Former Nurse Accused Of Killing About 60 Kids In The ’80s

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A nurse from Texas who is in prison for the 1982 murder of a toddler, has been charged with murder in the death of an infant a year earlier. Authorities also said that they think she may have killed up to 60 young kids around that time.

66-Year-Old Genene Jones, is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences at a Gatesville prison for the killing of 15-month-old Chelsea McClelland and the sickening of a 4-week-old boy who survived.

She had given the girl a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant and the boy received a large injection of a blood thinner.

Jones was due to be released next March under a mandatory release law that was in place when she was convicted. However, on Thursday, the Bexar County district attorney’s office announced she has been charged in the 1981 death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who died of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug, Dilantin.

During the time Jones was working in hospitals and clinics in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas, a number of children died of unexplained seizures and other complications.

At a news conference on Friday in San Antonio, District Attorney Nico LaHood said that investigators believe Jones may have killed some or possibly all of those children because they died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts.

“She’s been suspected in dozens of infant deaths and she’s only been held accountable in one,” he said.

It’s not clear why Jones’ actions were not detected earlier. However Sam Millsap, a previous district attorney in Bexar County, said that medical records at the San Antonio hospital at one point were accidently destroyed, which is hampering efforts by investigators to prove their suspicions.

Prosecutors at Jones’ 1984 murder trial said that Jones lethally injected children to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital.

Other prosecutors theorized that her tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims, making herself appear to be a kind of miracle worker.

LaHood said that the new murder charge is based on fresh evidence which came to light and a review of old evidence. The deaths of some of the other kids are being re-examined and that additional charges may be coming.

Jones was consistently denied parole over the years but was due to be released next March after serving a third of her sentence under a mandatory release law adopted in 1977 to help alleviate prison overcrowding. The law was overhauled 10 years later.

Jones, whose case has been chronicled in two books, a TV movie and numerous articles, was “emotional” when she was served an arrest warrant Thursday, LaHood said.

“We have every reason to believe that she fully expected to get out next year,” he said.

“We will do our best to ensure that Genene Jones takes her very last breath behind bars,” LaHood said.