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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
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Ex-Nurse Dubbed ‘Angel of Death’ Indicted for More Murders

A former Texas nurse who has spent the last 33 years in prison for the murder of a 15-month-old girl has been indicted on accusations that she killed two other young children in cases dating back to the 1980s.

SAN ANTONIO (CN) – A former Texas nurse who has spent the last 33 years in prison for the murder of a 15-month-old girl has been indicted on accusations that she killed two other young children in cases dating back to the 1980s.

Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood on Wednesday announced that a grand jury charged Genene Jones in the September 1981 death of 2-year-old Rosemary Vega.

The same San Antonio grand jury in late May handed down a separate count charging Jones, 66, in the murder of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer.

Jones was sentenced in 1984 to concurrent prison terms of 99 years and 60 years for the death of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and for injecting a 4-week-old boy with Haparin who survived the attack.

She is scheduled for release from a state prison in March under a 1977 mandatory release law that LaHood said she was grandfathered in under.

Jones has long been suspected in the deaths of dozens of infants and young children in the 1980s while she worked in the pediatric intensive care unit at a local hospital, for which she was labeled the “Angel of Death.”

“As I have said before, our focus is to hold Genene Jones accountable for as many children’s deaths as the evidence will support,” LaHood said at a Wednesday news conference. “For that reason, this will continue to be an open investigation.”

Jones’ bail was set at $1 million.

After taking office in 2015, LaHood approved a task force to investigate Jones, according to the district attorney’s office. In a news release last month, LaHood called Jones “pure evil” and said she will be extradited back to San Antonio to await trial on the new charges after her release.

While LaHood admitted that older cases can present challenges, he said he was confident the evidence will support conviction on both new murder charges.

“The evidence we presented was legal and ethical and I think that it will show that Ms. Jones is guilty of murder,” he said. “That’s why we’ve taken our time. We’ve done our due diligence, we have a strong team working on this case, [and] we’ve thought of all the legal issues.”

Jones faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted. She is currently incarcerated at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

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Categories / Criminal

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