Opinion ID: 213686
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Murders and the Trial

Text: Shortly after midnight on January 17, 2004, Ronyale Hearne arrived at Anthony McClendon's apartment in Gary, Indiana, to pick up her two-year-old son A.M. Jones v. State, No. 45A03-0407-CR-339, at 3, 831 N.E.2d 855 (Ind.App. June 30, 2005) (unpublished opinion) ( Jones I ). Inside, Hearne discovered that the apartment had been the site of a brutal home invasion that had left three of the apartment's occupants deadMcClendon, Jimmie Jones, and Laurice Jones. Young A.M. was alive but mortally wounded. Hearne rushed him to the hospital, but he died there of multiple gunshot wounds. Two days later, law enforcement officers received a tip that James Parks, Lenzo Aaron, and petitioner Antonio Jones had killed A.M. and the others in the course of a robbery. The informant claimed to have received this information directly from Parks himself. Based on that tip, Gary police arrested Jones and charged him with four counts of murder.
When the case was tried, the prosecution's star witness was Lenzo Aaron, who testified pursuant to a plea agreement in which he admitted participating in the robbery and murders, but under which all murder charges against him were dropped. On the night of the murders, Aaron explained, he, Parks, and Jones were at a party when McClendon called to ask Jones for help in buying a quantity of cocaine for $6,000. According to Aaron, Jones needed that cash himself and decided to rob McClendon. Aaron and Parks agreed to help, expecting that they would receive equal shares of the proceeds. According to Aaron, the three men then traveled to McClendon's apartment, where Jones knocked at the front door and asked to be let in. When someone answered, Jones rushed into the apartment, firing his weapon and demanding to know where the money was. Jones and Parks then went into the rear area of the apartment, where, still according to Aaron, they killed McClendon and Jimmie Jones. Afterwards, Aaron said, Parks demanded that he kill Laurice Jones, but Aaron claimed that he left the apartment rather than hurt anyone. (Aaron insisted that, although he brought the AK-47 to McClendon's apartment, he never shot anybody the entire time he was there.) Laurice and A.M. were both still alive when Aaron last saw them. Aaron said he heard two final gunshots as he walked away from the apartment. The three men then went their separate ways. For his part in the crimes, Aaron claimed he received only $230. Jones' defense vigorously challenged Aaron's credibility. In her opening statement, Jones' attorney noted that Aaron was the only witness who placed Jones at the scene of the crime. She asserted that Aaron did so only in order to get the deal he got. They have no evidence, the attorney claimed, other than a man who made a tremendous deal. A tremendous deal to be able to sit here and tell you anything that they need him to say. As a parting shot at Aaron's credibility, Jones' attorney described Aaron as someone who has a whole lot to lose, someone willing to say, `Oh, you want me to say [Jones] did it? Okay, [Jones] did it.'
In an attempt to counter Jones' attack on the foundations of its case, the prosecution requested and received the trial court's permission to present testimony detailing the tip that had led to Jones' arrest. The prosecution argued that Jones had opened the door to such testimony by repeatedly implying that Aaron's testimony was the only evidence of Jones' guilt. Tr. 590-93. Over Jones' objection, the court agreed to allow the prosecution to discuss the informant's tip, reasoning that one implication of [Jones'] questioning could be that the police are all over God's creation looking for evidence and they found nothing to connect your client to this [crime]. Tr. 594. As a result, the court explained, it would allow testimony about the informant's tip for the limited purpose of showing course of investigation, which takes it outside of the hearsay rule. Id. The prosecution then questioned Gary police detectives Lorenzo Davis and Michael Jackson regarding the tip that initially led them to suspect Jones' involvement in the murders. Their extensive testimony went far beyond any arguably legitimate course of investigation use and provided a detailed but double-hearsay account of the crimes. The prosecution was even allowed to bolster the credibility of the non-testifying tipster, a point that would have been completely irrelevant if the tip were not being used to prove the truth of its contents. According to Detective Jackson, a man had contacted police two days after the murders and claimed to have information about them. The man refused to identify himself or provide any information but said he would call back later. When the man called back the next day, he identified himself as Jeffrey Lewis and said that he wanted to talk about what had happened at McClendon's apartment. Detective Jackson met with Lewis the next day, and Lewis told Jackson who committed the [shooting], what took place, the type of weapons that they used, and where all of these individuals were or lived. Specifically, Lewis claimed that his brother James Parks had confessed to Lewis that he, Aaron, and Jones had committed the four murders. According to Lewis, Parks had told him that the three men were at a party together before going to rob McClendon's apartment. Lewis also said that his brother had supposedly told him the motive for the robbery: Jones needed the money to pay his rent. Lewis also told the police that Parks had provided a number of specific details about the shootings. The men had gained entry into McClendon's apartment, Lewis said, by simply knocking and asking to be let in. Once inside, Lewis told the detectives, Jones declared that they couldn't leave any witnesses, and Parks told Aaron to finish off Laurice Jones. Lewis also said that his brother had told him that Jones and the others had made off with a large sum of money [from] the residence. Lewis said the murder weapons were a.22-caliber handgun, a .45-caliber handgun, and an AK-47 assault rifle, and he provided descriptions of the .45-caliber and the AK-47. A man named Shawn Dixon had purchased the AK-47 for Parks, and Lewis had seen Jones with the .45-caliber a lot of times. According to Lewis, Parks still had the AK-47, but the handguns had been discarded in a swampy area or waterway near Chase Street in Gary. This detailed and damning double-hearsay was allowed despite repeated objections by the defense, always on the theory that it was showing only the course of the investigation and responding to Jones' defense that the only (admissible) evidence linking him to the crimes came from Aaron pursuant to his generous plea agreement. Despite these objections, the trial court made no effective effort to caution the jury not to consider Lewis' statement for its truth, though such instructions should have been given if there were any merit to the rationale for allowing the testimony in the first place. The court never instructed the jury that Detective Davis' testimony about the Lewis statement could not be considered for the truth of its contents. During Detective Jackson's lengthy and detailed testimony about the Lewis statement, the court told the jury that responses to only three specific questions about the Lewis statement should not be considered for their truth. In closing arguments, the prosecution further bolstered its case with the double-hearsay from Lewis. The prosecutor reminded the jury that it was Lewis' information that had initially caused the police to investigate Jones: They were already looking for Shawn Dixon and the AK-47 purchase. They were already going up and down ... trying to find the guns that were thrown. And Lenzo Aaron was not arrested until January 26. They were already, already looking for three people. Three different guns and those three people were [Parks, Aaron, and Jones], long before Lenzo Aaron talked to the police. Tr. 1898-99. In its rebuttal closing argument, the prosecution continued: You now know that Aaron is not the only reason that we've been here for the last two weeks. He is not. They followed their investigation ... the information that [they] received was to go after Aaron first, because Aaron is the weakest link. And that is just what they did. As far as some reward, [Lewis] never asked for it. He said from the beginning, it's not about the money. It's about the baby. That's what it's about. Tr. 1954. Following closing arguments, the trial court issued its final jury instructions, none of which imposed any limits on treatment of the Lewis statement. The case then went to the jury, which convicted Jones on all four counts of murder. The trial court sentenced Jones to a total of 240 years in prison.