Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Media Advisory: George Jones scheduled for execution
AUSTIN–Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about George Alarick Jones, who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, June 2, 2010, for the 1993 capital murder of Forest J. Hall.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
On April 13, 1993, Hall’s lifeless body was found in a ditch alongside a road in Lancaster, Texas. Hall had been shot twice in the back of the head at very close range. Police recovered two spent .380 automatic shell casings near Hall’s body.
The following day, Dallas police officers recovered Hall’s vehicle abandoned on a street near Fair Park in Dallas. Hall’s car had been stripped; the tires and rims were missing, as were the car’s stereo and speakers.
Within a week, a Lancaster patrolman involved in a pursuit of a suspected stolen vehicle recovered a .380 automatic pistol that was later found to be the weapon used to kill Hall. The pistol was left behind in the stolen car, after the car’s lone occupant fled on foot.
Five months following Hall’s murder, Derrick Rogers confessed his and Jones’ participation in Hall’s murder to detectives with the Dallas Police Department and a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At trial, Rogers testified that he had known Jones for over two years and that, on the afternoon of April 13, 1993, Rogers and Jones, along with two others, went to a shopping mall in Dallas to look for someone to rob. They first saw Hall get out of his white car and enter the shopping mall. The group then waited, and when Hall left the mall, Rogers and Jones, armed with a .380 automatic pistol, forced Hall into his car and drove to a secluded road in South Dallas. The others followed them in a separate car. Once parked, Jones ordered Hall out of the car and shot him twice in the head as Hall lay down in the grass. Afterwards, Rogers and Jones took Hall’s car and rejoined the others at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant. Rogers detailed his and Jones’s participation in a voluntary written statement given to the detectives on September 23, 1993.
Once Jones had been implicated in the capital murder, the detectives obtained a warrant and then arrested Jones at his home in South Dallas. Within hours, Jones also gave a three-page voluntary written statement admitting his involvement in the murder. Jones also admitted that a car stereo and speakers found in his house belonged to the victim and the tires and rims were pawned at a nearby pawn shop. A forensic document examiner determined that it was in fact Jones who signed the pawn slip for the tires and rims.
The jury also heard from Derrick Rogers’ girlfriend, who confirmed much of Rogers’ testimony. She testified that she saw Jones, armed with a pistol, force Hall into his car and drive away from the shopping mall. She then followed Jones, Hall, and Rogers to a secluded street south of Dallas. There she saw Hall step out of the car with his hands raised as Jones held a gun on him. As she drove away, she heard two gunshots. Later she asked Jones why he killed Hall. Jones replied so he wouldn’t get to see his son.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On March 22, 1995, a Dallas County jury found Jones guilty of capital murder. His conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, which affirmed the conviction and sentence on September 16, 1998. The appeals court denied Jones’ motion for rehearing on December 9, 1998. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Jones’ petition for writ of certiorari on November 8, 1999.
Jones filed a state application for writ of habeas corpus with the trial court on October 16, 1998. The trial court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending the denial of habeas relief. On September 13, 2000, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals adopted the trial court’s findings and conclusions and denied relief.
Jones filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus in a Dallas U.S. district court on September 6, 2001. The district court denied relief in a judgment dated July 23, 2003, and denied Jones’ motion to alter or amend the judgment in an order dated October 8, 2003. However, the district court later granted Jones a certificate of appealability. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied relief on the merits of the COA claims on June 24, 2004, and denied Jones’ motion for rehearing on July 21, 2004. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Jones’ petition for a writ of certiorari on January 10, 2005.
On January 12, 2005, Jones filed a second state application for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he is mentally retarded and thus constitutionally ineligible for execution. After determining that Jones’ second application satisfied the statutory requirements for successive writ applications, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution and remanded Jones’ application to the trial court for consideration. On February 24, 2010, agreeing with the trial court’s conclusion that Jones is not mentally retarded, the appeals court denied relief on the merits of Jones’ second claim. Jones did not seek a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court.
EVIDENCE OF FUTURE DANGEROUSNESS
In addition to facts of the capital murder, the State presented evidence that Jones had actively participated in at least five other aggravated robberies. The facts of the various aggravated robberies are very similar. In each, Jones, along with one or more other individuals, confronted a victim in a public place, and armed with either a handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, or some other weapon, forcibly took the victim’s car. The victim of at least one of these aggravated robberies was shot at several times, and another was maced as he used a public pay phone. The cars that were eventually recovered had been destroyed or stripped of all their specialty equipment, such as the tires, rims, and stereos.
Jones' jury also heard testimony that during one of his car jacking sprees, Jones and an accomplice kidnapped and killed a young woman named Kindra Buckner. Jones and his accomplice drove their 20-year-old victim to a secluded spot, forced her to strip naked, searched the contents of her purse, and then shot her twice in the head. Fearing that Buckner might have survived, Jones and his cohort later returned to the scene and shot her in the face with a shotgun. They then burned the car to cover their tracks. This particular murder occurred five months after Jones killed Forest Hall.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For additional information and statistics, please go to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website,
www.tdcj.state.tx.us.
www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=3336