Decision near in attempted murder trial

Eugene Clifton Christofferson allegedly shot William Mahon seven times in Mahon’s Scappoose home

By David Holley

The South County Spotlight, Aug 26, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Gene Christofferson -- – Facing multiple Measure 11 sentences

Columbia County Jail / The South County Spotlight

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William Mahon was curled up with his two children on the couch of his trailer park home off of Scappoose-Vernonia Highway late on an October 2006 Saturday night.

The family had spent the day at the Sauvie Island corn maze and was now settled down to veg out to the movie comedy “Nacho Libre,” starring Jack Black.

Suddenly, the trailer’s sliding glass door shattered. Thinking a tree had crashed through it, Mahon poked his head outside and looked around.

Seconds later, the first shot was fired, Mahon said.

“He shot at me. I had no idea where that bullet went,” Mahon said nearly three years later, during Gene Clifton Christofferson’s trial last week. Christofferson is accused of the attempted murder of Mahon. “My immediate thought was to run toward the front door. As I ran for the front door, I reached down to grab the doorknob.

“He jumped through the sliding glass door, and he shot me.”

Mahon, then 39, said Christofferson shot him a second time — then a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh.

Everything happened within a matter of minutes, Mahon said. He remembers Christofferson standing over him, holding a pump-action .22 rifle — he was silent and unresponsive to Mahon’s pleas for his life.

“He’s standing right at my feet in my kitchen, right there. I’m like, ‘Gene, don’t do this, not in front of my kids, please don’t do this,” Mahon recalled during the first day of Christofferson’s five-day trial. “He didn’t say one thing. He just tightlipped me, just bit his lower lip, and just pumping shots off into me.”

Christofferson’s trial continued Tuesday, and could continue through Wednesday. A verdict had not been reached as of press time.

Christofferson faces one count of attempted murder and one count of assault in the first degree, both of which are Measure 11 offenses that carry 90-month minimum, and likely consecutive, sentences.

He also faces three counts of first-degree burglary, which carry a potential sentence of three years, and one count of recklessly endangering another person, a misdemeanor with a one-year maximum.

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