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Thread: Serial Killer Genene Jones Sentenced to Life in Prison for 1984 Slaying of Infant Joshua Sawyer

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    Serial Killer Genene Jones Sentenced to Life in Prison for 1984 Slaying of Infant Joshua Sawyer







    Old Texas Law to Set Convicted Baby Killer Free


    By Geetika Rudra
    ABC News

    A nurse convicted in 1984 of killing an infant and suspected of murdering dozens more will be released from prison without completing her 99-year sentence because of an expired Texas law that grants a "mandatory release" to inmates with good behavior.

    On May 14, 1984 Genene Anne Jones, now 63, was sentenced for the murder of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan in 1982 in a small-town pediatric clinic where Jones was a nurse.

    "I was holding Chelsea, she was facing me, and Jones gave her the first shot in her left thigh. Immediately Chelsea had trouble breathing. Chelsea was trying to say my name, but she couldn't. I was extremely upset,"

    Petti McClellan, the victim's mother, told ABC News.

    Jones began injecting the child with a lethal dose of the muscle relaxant succinylcholine while the baby was still in her mother's arms, according to McClellan and court records.

    Jones was also convicted of injuring a child in another attack in which the child survived. She was sentenced to 60 years on that conviction, but it was ordered to be served concurrently with the 99 year sentence.

    Ron Sutton, the criminal prosecutor who won the murder conviction, estimates that Jones is responsible for the deaths of between 11 and 46 infants in Bexar County from 1978 and 1982.

    "I was present when all the investigators were adding up the numbers and, 11 to 46... I can confirm that that's what it was," Sutton told ABC News.

    For Petti McClellan those numbers are stunning.

    "Just the idea of a serial killer walking free in the United States of America is the craziest thing I have ever heard of," McClellan said.

    McClellan, 59, and those opposed to Jones' release are trying to find another of her alleged victims for a fresh murder prosecution in order to prevent her release.

    "I truly feel it in my heart that this is something I have to do," McClellan said. "How does it make me different from her if I don't do anything?"

    But their efforts are complicated by the fact that the facilities where the children died have destroyed records surrounding the infants' deaths.

    "A lot of the victims' medical records and documents were shredded or disappeared from the hospital where Jones worked," Andy Kahan, a victim's advocate for the Houston mayor's office, told ABC News.

    The facility, now called University Hospital, declined to comment on any aspect of the story.

    Jones is scheduled to be released from prison on Feb. 24, 2018, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She will have served 35 years, about one-third of her sentence.

    McClellan was meeting with Texas State senators in the early 1990s when she discovered that Jones would be scheduled for early release.

    "A congressman came up to me and as I told them Chelsea's story he stopped me and asked when Genene Jones was sentenced," McClellan recalled. He then told McClellan he would be back in a minute and left.

    "When he came back he looked upset and he told me, 'We have a problem'," McClellan said. "That's when he told me Genene Jones would not serve her full sentence. I couldn't believe it."

    "I was stunned, sad, and so, so, angry. Probably the angriest I have been since Chelsea died. This makes no rhyme or reason. Not just for me and my family, but anybody who suffered. There were so many other victims," McClellan said.

    "This is going to happen. There is nothing we can do. Nothing I can do," Petti McClellan, continued. "This has nothing to do with the parole board, the courts. Genene Jones is going to walk free."

    Jones will be released because of a Texas law called Mandatory Supervision. Enacted in 1977, the law allowed all convicted criminals to be automatically released on parole after they complete a certain amount of calendar time and good conduct time, which includes participating in work and self-improvement programs, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice parole and mandatory release guide.

    Mandatory Supervision was amended in 1987 to exclude violent criminals. But any violent criminal convicted in Texas before 1987 is still eligible for early release, according to the guide.

    "Genene Jones has been eligible for parole since 1989, and every three years since 1989 her case has been renewed and parole been denied," Harry Batson, a public information officer for the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, told ABC News.

    "But mandatory release has nothing to do with parole," Batson said. "Even though she has been continually denied parole, that has no bearing on her release."

