A Keizer man was sentenced to six years in prison after a Marion County jury convicted him of threatening his wife with a Bible, a handgun and an AR-15 rifle inside their own home while their children slept down the hall. Jared Tresham, 42, will also serve two years of supervision after his release, following a 2025 domestic violence episode that ended in a roughly three-hour standoff with police negotiators.
According to KOIN, Tresham was intoxicated during the altercation, in which he beat his wife repeatedly, blocked her from leaving the home, and threatened her with the Bible alongside the two firearms. District Attorney-elect Brendan Murphy said the defendant “terrorized his wife with a firearm in their own home while their children slept nearby,” per the outlet's report. A Marion County jury ultimately convicted Tresham on multiple counts, including coercion constituting domestic violence, unlawful use of a weapon constituting domestic violence with a firearm, and two counts of felon in possession of a firearm.
The case unfolded in the early hours after Keizer police were dispatched to a 2:30 a.m. 911 hang-up call at the couple's residence on May 10, 2025, according to the Keizertimes. What followed was a two-and-a-half-hour negotiation standoff before officers were able to safely take Tresham into custody — a timeline that roughly matches the crisis negotiator's account of the roughly three-hour standoff described in the sentencing report. At the time of his initial booking, Tresham was cited for coercion, harassment, menacing, disorderly conduct with a weapon, and felon in possession of a weapon, charges that were later expanded and formalized through a grand jury indictment ahead of his conviction at trial.
How Oregon's Weapons Laws Shaped the Sentence
Tresham's coercion conviction falls under Oregon Revised Statute 163.275, which classifies coercion as a Class C felony when an offender compels someone to act, or refrain from acting, through threats of physical injury or criminal acts, according to the Oregon State Legislature. His two felon-in-possession counts stem from Oregon Revised Statute 166.270, which makes it a Class C felony for anyone previously convicted of a felony to own, possess, or control a firearm, regardless of whether the weapon was ever displayed or fired.
Because the case involved the use or threatened use of a firearm, Oregon Revised Statute 161.610 required courts to impose an enhanced mandatory prison term — typically five years for a first conviction — while also restricting eligibility for alternative incarceration programs. That statutory framework helps explain why Tresham's six-year sentence carries a mandatory prison term rather than probation or an early-release track.
A Prosecutor's Office in Transition
The sentencing announcement came from Murphy, who is currently serving as the office's Chief Deputy District Attorney and is set to become Marion County's top prosecutor. Murphy won the May 19, 2026, nonpartisan primary election outright, running unopposed after nearly two decades in the district attorney's office, according to Ballotpedia. He was endorsed as successor by longtime Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson, who announced her retirement at the end of her term in September 2025 after serving as top prosecutor since her 2018 appointment. The Marion County District Attorney's domestic violence team said it will continue prosecuting these types of crimes to the fullest extent of the law.
A Statewide Pattern of Intimate Partner Violence
The case lands against a broader backdrop of intimate partner violence across Oregon. CDC survey data reported in 2026 showed that 44.2% of women in Oregon experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking in their lifetime, compared to a national average of 34%, according to a Facebook post from the Washington County District Attorney's Office.
Locally, demand for victim services remains high. The Salem-based Center for Hope and Safety provided 12,375 nights of emergency shelter and served 4,016 individual survivors across Marion and Polk counties during fiscal year 2024–2025, per Cause IQ. The nonprofit operates a 24-hour crisis line and emergency housing for domestic violence victims in Salem. That demand comes even as funding for victim services has been squeezed: in July 2025, Oregon crime victim service programs faced more than $18 million in federal Victims of Crime Act funding cuts, threatening victim advocate staffing across roughly 150 non-profit and government agencies statewide, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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