A 53-year-old Ontario man is being held for second-degree murder in connection with the death of another man on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Ian T. Inger was arraigned on Monday, Oct. 21, in Malheur County Circuit Court and was ordered held in jail on a $750,000 bond.
According to criminal information filed by District Attorney Dave Goldthorpe, Inger is accused of killing John S. Yeager, 45. This was the first homicide in the city limits of Ontario in 2024, according to Police Chief Mike Iwai.
Goldthorpe said in an interview that the killing happened Sunday afternoon at a homeless encampment east of Interstate 84. He said Yaeger and Inger both lived in camps in the area.
In 2020, Yeager was convicted of fourth-degree assault and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
In June 2015, Inger pleaded guilty to an attempt to commit murder and was sentenced to 90 months in prison.
According to a police affidavit leading to his arrest in that case, Inger grew angry when his 44-year-old girlfriend told him to go to bed. He went outside and returned to the Ontario home with a metal bat and a long-handled axe.
He first confronted his girlfriend’s 24-year-old daughter in the house, who got the bat away from him and then suffered injuries when he struck her with the ax, the affidavit said. Inger then struck the girlfriend five or six times with the ax before she escaped the home.
A police officer found the girlfriend “sitting on the snow-covered ground with no shoes and with blood around her face, head and arms,” the affidavit said.
Police pursued Inger on foot before taking him into custody.
UPDATE: This story has been updated from its original version to reflect that this was the first homicide within the city limits of Ontario, according to Police Chief Mike Iwai.