Genene Jones killer nurse sentenced to life in jail in plea deal after woman suspected of killing up to 60 children pleaded guilty to murder of child in 1981.
A former Texas nurse suspected of murdering dozens of young children decades ago was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to killing an 11-month-old boy in 1981.
The plea deal comes as Genene Anne Jones, 69, had been expected to stand trial beginning next month for the murder of the child, Joshua Earl Sawyer.
Charges in the deaths of four other babies were dropped as part of Thursday’s agreement the San Antonio Express-News reports.
The plea deal follows accusations that the then San Antonio area nurse and alleged serial killer had injected children in her care with toxic levels of either pain killers or muscle relaxers.
‘Ms. Jones, something has to be said for you taking the plea to life on this murder,’ District Judge Frank J. Castro told the former nurse appearing in court KSAT reported.
‘But it doesn’t come close to what you did to these families and the tragedies that you caused. You took God’s most precious gift — babies, defenseless, innocent.’
‘But I truly believe,’ Castro continued, ‘that your ultimate judgment is in the next life.’
Victim’s mother: ‘I hope for you to live a long and miserable life behind bars,’
As part of the plea deal, Jones had to face the families of children she is believed to have killed as they shared victim impact testimonies.
Several held up photos of the children they had lost.
‘You should have to serve one year for every year of life you robbed from the babies that you murdered,’ Connie Weeks, Joshua Sawyer’s mother, said during her statement.
‘Although that’s not possible, you should definitely serve the remainder of your life in prison for the babies lives that you have shortened.’
‘(We) are glad today that you will never see the day of light as a free woman and your life will end in captivity for killing my son. So I will leave you with this: I hope for you to live a long and miserable life behind bars,’ Weeks reiterated.
Catherine Babbitt, chief of major crimes with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, described Jones’ victims as not only being children, but often critically ill children, and for her to decide on her watch who lived and who died, ‘nothing short of evil’.
Rosemary Vega Cantu, the mother of Rosemary Vega, said to Jones, ‘I waited 38 years of my life to tell you I will never forgive you. You changed my life and my family. I trusted you. I trusted you with my daughter. I pray to God you never come out to hurt no more babies in the world. I can’t believe you’re still asking for a Bible.’
Previously convicted of killing a 15-month-old girl
Jones previously served time after being convicted for the killing of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan.
She was sentenced to 99 years in prison in 1984, but would have been released in 2018 because of a state law meant to relieve prison overcrowding.
Prosecutors filed new charges in 2017.
At the time, former Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood said evidence showed Jones killed Joshua Sawyer with a deadly dose of Dilantin, an anti-seizure medication – while he was a patient at Bexar County Hospital in San Antonio, now called University Hospital.
LaHood previously said his office suspected Jones was responsible for the deaths of almost 60 children. Jones worked at hospitals in the San Antonio area for about four years, LaHood said.
During that time, pediatric units showed a sharp spike in infant deaths during the shifts Jones worked.
