A man accused of a 1994 double homicide of a mother and son in Renton began his trial more than 30 years after the alleged incident, and despite DNA evidence pinning him to the crime, his defense alleges it wasn’t him.
On Sept. 18, Jerome Frank Jones, 55, was in the King County Superior Court for opening statements in his trial, where he is accused of committing two counts of first-degree aggravated murder. These charges stem from an Oct. 28, 1994, incident where Stacy Falcon-Dewey, along with her toddler son, Jacob, were found fatally shot at 3:30 a.m. at South 55th Street in Renton, next to Falcon-Dewey’s vehicle.
According to charging documents, with continued advancements in DNA identification, in December 2021, semen collected from Jacob’s jacket was linked to Jones. The semen was found to be 3.6 nonillion — 3,600 plus 27 zeroes — times more likely to originate from Jones than an unrelated individual selected at random from the U.S. population. Documents state that if Jones is found guilty, he will be required to serve a life sentence in the Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole.
Opening statements
Representing the state and delivering opening statements, King County prosecutor Donald Raz said that a horrific nightmare is the only way to describe Falcon-Dewey’s last moments of her life. Raz said that the night of her death, Falcon-Dewey had gone for a girls’ night out, and on the way home, she picked up Jacob from a babysitter’s home in Kent.
Raz said Jones, armed with a handgun, forced Falcon-Dewey to either drive them, or he drove her vehicle to a secluded spot on a dead-end road in Renton, where he raped Falcon-Dewey. Raz said Jones then shot Jacob twice in the head and bound Falcon-Dewey with tape.
“Though Stacy was able to get out of the car and free herself from her bonds and fight with Jones, she was no match for a man with a gun. Near the front door, driver’s side of her car, near the dead body of her son, still warm inside the car, Jones shot Stacy twice in the left arm and once in the back,” Raz said. “Then, whether a grossly misplaced act of compassion or a twisted final insult, Jones grabbed Jacob out of the car and laid his body across the legs of Stacy’s body, leaving them both there on the cold pavement.”
Raz said semen that matched Jones’ DNA was found inside Falcon-Dewey’s mouth, and on several spots on Jacob’s jacket. Additionally, DNA belonging to Jones was found under Falcon-Dewey’s fingernails.
Raz said when DNA evidence that linked Jones to the murder was discovered, detectives interviewed Jones, and when he was shown a picture of Falcon-Dewey and Jacob, he sat straight up, and with his mouth wide open, he stared at the photo for four to five seconds. Raz said that Jones then said that he had never seen the pair in his life.
Raz said the night of the murders, Falcon-Dewey lived in Renton and had once lived at the apartment complex in Kent where she picked up Jacob. Raz said that the apartment manager confirmed that Jones lived there from 1993 to 1994, and someone said that they had once seen Jones speaking to Falcon-Dewey, but apart from that, they had no connection to one another.
Raz said that the evidentiary trail is not easy to map, with no fingerprints, and many of the items of evidence having been disposed of long ago and no clear motive. Raz said with the evidence that remains and common sense inferences, jurors can draw from the available evidence that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Jones is responsible for the murders of Falcon-Dewey and Jacob.
Defense’s statements
Jones’ attorney, Miranda Maurmann, stated that Jones has been falsely accused as the perpetrator of the murder of Falcon-Dewey and Jacob. Maurmann said the reason that the presiding jurors are present is because Jones had sex with Falcon-Dewey, which is undisputed, but he did not commit murder.
“We know there’s presence of semen, there’s evidence of sex, and we know that Ms. Falcon-Dewey is dead, and the state’s case assumes that those two acts are intricately aligned, that they happened at the same place and at the same time,” Maurmann said. “To put it simply, the state’s case is that evidence of sex equals evidence of murder. Evidence of rape at the scene followed by murder. That assumption is faulty and will not be supported by the evidence in this case.”
Maurmann said that there is evidence that excludes Jones as the perpetrator of the murder, such as evidence of someone else’s DNA on Falcon-Dewey’s belt and wallet that was not linked to Jones. Maurmann said there is also someone else who is reported to have said to someone in a private conversation that she shot Falcon-Dewey and her son.
Maurmann said that the woman who said she killed Falcon-Dewey and Jacob did so under the direction of a big-time meth dealer. Maurmann said that the woman said she placed Jacob on top of Falcon-Dewey so he could be with his mother. However, Maurmann said that when that woman was questioned, she denied having committed the murders and was not questioned again.
Maurmann said some things can’t be answered from DNA identification, such as whether the semen found on Jacob’s jacket was from the same time period as that found in Falcon-Dewey’s mouth. She said it also won’t answer where and when sexual contact occurred.
“When you look at the evidence in its context, not focusing here and disregarding here, when you look at the full picture of the evidence, it will be very clear that the basic premise or assumption that the state’s putting forward in this case is not supported by the evidence,” Maurmann said. “That the evidence does not support the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that this person is Mr. Jones. We’ll be asking you at the end of the case to find him not guilty.”
