CHELSEA MCCLELLAN - 15 mo (1982) - /Convicted: Pediatric nurse, Genene Jones - San Antonio/Kerrville, TX

Baby-killing Texas nurse set to walk free
updated 9:37 AM EDT, Wed August 21, 2013


Houston (CNN) -- Back in 1982, Chelsea McClellan -- just 15 months old -- needed immunizations.

It was routine stuff, so Chelsea's mother took her to a local clinic in Kerrville, Texas. What happened there was anything but routine.

That's because Genene Jones was the nurse on duty. Chelsea's mother recalled the day.

"She gave her her first shot in her left thigh and she immediately started gasping for air," said Petti McClellan-Wiese. "Gave her another one, and she immediately just went limp and quit breathing."

In the chaos of rushing Chelsea from the clinic to the hospital, Jones somehow slipped into the ambulance and gave the little girl a third shot.

McClellan-Wiese would learn later that the nurse had injected her daughter with a drug called Succinylcholine, which causes muscle relaxation and short term paralysis. It stopped Chelsea's heart.
'I though it was absolutely impossible'

Jones was convicted of infanticide and sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing Chelsea, plus 60 years for injuring another child.

She maintains that she did nothing wrong.

For Chelsea's parents, the verdict was bitter sweet. Their daughter was gone but her killer would spend the rest of her life behind bars.

At least that's what they thought.

But it turns out, Jones is set to walk free in a matter of a few years.

She is scheduled to be released from prison as early as May 2018 because of an old Texas law designed to prevent prison overcrowding.

The Mandatory Release law allows inmates convicted of violent crimes between 1977 and 1987 to be automatically released if their "good behavior" credit plus their time served equals their sentence. The law was changed in 1987 to exclude violent criminals, but it isn't retroactive.

So now McClellan-Wiese and Andy Kahan, a victim's advocate for the city of Houston, are desperately trying to find other mothers whose babies may also have been killed by Jones.

A new conviction could keep her locked up.

Kahan says that two mothers have already reached out to him, including Marina Rodriguez.

Rodriguez lost her son in 1981 after, she says, Jones gave him a shot at a San Antonio clinic. At just 5 months old, he had a heart attack and died.

"All of a sudden he turned blue, and all of a sudden, I started hearing code blue. And then of course they put me to the side because I'm a young mommy and I'm freaking out," she said.

Back then, Rodriguez was 15 years old. She couldn't read and was too young to afford a lawyer. Her parents were migrant farmers.

When asked how she would feel if Jones were to walk free, she said she couldn't contemplate the possibility.

"She's not getting out! She's not going to get out! If my son has to be exhumed to prove that she murdered him, then that's the step we'll take. They're not dealing with a little girl anymore, this is a woman now," Rodriguez said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/us/texas-killer-nurse/?iref=obinsite

Not sure if this belongs here - but the story is just horrendous.

DA fights to keep baby-killing nurse behind bars
By Anna Gonzalez and Ben Bamsey
updated3:44 PM EDT, Tue October 29, 2013

Editor's Note: Following HLN's Raising America broadcast on October 3, Bexar County, Texas, Criminal District Attorney Susan D. Reed is following through on her promise to take another look at the Genene Jones investigation. Reed first met Marina Rodriquez, a mother who lost her son on Jones' watch in 1981, live on Raising America. The D.A. is meeting with Rodriguez and another mother, Petti McClellan, for the first time Tuesday afternoon. Jones was convicted of killing McClellan's daughter, Chelsea, at a clinic in Kerrville, Texas, in 1982. Wednesday at 12p ET on HLN, we will learn exactly where the case stands following their meeting.

It's been called the Death Shift: 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. inside a pediatric intensive care unit at a Texas hospital. Babies who were in stable condition stopped breathing. Hearts that were beating without a problem came to a halt.

The nurse on duty at Bexar County Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas: Genene Jones. She was a licensed vocational nurse at the hospital from 1978 to 1982. A former co-worker told HLN that Jones would routinely play "cat and mouse" with newborns -- taking them to the edge of death and sometimes bringing them back.

Jones left Bexar County in March 1982 to work at a private practice in Kerrville, Texas. In 1984, she was convicted of murdering a baby by injecting her with powerful drugs. Later that year, she was also convicted of injuring another baby during her time at Bexar County.

Prosecutors suspected Jones of killing 46 other babies, but Sam Millsap, the Bexar County district attorney at the time of Jones’ trials, said he faced many obstacles when it came to pressing additional charges.

Raymond Fuchs, the Bexar County Assistant District Attorney, told the New York Times in 1984 that 9,000 pounds of documents had been shredded. The spokesperson for the hospital at the time, Jeffry Duffield, told the Times the shredding had nothing to do with the investigation and was part of normal protocol.

