In the early morning of March 10, 1985, 28-year-old Debra Smith was sexually assaulted and murdered on the south side of Chicago, Illinois.. Her body, naked from the waist down except for one sock, was discovered in an alley. She had been beaten and stabbed in the face and neck.
A trail of blood led to the abandoned Crest Hotel, and the soles of her sock and bare foot were dirty, suggesting that she had walked from the hotel after she had been assaulted. An autopsy revealed semen in the woman’s vagina and that she was intoxicated at the time she was murdered.
On May 25, 1985, a 33-year-old woman called the police to report that she had been raped at knifepoint. Several weeks later, she identified 35-year-old Ronald Jones as her assailant. Jones was arrested on June 4,1985, but was released after the evidence was found to be insufficient. The prosecutor continued to believe that Jones was guilty, and the similarity of that case prompted police to arrest Jones on October 4, 1985, for the rape and murder of Smith.
Following an 18-hour interrogation, Jones signed a confession. (He would later say that Chicago Police Detectives John Markham and Steven Hood beat the confession out of him.). Jones was charged with capital murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault.
In July 1989, Jones went to trial in Cook County Circuit Court. The prosecution presented evidence that on the night of March 9, 1985, Smith and her sister went to a dance. They left and parted company about 2 a.m. on March 10. Smith went to the apartment where she lived with James Roberson. She told him that she was going to Harold’s Chicken Shack, a restaurant about three blocks away.
Sarah Upton testified that she crossed paths with Smith on her way to Harold’s. