Killer admits to 12 more slayings; trail began in Kansas

Death penalty sought for Oklahoman in Alabama

? Jeremy Bryan Jones, a suspected serial killer convicted in the rape and murder of an Alabama woman, has admitted at least 12 more slayings in four other states, including Kansas, since 1992, authorities said Wednesday.

“He enjoyed raping and killing,” said Mobile County Sheriff’s Detective Paul Burch.

Jones, 32, of Miami, Okla., faces a possible death penalty Dec. 1 on his Oct. 28 capital murder conviction in the killing of Lisa Marie Nichols, 44, of rural Turnerville, while high on methamphetamines.

He also is charged with killing a teenage girl in Georgia and a woman in Louisiana. He is a suspect in 10 other deaths – seven in Oklahoma, two in Georgia and one in Kansas – and could be linked to the slayings of four Atlanta-area prostitutes, law enforcement officials said at a news conference. That would bring to seven the number of possible victims in the metropolitan Atlanta area alone.

Alabama Atty. Gen. Troy King described Jones as “a monster who would kill without remorse.”

“The only person I ever saw Jeremy Jones express any sorrow for was himself. I think that speaks a lot about the kind of man that Jeremy Jones is,” King said.

King said his office would assist other states in prosecuting Jones. But King is seeking the death penalty for Jones in Alabama and said he has not received an extradition request to send Jones to any other jurisdiction.

King said Alabama authorities would want “very strong assurances” about Jones’ custody before allowing him to leave state prison for prosecution in another state. He said it’s important to the Nichols’ family that his sentence be carried out in Alabama.

“We don’t know where the investigation stands in these other jurisdictions,” King said.

Investigators said they were unable to comment on the other crimes during Jones’ trial. But Burch said Jones gave them the names of victims and locations of the other killings.

He met his victims in various ways, such as in bars, through people he knew, or just driving through a parking lot, Burch said.

Burch said Jones publicly maintained his innocence in the presence of his mother and girlfriend, but privately gave detectives details of the crimes in video and audio statements, information that has been shared with authorities in the other states.

Jones brought up the Atlanta prostitute murders during the months of interrogation, Burch said, and the Atlanta authorities were kept informed.

Jones’ defense attorneys have said he fabricated links to other crimes, but authorities Wednesday felt he was not making them up.

Burch said Jones was “very nonchalant and matter-of-fact” in recounting the rapes and killings.

Sheriff Jack Tillman said the FBI has other cases that fit the Jones murder profile, “not necessarily in Georgia.”

“We will make contact with those agencies,” Tillman said.

Authorities said Jones identified his first victim as 20-year-old Jennifer Judd, who was stabbed to death in Baxter Springs, Kan., on May 11, 1992. His last known victim, Nichols, was raped and killed in her Mobile County rural home, which was set afire, on Sept. 17, 2004, a day after Hurricane Ivan knocked out power to the area.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Kyle Smith said the agency was aware of Jones’ claim.

“We have been in contact with the investigative agencies in Alabama and we are continuing to work the case, but at this time we don’t feel we have sufficient credible evidence to file any charges,” Smith said.

In New Orleans, Jones is charged in the Feb. 14, 2004 strangulation and stabbing of Katherine Collins, 47. The next month, Amanda Greenville, 16, of Douglasville, Ga., was also strangled and stabbed, and Jones has been charged in that slaying.

Jones, a house carpenter, was arrested shortly after the Nichols slaying, using the alias John Paul Chapman, later determined to be a Missouri prisoner. At the time of his Alabama arrest, Jones was wanted in Oklahoma for rape and failure to register in 1997 as a sex offender. He also had 1992 burglary and theft charges in Missouri.