2 weeks Ago By Niamh Spence
A Texas nurse's dark crimes were undiscovered for years until a doctor discovered a bottle she had used. Texas nurse Genene Jones, dubbed 'Angel of Death', is thought to have been behind 60 children's deaths in the 1970s and 1980s. Working as a nurse, she went largely undetected despite numerous children and babies falling ill where she worked and later dying.
She was placed on trial in 1984 for the murder of 5-month-old Chelsea McClellan, and after being found guilty was originally sentenced to 99 years in prison. After her incarceration , she was later charged with other infant and child deaths with a subsequent 60 year term added to her sentence. Jones is unlikely to be released now until she is 87, and will most likely die behind bars.
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Here is where many children visiting the clinic began to face breathing problems and fall ill, needing to be rushed into hospital. In this role she treated 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan for a routine immunisation, which upon administering it Chelsea had a seizure. The little girl was rushed to hospital in San Antonio but on the way, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
After the incident, Dr Holland became suspicious and tests revealed a powerful muscle relaxant called succinylcholine in Chelsea’s body. Dr Holland then found a bottle of it in her clinic with needle puncture marks in the lid as though some had been used – despite no record of it being needed or authorised. It turned out the bottle was partly filled with saline in an attempt to cover up that some of the succinylcholine had been used.
Only Dr Holland and Jones had access to the drug and she informed the authorities and dismissed the nurse. Investigators looking into other children's deaths were then able to link them to Jones, and in 1984 she stood trial for Chelsea's murder. Prosecutors speculated that Jones, then 33, had injected children with drugs to demonstrate the need for a paediatric intensive care unit at the nearby hospital.
Other prosecutors said Jones was taking her victims to the brink of death so that she could take action and save them – looking like a heroic miracle worker. She was found guilty and sentenced to 99 years. Later that year, Jones went to trial again for the poisoning of four-week-old Rolando Santos in January 1982.
Lawyers said she had injected Rolando with the blood-thinning drug Heparin. Thankfully this time, her victim survived. Again, Jones was found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Whilst serving time in prison, Jones was subject to a law in place at the time of her conviction that was designed to deal with prison overcrowding, and as a result she was facing only serving one third of her sentence and would get automatic parole in 2018. In 2017, many knew that Jones was due for release and were determined that wouldn’t happen. Prosecutors filed five new murder charges against her that were linked to the deaths of babies in her care while she worked at what was then called the Bexar County Hospital.
The charges related to the killing of Richard ‘Ricky’ Nelson, Rosemary Vega, Paul Villarreal and Joshua Sawyer, all in 1981; and Patrick Zavala in 1982. All were patients at the hospital and ranged in age from three months to two years. Court records indicate all the children were injected with an overdose of either muscle relaxers or pain killers.
n January this year, Jones, now 69, made a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to the death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer. The charges relating to the other deaths were dropped.
Joshua’s mum, Connie Weeks, said that she was glad that Jones would never be free again as she told Jones in court: "I hope for you to live a long and miserable life behind bars. Goodbye." Pregnant woman's suspicious death exposes shocking secret in Massachusetts Police Department Minneapolis white man who 'shot Black neighbor' working in yard arrested only after 'community pressure' Rosemary Vega’s mum also shared her impact statement as she told 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 your Bible." After the plea deal was agreed, a Judge sentenced Jones to life in prison as they told her that her plea deal ‘doesn’t come close to what you did to these families and the tragedies that you caused'.
They added: "You took God’s most precious gift – babies, defenceless babies,’ he said. ‘I’m going to follow this agreement that you agreed with your attorney and the state. But I truly believe that your ultimate judgement is in the next life.
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