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View Full Version : Ex-deputy Chris Jones sentenced to 23 years in prison




disorderlyvision
08-16-2009, 01:23 PM
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/14/ex-deputy-chris-jones-sentenced-xx-years-prison/


A former Shelby County sheriff's sergeant who put hundreds of offenders behind bars since 1991 will spend the next 23 years in prison for killing a karaoke-bar deejay last year in East Memphis.

Chris Jones was convicted in May of second-degree murder for shooting Donald "D.J." Munsey during an altercation involving Jones and several customers at the Windjammer Restaurant and Lounge, 786 E. Brookhaven Circle.

This was not an unusual circumstance," said Criminal Court Judge John Fowlkes Jr., who sentenced Jones on Friday.

"This is what happens when people bring firearms and alcohol together," he said.

The shooting occurred in the early-morning hours of March 14 last year, two weeks after Jones' longstanding and bitter divorce proceedings were finalized.

"He'll be 60 when he gets out and he'll still have a life," said an angry Stacie Harris, Munsey's girlfriend and mother of two of Munsey's three children. "D.J. doesn't have a life anymore. (Jones) should have never been a police officer."

Special Prosecutor Bret Gunn said Jones was angry and intoxicated and had threatened to kill two customers, saying he had nothing left to lose.

Witnesses said Jones shot Munsey in the neck during a melee and wounded customer Justin Smith in the buttocks as Smith ran for the door.

Jones said he was only trying to defend himself from a drunken mob and accused prosecutors of "railroading a career lawman."

He said in a presentence report that Smith shot himself when putting a gun back inside his pants.

The sentencing hearing began last month but was delayed so Jones, who is on anti-depressant medication, could undergo a psychological evaluation at the request of his attorney.

"There are no winners here, only losers," defense attorney Leslie Ballin said Friday.

"He's doing better today, but I'm concerned about his mental state.

"I'm concerned that he will harm himself. That's part of the record."

Doctors reported that Jones suffers from "serious psychological disturbance," including depression and panic anxiety, and has said "he will take his own life rather than serve time in jail."

The report said Jones is concerned about being incarcerated with people he had arrested over his 18 years as a deputy and is despondent over losing his career and his family.

He has a son, 13, and a daughter, 18. His ex-wife has remarried.

Prison officials said there are procedures for ensuring the safety of all inmates.

"We don't have a policy specifically for law enforcement, but any inmate who expresses a concern about his safety or that we believe could be harmed can be placed on protective custody," said Dorinda Carter, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Correction.

"Under protective custody, an inmate is removed from the general population and placed either in a special housing unit or, in some cases, segregated for 23 hours a day for his own safety."

Freedom 4 all
08-16-2009, 03:15 PM
All the comments are about gun control rather than pig control. Pity