The mother who police said fled the Portland home where her 2-year-old daughter was dying from fentanyl poisoning is now charged in a subsequent alleged armed carjacking.
Mary Elizabeth Jacobo, 26, is accused of first-degree robbery with a gun, second-degree robbery with a gun, unlawful use of a firearm, coercion with a firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm, unauthorized use of a vehicle and menacing.
Jacobo is accused of stealing at gunpoint an occupied silver Toyota Camry belonging to a 32-year-old Beavercreek man on Sept. 26 from the Delta Park transit center in North Portland.
According to the victim’s father and grandmother, Tyler Nuss had just dropped off a friend at the transit station when a woman and a man approached his car, put guns to his head and demanded his keys.
“They carjacked him after smashing him in the head with a rifle,” said Tyler’s father, Steven Nuss.
Jacobo was armed with a handgun, and her alleged accomplice held some type of rifle, the victim’s family was told. He surrendered his keys, and the man and woman then took off in the 2017 Camry with the owner’s cellphone inside the car.
Others at the transit center helped the motorist and called 911. Police responded and chased after the stolen Camry, which crossed into Washington state, the victim’s family members said.
Nuss suffered a bad headache and suddenly was without his car, which he used for Grubhub and other food deliveries, his father said.
“They took his livelihood,” Steven Nuss said. The car has since been located but was found smashed in front, and has been impounded, the owner’s family said.
Gayle Starbuck said police quickly got her grandson to safety and she picked him up. “I’m glad my grandson wasn’t killed,” she said.
The alleged carjacking occurred exactly two weeks after police said Jacobo fled the Fox Run manufactured home in Northeast Portland where firefighters found her daughter, Aurora Fernandez, in cardiac arrest. Jacobo had attempted to resuscitate her daughter but then asked someone else in the home to call 911 and she fled before emergency personnel arrived.
Firefighters arrived and the girl was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead later that day.
Family members said Jacobo fled the home because she knew she faced outstanding warrants for her arrest.
Police have been trying to locate Jacobo for the last several weeks before arresting her on Tuesday at the Inn at Seaside with a man, Joshua Alan Hill, 36. Both were booked that day into the Clatsop County Jail.
She was booked then into the Clatsop County Jail on a failure to appear warrant. Hill is accused of harassment and strangulation stemming from an unrelated case and hasn’t been charged in a carjacking, jail and court records show.
Jacobo faced two active arrest warrants out of Multnomah County earlier this year, including one issued when she failed to check in after her release on charges including being a felon with a gun and car theft in a 2023 case. The other warrant was issued when she failed to appear in court on allegations of being a felon with a gun and resisting arrest in a 2022 case, according to court records.
Jacobo has convictions for attempted second-degree assault in 2018 in Multnomah County and unlawful use of a vehicle in Clackamas County in 2020. She also was convicted in Washington state for unlawful possession of a gun.
Jacobo was moved to Multnomah County Jail on Thursday, and is scheduled to be arraigned at 9:45 a.m. Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, according to court records.
— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com , follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.
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