    "During Jones' earlier parole hearings there was always a great deal of public outcry, people being upset that she could get out. But people forget. This happened so long ago, not that many people are aware, or care," Sutton said.

    There is only one way to ensure that Jones stays in prison, authorities said.

    "We need to find another case, another victim, whose death we can charge her with sufficient evidence," Andy Kahan said.

    Kahan, as well as Sutton and some of Jones' former co-workers, suspect that she is responsible for the deaths of between 11 and 46 other infants who were patients at Bexar County Hospital between 1978 and 1982.

    Jones was hired as a nurse in Bexar County Hospital in 1977, Cheryl Pendergraph, a nurse who worked on the same shift as Jones, told ABC News.

    "I was working in the pediatric ICU of Bexar County Hospital from 1976-1981," said Pendergraph, who is now 59 and living in Houston. "I began as a clinician and eventually became a shift supervisor. Besides taking care of patients, my job was to give patient assignments to the nurses."

    Pendergraph was the first nurse who worked with Jones when Jones was hired in 1977.

    "Jones was assigned to my shift the first night after she was hired," Pendergraph said.

    A few years later, in 1981, Pendergraph and the other nurses in the pediatric ICU noticed a significant increase in the unit's infant mortality rate.

    "Our infant mortality rate was much higher in 1981 than it was in previous years," Pendergraph said. "During one of the midnight shifts the nurses and I got together. We had all noticed the increased deaths."
    Pendergraph reviewed the patient logbooks and noticed what she said was a troubling pattern.

    "Most of the deaths were on the 3-11 shift, which was the shift that Genene Jones worked on. And most of the infants who died were Genene's patients. She was assigned to them," Pendergraph said.

    Joyce Riley was a nurse consultant who was also working at Bexar County Hospital.

    "I was there from the late 70's to early 80's. My job was to oversee the Medicare and Medicaid patients and make sure they got the appropriate medical care," said Riley, who is now 65 and living in Versailles, Mo.

    "There was talk within the pediatrics unit in the hospital that there were a lot of babies dying," Riley said. "And the way the babies were dying was very unusual. Granted, these children were already sick because they were in the pediatric ICU. But they would suffer from these really untoward events."

    "Things like an infant burn victim all of a sudden going into a respiratory attack. These kids would suddenly bleed out or go into cardiac arrest. Their causes of death were not related to their illnesses at all," Riley said.

    Like Pendergraph, Riley also looked at the pediatric unit's medical records.

    "Jones' name was listed next to most of the infant patients who had suddenly died," Riley said.

    Today Kahan and McClellan are trying to find one of the parents whose child may have been killed by Jones.

    A Facebook group called "Victims of Genene Anne Jones" has 38 members. Joann Garza, the group's administrator, had a twin brother her family believes was killed by Jones.

    Garza's brother, Joel, was taken to Bexar County Hospital after he choked on his bottle. According to Garza, Jones gave shots to her brother and two unidentified twin girls. All three children died.

    "We only have a few years left to do this," Kahan said. "We just need one person to come forward."

    Jones is currently being held in the Carole S. Young Medical Facility, a correctional center in Dickinson, Texas. Batson could not say whether Jones was receiving medical care, but did say that the facility was reserved for inmates needing medical attention.

    William Chenault, a San Antonio-based lawyer, briefly served as Jones' court-appointed attorney.

    To this day Chenault cannot say if Jones was innocent or guilty, "but the case against her was based on circumstantial evidence."

    "Jones was a very intelligent woman. She loved working at that hospital. She was a very good nurse. Some said the best," Chenault said.

    At the suggestion of prosecuting lawyers, Jones was evaluated by a psychologist.

    "She came back perfectly normal," Chenault said.

    "Jones always denied that she did anything. She said she was there to help the kids."

    As Jones' attorney, Chenault worried that Jones' need to defend herself ultimately hurt her case.

    "Every time the press said something negative about her, she would hold a press conference to defend herself. That would just fan the flames. But she wouldn't listen to us. She kept saying she could handle it," the lawyer said.

