The case returned to court three years after officers found 24-year-old Oulaykham Mona Chopheng shot to death in the couple’s apartment.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — A Washington County judge sentenced Talon Gabriel Mitchell to 20 years in prison on March 10 after he pleaded guilty in the 2023 shooting death of his wife, Oulaykham Mona Chopheng, in a Beaverton apartment where police had been sent after reports of screams for help.

The sentence brought a formal close to a case that had drawn attention because of the couple’s recent marriage, the neighbor reports that sent officers to the apartment, and Mitchell’s later statements that he had taken LSD and believed he was trapped in a dream. Prosecutors had originally pursued a second-degree murder case. The matter instead ended with Mitchell’s guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon, leaving the court to decide punishment rather than a jury to decide guilt.

Police said the case began late on Feb. 23, 2023, when officers were sent to 1050 SW 160th Ave. after a 911 welfare-check request. Neighbors had reported hearing a woman crying and yelling for help inside the apartment complex. Officers arrived at about 10:22 p.m. and eventually made contact with Mitchell, who was 19 at the time. Inside the home, they found Chopheng, 24, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Detectives later said evidence showed Mitchell had shot and killed her earlier that evening. He was detained at the scene and then arrested early the next day. In an initial public release, Beaverton police said Mitchell was booked on second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon charges as detectives continued to investigate.

By the time the case returned to court this spring, investigators’ account had been filled in by search-warrant records and local reporting. Mitchell had sent a series of frantic messages to 911 around the time police were trying to reach him. In those texts, he wrote that he was “stuck in a dream,” said “help me,” and claimed he was “being controlled.” Court records described him as heavily disoriented. Officers spent roughly 30 minutes persuading him to open the apartment door before they entered, according to an affidavit described in local coverage. Once inside, they found Chopheng’s body slumped on a black leather couch. Reporters who reviewed the records said blood was visible on Mitchell’s shoes. Mitchell later told investigators he had taken LSD the day before and did not remember firing the gun. Authorities have not publicly described any evidence that another person was present.

The known timeline turned the case into more than a simple sentencing brief. Downstairs neighbors told police they heard a woman sobbing around 11 p.m. the night before officers entered, and also heard a man speaking in short, abrupt sentences and what sounded like furniture moving. Then, the apartment went quiet. The couple had married only weeks before the killing, a detail that sharpened the shock around the case and framed Chopheng’s death as a newlywed homicide rather than a long-running domestic case on the public record. Public releases from police have not described prior calls for service involving the couple, and the court record made public through news accounts did not answer every question about motive, the exact argument or interaction before the shooting, or why the weapon was fired when it was. Those gaps remained even as the core facts became clearer.

The legal path changed significantly between arrest and sentencing. Mitchell was first accused of murder, but on March 10, 2026, he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and to unlawful use of a weapon. Judge Theodore Sims imposed a 240-month prison term on the manslaughter count and a concurrent 16-month term on the weapon count. Police said there would be no post-prison supervision. Local coverage of the hearing said Mitchell received credit for time already served and may earn reductions for good behavior during the second half of the sentence, though the first 10 years must be served in full. The plea also canceled a trial that had been scheduled for March 31, avoiding what would likely have been a closer public examination of the drug-use claim, the final moments inside the apartment and any forensic disputes between prosecutors and defense lawyers.

For Beaverton police and Washington County prosecutors, the sentencing was presented as the end of a long homicide case built from patrol response, crime-scene work and follow-up by detectives. In its announcement, the police department said the work of patrol officers, investigators and prosecutors was “instrumental” in bringing justice to Chopheng and her family. The statement was brief and procedural, but the facts behind it were not. The case began with neighbors hearing distress through apartment walls, moved through a late-night police standoff at a closed door, and ended years later in a courtroom with a plea instead of testimony. Chopheng, who was 24 when she died, remained at the center of those proceedings even as most public accounts focused on Mitchell’s texts and later explanation.

The case now stands closed in its trial-court phase. Mitchell is serving his sentence, and no further public hearing in the criminal case had been identified immediately after the March 10 disposition. The next milestone, if any, would come through prison records or later court filings tied to sentence administration rather than a scheduled trial date.

Author note: Last updated April 8, 2026.