Senior Judge William Martin will conduct a hearing today on a petition for post-conviction relief by the only one of four men convicted of murder in the death of a man at an apartment in Blairsville in 2014.
DeAndre Jones Jr., who is now 36 years old, was found guilty in 2017 in the brutal stabbing death of Tyron Howard, whose bound body was found in the apartment riddled with wounds inflicted by a sword.
Jones, who is from Baltimore, Maryland, was one of four defendants charged with killing Howard. Prosecutors contended that Michael Eades Jr. was the ringleader, and that Eades was running a drug distribution operation in Indiana County and felt Howard was cheating him out of the proceeds he felt he should be getting. In his trial, Eades beat a charge of first degree murder and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The other two defendants, Stanley Boynton and Kevin King, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for testifying against Eades.
Jones was sentenced by Judge Martin to life in prison without parole, which is mandatory for second degree murder. He was also found guilty of conspiracy to robbery. The sentence was upheld by the State Supreme Court in 2019. Jones filed his motion for relief last September.
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