    Genene Jones did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/nurse-suspe...ry?id=19852141
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #2
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    Nurse in prison for killing infant indicted in another death

    By Associated Press

    SAN ANTONIO – A Texas nurse who's been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the fatal overdose of an infant in her care was indicted Thursday in the death of another infant as prosecutors try to keep her behind bars.

    A Bexar County grand jury returned the murder indictment against Genene Jones, accusing her of killing 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer at a San Antonio hospital in 1981 with a fatal overdose of the anti-seizure drug Dilantin.

    Jones has been serving concurrent sentences in a state prison for women in Gatesville, Texas, for two 1985 convictions: a 99-year prison sentence for murder in the death of 15-month-old Chelsea McClelland, who was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant, and a 60-year term for injury to a child for giving 4-week-old Rolando Santos a large injection of the blood-thinner Heparin, which he survived.

    Jones has been consistently denied parole by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. However, she is due for release next March after serving one-third of her sentence under a mandatory release law in effect at the time of her convictions, and the parents of as many as 60 infants Jones is suspected of killing want to keep her in prison.

    "She is pure evil, and justice warrants that she be held accountable for the crimes she committed," said Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood in a statement. He said his office "will reserve further comment at this time regarding future charges against Jones."

    LaHood plans for Jones to return to San Antonio for the new trial before her mandatory release from prison. If convicted, she could be sentenced to 5 to 99 years or life in prison.

    Jones first came under suspicion in 1985 in San Antonio, where babies at the city's charity hospital began dying of seizures and respiratory arrest. Analysis later revealed that the children had been under Jones' care when they received injections of Heparin.

    However, Jones was not investigated until after she left San Antonio to work for a pediatrician in Kerrville, where Chelsea McClelland died. Jones' trial for the McClelland death was moved from Kerr County to Williamson County, near Austin. Rolando

    Santos was among the infants who overdosed in the San Antonio charity hospital.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/25...her-death.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    It looks like somebody photoshopped the same shirt onto her inmate picture. And some of the neck is showing too.
    Last edited by maybeacomedian; 05-27-2017 at 05:28 PM.

  4. #4
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    Convicted child-killer Genene Jones charged in another death

    Genene Jones, a former San Antonio nurse convicted in 1984 of killing a child and labeled the “Angel of Death” for suspicions she killed dozens of other infants and children, now faces a second new murder charge.

    Jones, who is in state prison serving a 99-year-term for murder, was indicted Wednesday by a Bexar County grand jury in connection with the the September 1981 death of Rosemary Vega, a 2-year-old girl.

    The same grand jury had issued a murder indictment in late May, accusing her of killing 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer in December 1981. Bail was set at $1 million for each new murder charge.

    In a case dating back more than three decades, the latest indictment alleges that Jones injected Vega with “a substance unknown.” Vega’s mother told journalist Peter Elkind that she recalled watching Jones “push a drug into her daughter’s IV line shortly before she went into cardiac arrest,” according to an article this week published by Texas Monthly and ProPublica.

    Now 66, Jones was suspected of killing more than a dozen — and some say as many as 40 — infants in the pediatric intensive care unit at a San Antonio hospital in the early 1980s.

    After she was convicted for killing a child in Kerrville and given the 99-year term, it was widely thought Jones would never leave prison, but a Texas law designed to reduce prison overcrowding, in effect for only about a decade, entitled Jones to be released on March 1, 2018.

    When this became known to Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, he vowed to develop new charges to keep Jones in prison.

    At a news conference Wednesday, LaHood said the investigation targeting Jones was continuing, with the goal of securing more indictments. A reporter for the San Antonio Express-News was directed to wait in a side room and not allowed to attend or ask questions. Jennifer Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for LaHood, also did not return calls.

    Jones has always maintained her innocence, but has not spoken on the record about any specific baby deaths. She has not yet received a court-appointed lawyer.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...w-11236846.php
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
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    The photographs of some of the children alleged to have been killed by Jones, center, were displayed by the DA’s Office at a Wednesday news conference




    FORMER TEXAS NURSE TO BE ARRAIGNED IN DEATHS OF 5 CHILDREN

    By Spectrum News Staff & Associated Press

    SAN ANTONIO — An imprisoned former nurse who prosecutors believe could be responsible for the deaths of up to 60 Texas children is set to be arraigned on murder charges in the deaths of five children in the early 1980s.

