State v. Jones

STEPHENS, Judge.

Factual and Procedural Background

On 10 February 2011, a jury found Defendant Ransom Martin Jones guilty of second-degree murder in the 2006 death of Sarah Slaton. This conviction followed unusually tangled legal proceedings in the trial court, which began in November 2006 when Defendant was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Between his 2006 arrest and eventual conviction in 2011, Defendant had three attorneys serve as both his appointed counsel and as standby counsel during several periods when Defendant waived counsel and proceeded pro se.

Richard T. McNeil was…