Henry Lee Jones

Henry Lee Jones (born August 23, 1963) is an American convicted criminal and serial killer who has been sentenced to death on multiple occasions for the murders of three people in Tennessee and Florida in August 2003. In addition to these crimes, he remains the prime suspect in a fourth killing dating back to 2002, and possibly other murders.

Early life and crimes Henry Lee Jones was born on August 23, 1963, in Cleveland, Mississippi. Little is known about his upbringing, but later on in life, Jones claimed that he grew up without a father and was regularly beaten with various objects by older relatives. At some point during his teens, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he soon would delve into a life of crime and serve several prison sentences for minor offenses.

On October 3, 1981, the then-18-year-old Jones and a 19-year-old accomplice named Jackie Johnson went to the Johnny Harris Pontiac car dealership in Fort Lauderdale, where they planned to steal a car. After they were presented with several models by 45-year-old salesman Joseph Giovanni, they picked a tan 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix and asked to go on a test drive with it. Jones drove the car while Giovanni sat next to him and Johnson sat in the back, and after some time, the pair held Giovanni at gunpoint. After finding a deserted area, all three got out of the car, whereupon Jones and Johnson robbed Giovanni and forced him into the trunk. They then picked up Jones' girlfriend, 17-year-old Annie Mae Robbins, and drove around for two hours until they found an orange grove, where they left Giovanni behind and sped away.

Post-release crimes From the period of 1999 to 2001, Jones was repeatedly jailed for a variety of offenses ranging from stalking, drug possession and violating restraining orders, but either served short sentences or the charges were dropped. The blood-soaked Jones was soon discovered by Young, whom he ordered to help remove the bindings from the bodies and ransack the house, and after searching through it, the pair took the spouses' credit card and some jewellery before fleeing the scene. According to later testimony from Young, Jones threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone about the crimes and even raped him at a rest stop, before the pair made a stop in Mississippi to buy a white four-door Lincoln Town Car. Perez's body was discovered by the housekeeper on the following day and the police were quickly informed. A subsequent autopsy noted multiple abrasions on the victim's anus, wrists and ankles; bite marks on his neck and strangulations marks around his wrists and legs. Most notably, the coroner noted that the killer had slashed Perez's neck several times, with the deepness of each new cut eventually severing his jugular vein. While Jones claimed he was innocent in that case, family members and the prosecutor demanded the death penalty for him. During the proceedings, Jones, who chose to act as his own attorney in spite of attempts from the judge to convince him otherwise, complained that belongings like his legal paperwork, glasses and Bible were left behind in Tennessee. For security reasons, the trial location was moved from Titusville to the Viera Justice Center in Viera.

Throughout the proceedings, Jones questioned the validity of the evidence presented by both the prosecutors and their medical examiner, Dr. Sajid Qaiser, as well as the testimonies of witnesses. At times, he simply complained that he did not have full access to all evidence in the case, and on one occasion apologized about causing confusion in regards to an incident concerning a report and one of the witnesses. He was officially sentenced to death in May 2014, with the verdict being openly welcomed by Perez's father and the father of Keith Gross. After a six-day trial, he was found guilty on four counts of murder (two for premeditated and two for felony murder each) and given four separate death sentences by Justice Mark Ward.

Since then, Jones has repeatedly attempted to have his sentences commuted, but so far has been unsuccessful. His last appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court was denied in 2019, with the court instead upholding the original verdict. As of April 2024, he remains on death row at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.