Randall Jones was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for two murders
According to court documents Randall Jones would rob two people sleeping in their truck and in the end would fatally shoot the pair: Matthew Paul Brock and Kelly Lynn Perry
Randall Jones would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Randall Jones Now
DC Number: 111508
Name: JONES, RANDALL
Race: WHITE
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 05/07/1968
Initial Receipt Date: 05/04/1988
Current Facility: UNION C.I.
Current Custody: MAXIMUM
Current Release Date: DEATH SENTENCE
Randall Jones Case
During the evening of July 26, 1987, Jones and his codefendant, Chris Reesh, went target shooting with a 30-30-caliber rifle near Rodman Dam in Putnam County. Jones’s car became stuck in the sand pits. At about midnight, they flagged down a fisherman who was leaving the area and asked if he could pull them out. The fisherman indicated that he could not but told them to seek help from the driver of a Chevrolet pickup truck parked in the parking lot. Inside the cab of the pickup Matthew Paul Brock and Kelly Lynn Perry were sleeping.
Between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m., a twelve-year-old boy who was camping at the Rodman Dam Campground awoke to the sound of three gunshots fired in rapid succession. Later that morning, a Rodman Dam concession worker noticed cigarette packets, broken glass, and blood in the parking lot. She followed a trail of blood and drag marks across the parking lot for about 160 yards to a wooded area where she discovered Brock’s body lying in the underbrush. She called the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. During the search of the area, deputies discovered Perry’s partially clothed body about twenty-five feet deeper into the underbrush.
At trial, Dr. Bonofacia Flora, a forensic pathologist, testified that Brock died instantly from two wounds to the head from a high-powered rifle. Perry died from a single shot to the forehead, also caused by a high-powered rifle.
Matthew Brock’s brother and sister-in-law testified to having seen the victim’s pickup, while in Jones’s possession, parked at a convenience store in Green Cove Springs at approximately 7 a.m. on July 27. They observed bullet holes in the windshield and a 30-30-caliber rifle inside. Richard Brock confronted Jones, who was a stranger to him, and asked him where he got the truck. Jones told him he had just purchased the truck for $4,000 and drove away.
On August 16, Jones was arrested in Kosciusko, Mississippi, by the Mississippi Highway Patrol for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. The next day, Detective David Stout and Lieutenant Chris Hord of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Jones in Mississippi. Lieutenant Hord testified that after advising Jones of his Miranda [v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966)] rights, Jones gave a statement implicating himself at the scene but blaming Reesh for having shot both victims. Jones admitted driving the pickup to Mississippi, where he planned to get rid of it. In addition to signing a waiver-of-rights form, Jones also signed a consent to search the trailer in which he had been living at the Lighthouse Children’s Home in Mississippi. In the trailer, Detective Stout recovered pay stubs from Perry’s employer in Palatka bearing her fingerprint. A calendar bearing Perry’s name was also recovered from the bottom of a nearby dumpster.
On August 20, Jones was transported from Mississippi to Florida. Lieutenant Hord testified that at the outset of the trip, he reminded Jones that his Miranda rights were still in effect. Jones then volunteered a second statement which was reduced to writing and signed after their arrival at the Putnam County jail. In this statement, Jones admitted that his earlier statement was true, except that he had reversed his and Reesh’s roles in the murder.
The state’s case was completed with the testimony of Rhonda Morrell, who was Jones’s ex-fiancee. She testified that Randall Jones had told her that he had taken her father’s rifle for target shooting and that “he had shot those two people. He didn’t remember doing it, but he had done it.” She also testified that Jones had told her that he had pawned the rifle, and she identified Jones’s signature on a pawn ticket dated August 19, 1987. The rifle was retrieved from a Jacksonville gun and pawn shop.
Randall Jones offered no evidence during the guilt phase. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges.