosecutors relied on the surveillance, the map, the fire, the check and Reina Jackson’s actions after the killing to push back. They also presented statements they said she made in jail, including a remark to another inmate about a video showing her and “the two men that killed my husband.”
The jury sided with the state and convicted Reina Jackson of second-degree murder. The judge sentenced her to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years. Oregon Department of Justice prosecutors Brad Kalbaugh and Gavin Bruce handled the case with the Coos County District Attorney’s Office. Oregon State Police and North Bend police led the investigation, assisted by Coos Bay police, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI. Officials did not announce arrests of the two men prosecutors said joined the home invasion.
Craig Jackson was remembered by officials as both a physician and a Navy veteran. He worked at Bay Clinic in Coos Bay and had built his medical career after military service and training in Guatemala. His death left his relatives without contact with Isabella, according to authorities. Prosecutors said Reina Jackson also wrote letters from jail trying to get the girl to tell investigators that the $40,000 check had been given by Craig Jackson for Reina Jackson. That claim was rejected by investigators, who treated the check as part of the evidence trail.
The sentencing closed the murder case against Reina Jackson, but the family consequences remain wider than the prison term. Isabella’s location in Guatemala, the lack of contact with Craig Jackson’s family and the identities of the two alleged accomplices remain key unresolved pieces.
Author note: Last updated May 24, 2026.