Man freed from death row in 1994 killing of Tucson girl

A man convicted of the 1994 murder of a 4-year-old Tucson girl and at one time sentenced to death was released from prison Thursday.

In a plea agreement, Barry Lee Jones, 64, pleaded guilty to a single count of second degree murder in the death of Rachel Gray. That is based on his admission that he failed to seek medical care for the girl, court records show.

And, in doing so, he admitted to “extreme indifference to human life” which created a grave risk — and ultimately cause — the death of the girl.

As a result, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kyle Bryson sentenced Jones to 25 years in prison, with credit for time served.

And counting from the time of his arrest until Thursday, that amounts to 10,636 days, which is 1,511 days longer than the sentence.

In exchange for the plea, the judge dismissed the other charges of which Jones had previously been convicted, including first degree murder for having caused Rachel’s death as well as sexual assault and child abuse, court records show.

The decision to allow Jones to plead to the lesser charge and be immediately released was backed by both state and Pima County prosecutors.

“Subsequent medical re-examination of the evidence does not support a finding of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Jones caused the injury of Rachel Jones,” said Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Attorney General Kris Mayes. What the evidence does support, he said, is that Jones allowed Rachel, who was under his care and custody, to die as a result of the injuries she suffered.

“Any reasonable person in the position or Mr. Jones would have witnessed the results of the trauma that Rachel suffered,” Taylor said, and that his failure to obtain medical assistance supports a finding of second degree murder.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover defended the decision to allow Jones to plead guilty to second degree murder and dismiss the other charges.

“These are some of the most difficult decisions we face as prosecutors, trying to balance the rule of law and, in this case, holding someone accountable for the death of an innocent 4-year-old child,” Conover said in a prepared statement.

“What’s also important is having the courage to re-evaluate these cases thoroughly, while staying true to our responsibility of charging them accordingly with what is right in the eyes of the law,” Conover said. “To that end, Mr. Jones has been held more than accountable.”

Court records show that in 1994 Jones was sharing his trailer on East Benson Highway near South Alvernon Way with his girlfriend, Angela Gray, his own daughter, and his girlfriend’s three children, who were ages 4, 11 and 14 at the time.

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Early on the morning of May 2, 1994, Jones drove his girlfriend and Rachel, the 4-year-old, to a Tucson hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Reports said Rachel died after being struck in the abdomen, which caused a fatal small-bowel laceration. Doctors also found evidence that Rachel was beaten and sexually assaulted at some point before she was taken to the hospital.

Jones, then 35, was arrested the same day.

According to court records, jurors accepted the prosecution’s argument that all the events occurred within a two-hour window, making Jones guilty of “felony murder.” That made him eligible for the death penalty, which the trial judge ultimately imposed after jurors found him guilty of the charges.

But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that what prosecutors claimed about the timeline was not as clear as they claimed. For example, the appellate court said, evidence of sexual assault not only predated the abdominal injury but may have occurred even before Jones began living with the girl and her family.

Appellate court Judge Richard Clifton said was there was a “reasonable probability” that the trial jurors might have reached a contrary result had Jones’ lawyers provided effective representation and challenged the timeline. So the appellate judges ordered him released.

All that, however, became legally moot when the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned the ruling. The majority said that that federal courts cannot legally consider new evidence that was not brought up in state court.

That put Jones back on death row where he remained until Thursday.

What changed is that Cary Sandman, a federal public defender, said he got state prosecutors to “engage in good faith settlement discussions” to put the legal issue to rest. And Sandman, in a prepared statement, said that while Jones did agree to plead guilty to second degree murder, that is a far cry from the crimes for which he had been sentenced.

“Mr. Jones was convicted of assaulting Rachel causing her death,” he said, resulting in the the finding of guilt of first degree murder and the death sentence.

“That conviction and sentence were wrongful,” Sandman said. “He did not assault Rachel and did not deserve a penalty of death.”