OH: DNA evidence doesn’t match inmate serving time for murder

New lab test results show that DNA recovered from a murder scene in Summit County didn’t come from an Akron man who has served 17 years of a life sentence for the crime.

Dewey Jones, 50, who has always maintained that he was innocent, predicted during a prison interview last year that DNA testing would show he was not a murderer. Jones was convicted in March of 1995 for robbing and killing 71-year-old Neal Rankin, who was considered a family friend.

“I’ve done some things I’m not proud of in life and made some bad choices," Jones told The Dispatch from the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield. “But I’ve not hurt or killed anyone.”

The tests, conducted by DNA Diagnostics Center of Fairfield, north of Cincinnati, found a partial male DNA profile on the piece of rope used to tie Rankin's wrists, the knife used to cut the rope and pieces of Rankin’s shirt sleeves. None of it matched Jones when compared to his DNA.

Attorneys from the Ohio Innocence Project, who are representing Jones, believe the results prove Jones’ innocence and want him set him free.

“This is significant because we know that the perpetrator touched the items revealing the unknown male DNA profile,” said Carrie Wood, Jones’ attorney from the Innocence Project office in Cincinnati. “With DNA test results excluding Dewey Jones, along with other evidence demonstrating Mr. Jones’s innocence, our hope is that the court will overturn Mr. Jones’ conviction.”

Prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General's office are handling the case. Lisa Peterson Hackley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, said prosecutors are reviewing the court filings and DNA test results. They had no other comment.

The test results were filed in court today, and Wood filed motions today asking Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands to either overturn Jones’ conviction or grant him a new trial. Prosecutors have until late May to respond, and Rowlands is scheduled to rule on the case on July 9.

Jones’ case was highlighted in the Dispatch series “Test of Convictions,” which exposed Ohio's flawed evidence-retention and DNA-testing systems. The 2008 series, which can be found online at www.Dispatch.com/reports, has led to the exoneration of four men and proved the guilt of four others based on DNA testing during the past three years.

The Dispatch reviewed more than 300 cases with the Ohio Innocence Project and highlighted 30 prisoners as prime candidates for testing, including Jones.

As part of the project, attorneys for the Innocence Project then filed Jones’ request for DNA testing, which has been dragging through the court system for more than four years.

Jones, who has prior convictions for drug trafficking and passing bad checks, had known Rankin for years before the victim was shot twice in the head at his home on Feb. 13, 1993. Family members for Rankin couldn’t be reached for comment.

There were no eye-witnesses to the crime and no physical evidence tying Jones to the crime scene. He told police that he was at home and sick on the night of the murder.

But neighbors testified that they saw Jones leaving the victim’s home the day before his body was found. Both of those witnesses originally identified someone else while looking through police evidence, according to court records.

The main witness in the case against Jones was Willie Caton. He told police that while the two men were in jail together, Jones told him the gun recovered by police was not the gun used in the murder and that police would never find the real murder weapon. Caton also said that Jones later confessed to shooting Rankin. Wood said the testimony provided by Caton and others was not credible.

Caton was killed in 2000 after he stole two vehicles, was involved in a high-speed chase with police and then was shot in a confrontation with the authorities.

Jones’ daughter Brittany, 25, of Akron, one of seven children, is hopeful that the DNA testing results mean that she will be reunited with her father at some point this year.

“I was 7 when he was sent to prison and never had a chance for a relationship with him,” Brittany said. “My wish at Christmas was always to have him home, and maybe that will happen this year.”

Original report here




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