For more than 3 decades, Donald Allen Jones, 60, lived on death row.
He was never executed, but died Saturday, Aug. 21, in a Columbia hospital from a stroke, according to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford.
Jones had been on death row since 1984 and was the state’s 2nd-longest serving inmate on death row.
He was convicted in the 1983 shooting death of Ned Plyler in Lancaster County. Along with Plyler’s murder, he was also convicted of criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, larceny from a vehicle and larceny from a home.
He was 22 years old at the time of the crimes.
Based on court records, Jones had worked with Plyler at a dairy in Lancaster County. On Oct. 11, 1983, Jones broke into Ned and Geraldine Plyler’s home while they weren’t there.
Once inside, Jones shot and killed their 3 dogs and then waited for the couple to come home, records said.
Once the couple arrived home, Jones ambushed them, demanding money and then shot Ned Plyler 3 times in front of his wife, killing him, records said.
Jones terrorized Geraldine Plyler and tied her up before leaving the house.
Jones then left. By the time he came back to the house, she had escaped and ran to a nearby nephew’s home, according to records.
Police were able to find Jones and arrest him based on Geraldine’s account and evidence they found at the scene.
Jones appealed his case all the way up to the state Supreme Court to try to have his conviction overturned, but it never was.
Source: thelancasternews.com, Staff, August 29, 2021
🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us:
deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
