MOBILE, Ala. - Suspected serial killer and death row inmate Jeremy Bryan Jones had his capital murder conviction for the rape and murder of a Mobile County woman upheld Friday by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
Sentenced to death in 2005 for killing 43-year-old Lisa Marie Nichols and attempting to burn her body in her rural home, Jones is being held on death row at Holman prison near Atmore. An execution date has not been set and could be years away as the appeal proceeds.
At the time of his conviction, Jones, of Miami, Okla., also was charged in the deaths of Amanda Greenwell, a 16-year-old in Douglasville, Ga., and Katherine Collins, 45, of New Orleans.
During the Nichols investigation, authorities said that Jones had confessed to at least a dozen slayings including killing Forsyth County hairdresser Patrice Endres who disappeared from her hair salon in 2004.
A Mobile County jury voted 10-2 for the death penalty in the Nichols slaying. Jones was arrested on Sept. 21, 2004, within days of the murder, and confessed.
The appeals court's order says the death sentence ``was neither disproportionate nor excessive,'' and the court found no trial error to reverse the conviction.
Jones filed an appeal after his bid for a new trial was rejected. A death sentence brings an automatic appeal in Alabama, and other courts will review his case.
Among other appeal issues, Jones claimed his trial should have been moved from Mobile because of publicity.
But the appeals court said although some of the media coverage mentioned that Jones was a suspected serial killer, ``we find that most of the reports were factual and relatively objective rather than accusatory, inflammatory, or sensational. Therefore, we conclude that the materials did not contain prejudicial information.''
Jones also claimed that he was under the influence of methamphetamines before he was arrested, but the appeal court said the evidence doesn't indicate that influenced his confession.
The court noted that Jones has a long history of drug abuse, but said that was no excuse for murder.
Jones' psychological expert testified that Jones suffered from attention deficit disorder and schizo-affective disorder, besides drug abuse.
The state's expert countered that Jones' mental and social problems stemmed from his voluntary drug use, a self-centered personality, and an anti-social behavior disorder.
Both experts agreed that Jones suffered from some type of mental and emotional problem, but the disorders would not have caused him to commit rape and murder, the appeals court said.
``Accordingly, this Court finds that none of Jones' mental problems caused him to commit the vile acts in the present case,'' the ruling said.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Thursday
June 19th, 2025
11:59PM
