Execution Report: George Jones

George Alarick Jones, 36, was executed by lethal injection on 2 June 2010 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a 22-year-old man.

On 13 April 1993, a body was found in a ditch along a road in Lancaster, a suburb of Dallas. The man had been shot twice in the back of the head at very close range. Police recovered two spent .380 ACP shell casings near the body. The victim was identified as Forest Hall, 22.

The next day, Dallas police officers found Hall's vehicle on a street in Dallas. The car had been stripped of its wheels, stereo, and speakers.

Within a week, a Lancaster policeman was chasing a suspect driving a stolen vehicle. The suspect exited the vehicle and fled on foot, leaving a .380 automatic pistol behind in the car. The pistol was found to be the same weapon used to kill Hall.

Five months later, on 23 September, Derrick Rogers confessed his participation in Hall's murder to Dallas police detectives and a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a written statement, Rogers said that on 13 April, he, George Jones, and two others went to a shopping mall in Dallas to look for someone to rob. They spotted Hall as he got out of his car and went into the mall. When he came out, Rogers and Jones, armed with a .380 automatic pistol, forced him into his car and drove to a secluded road in south Dallas. The others followed in a separate car. Once parked, Jones, 19 ordered Hall out of the car, made him lay down in the grass, and shot him twice in the head. He and Jones then took Hall's car and rejoined the others at a nearby restaurant.

Detectives arrested Jones at his home in south Dallas. In a written confession, he admitted being present when Hall was killed, but he claimed he "accidentally" shot Hall once in self-defense. He admitted that a car stereo and speakers found in his home belonged to the victim.

Jones later claimed that his confession was written by the police. Over his lawyers' objections, the confession was admitted into evidence at his trial.

Rogers' girlfriend testified at Jones' trial and corroborated 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, Rogers, and Hall 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.

The state presented a pawn slip into evidence showing that the tires and wheel rims from Hall's car were sold to a local pawn shop. A forensic examiner testified that Jones' signature was on the slip.

Jones had no prior felony convictions, but the state presented evidence that he had participated in at least five other carjackings and one other murder. On 20 September 1993, Jones and an accomplice abducted Kindra Buckner, 20, drove her to a secluded area, forced her to strip naked, rifled through her purse, and then shot her twice in the head. Fearing that she might have survived, Jones and the accomplice later returned to the scene and shot her in the face with a shotgun. They then burned the car to cover their tracks.

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