    Genene Jones, who is 67, will be arraigned Thursday in San Antonio. The Bexar County district attorney's office has announced the five indictments over the last year.

    Jones is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences in state prison for the killing of a 15-month-old and the sickening of 4-week-old. She was scheduled to be freed from prison in March under a mandatory release law in place when she was convicted.

    Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood said Wednesday he'll try each new case separately. Jones faces up to life in prison on each charge.

    "This is an enormous step in the right direction to secure justice for these slain children, their families and our community as a whole," said LaHood, who said the investigation continues into other cases.

    During Jones' time working at a San Antonio hospital and a clinic in Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio, children died of unexplained seizures and other complications. LaHood said they'll first try the case of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who investigators say died in 1981 of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug.

    LaHood said Jones was indicted in the cases this year for murder instead of capital murder — which could include the death penalty — because they were "grandfathered into the law at the time."

    LaHood said prosecutors are open to the possibility of a plea bargain but would not comment on what terms would need to be met in order for prosecutors to agree to that.

    "Our goal, my goal is that she takes her last breath from behind bars and she meets the Lord from behind bars," LaHood said.

    Jones' attorney did not immediately return a call Wednesday for comment.

    Prosecutors at Jones' 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children at the Kerrville clinic to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital. Other prosecutors theorized that her tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims so she could appear to be a sort of miracle worker.

    LaHood said Wednesday that current prosecutors "don't really know" her motivation. "To me, evil is evil is evil," he said, "All I know is these children were stolen from family."

    http://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-...-of-5-children
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
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    January 16, 2020

    Baby killer Genene Jones sentenced to life in the death of an S.A. infant; 4 other cases dismissed

    By Elizabeth Zavala
    mysanantonio.com

    Genene Jones, dubbed the “killer nurse” after she was convicted of killing an infant in 1984, was sentenced Thursday morning to life in prison for the death of a San Antonio baby in 1981.

    Jones, 69, was a pediatric nurse at Bexar County Hospital, now University Hospital, at the time of the deaths.

    She had served about a third of her original sentence and was eligible to be released from prison in 2018, but in 2017 she was newly indicted in the deaths of Richard “Ricky” Nelson on July 3, 1981; Rosemary Vega on Sept. 16, 1981; Paul Villarreal on Sept. 24, 1981; Joshua Sawyer on Dec. 12, 1981; and Patrick Zavala on Jan. 17, 1982. All were patients at the hospital and ranged in age from 3 months to 2 years.

    The children were injected with an overdose of a muscle relaxer or an unknown substance, according to court records.

    At a hearing Thursday morning, Jones agreed to plead guilty to killing Joshua Sawyer in exchange for a life sentence and the dismissal of the other four cases.

    Catherine Babbitt, chief of major crimes for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, said Jones will have to serve 20 years before she is eligible for parole.

    “The odds are that she will take her last breath in prison,” Babbitt said after the sentencing, which was held in the 399th state District Court, Judge Frank J. Castro presiding.

    Jones has been in prison since 1984, when she was convicted of killing Chelsea McClellan, who was 15 months old, by injecting her with a fatal dose of a muscle relaxer at a doctor’s office in Kerr County.

    Jones was sentenced to 99 years in that case and received 60 years for a similar attempt on a San Antonio child who survived.

    A law designed to ease prison crowding made her eligible for release in March 2018. But a year before, then-District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” LaHood took five cases to two grand juries, which returned five indictments.

    As part of the plea agreement, all of the other cases were dismissed, but relatives of those children were allowed to give victim impact statements, as did Connie Weeks, Joshua Sawyer’s mother.

    Had Jones been indicted today on those charges, she could have been charged with capital murder-child under 10, a charge that did not exist in the 1980s. That capital offense is punishable by death or life in prison.

    https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...e-14980865.php

  7. #7
    Wilso
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    Why she wasn't given the death penalty in the first place? In fact, why angels of death/nurses who kill never get the death penalty? Are they not heinous? They are serial killers who abused the ultimate position.

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