“Most murder investigations begin with a clearly defined victim – the body on the floor with a bullet wound in the chest. And in this one, we started with nothing more than a tip," Millsap told HLN. "Establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is enormously difficult."

Jones was given sentences of 99 and 60 years in prison for the respective crimes. At the time of her trial, Millsap was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “There will be no additional indictments of Genene Jones. No useful purpose will be served. I think [she] will spend the rest of her life in jail.”

But because of a legal loophole, Jones is set to go free in less than five years. She's earned time off for good behavior and because of that, coupled with inmate reduction policies, she's set to be released in 2018. That sparked the recent increase in interest and activity in the case.

Now, nearly 30 years after Jones' original conviction, Bexar County District Attorney Susan D. Reed is pulling out dusty boxes with case information and reviewing the evidence. Reed is also in touch with mothers who suspect Jones in their babies' death.

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/09/23/genene-jones-baby-deaths

DA Pushes for Baby Killer to Stay Behind Bars

Updated: Wednesday, July 30 2014, 10:11 PM CDT

SAN ANTONIO - Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed tells News 4 San Antonio she's concerned that former nurse Genene Jones could be released from prison sooner than her scheduled mandatory release in 2018.

"She was under investigation for killing 46 children in our community, 46 little babies," said Reed.

From 1981 to 1982, Jones worked in the pediatric ICU of what's now University Hospital. In 1984, she was convicted of killing 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan in Kerrville.

Prosecutors also went after Jones for injuring Roland Santos. Santos, who is now 32 years old, was featured in a video Reed showed a parole board on Tuesday afternoon.

Santos was 18 months old when he nearly bled to death after Jones injected him with a blood thinner. Jones was sentenced to life in prison but is scheduled for mandatory release in February of 2018, due to the mandatory release law.

Both Reed and Kerr County District Attorney Scott Monroe went to Jones' parole hearing in Angleton, Texas.

Reed fears Jones could be paroled sooner on a medical parole. "I've gotten wind that she has a medical issue," Reed went on to say.

Jones is currently behind bars at the Carole Young Medical Facility in Dickinson, located in Galveston County.

Reed says she wants Jones to stay behind bars and is continuing to find evidence linking the former nurse to any baby deaths she been suspected of more than 30 years ago, since a murder charge doesn't have a statute of limitation.

"I've got to have some faith that people who do parole down there understand what a monster she is, and just keep her where she won't hurt any child again or anybody."

http://www.news4sanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/da-pushes-convicted-baby-killer-stay-behind-bars-14039.shtml?wap=0&

Parole board considers baby killer's release

Author: Robert Arnold, Investigative Reporter, rarnold@kprc.com
Published On: Aug 06 2014 06:52:03 AM CDT   Updated On: Aug 06 2014 10:32:21 PM CDT



HOUSTON -
Members of the Texas Board of Pardons are considering whether former pediatric nurse Genene Jones should be released from prison.

During a parole review hearing in Angleton on Wednesday, Victim's Rights Advocate Andy Kahan testified against Jones' release.

"This is probably one of the most cold-blooded, diabolical, heinous serial killers ever to live on the face of the earth," said Kahan.

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Jones was convicted in 1984 of killing 15-month-old Chelsea McLellan by giving her an overdose of muscle relaxants. Jones was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

McLellan's mother, Petti McLellan-Wiese, also spoke to the parole board Wednesday via phone.

Jones is also a suspect in the deaths of more than 40 infants during her time as a pediatric nurse in San Antonio and Kerrville. 

However, court records show that since so much of the evidence in those cases was destroyed during the late 70s and early 80s by the now-shuttered hospital Jones worked for, she was only convicted of one murder.

Kahan said he is confident Jones will be denied release, but adds it will only be a temporary denial of her freedom.

"By statute and by the law in the state of Texas she must be legally released late 2017 or early 2018 depending on her behavior," said Kahan.

Jones was sentenced under an old Texas law meant to alleviate prison overcrowding. That law, which was repealed by the Texas legislature, allowed violent offenders like Jones to accrue so-called "good time."

This means for every day a prisoner showed good behavior behind bars they were allowed to knock a day off the end of the time they are required to remain in prison before the state is required to grant them parole.

Since Local 2 Investigates began reporting on this issue nearly two years ago, Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed announced she was re-opening the old cases against Jones. Reed said she is hoping enough evidence can be found to prosecute Jones on at least one other case and keep her in prison.

Even though the state has to release Jones in 2018, Texas law requires that she be granted a parole review every one to three years.
As for her current parole review, the board will make a decision by next week.


http://www.click2houston.com/news/families-of-murdered-children-to-speak-on-angel-of-death-parole/27330316

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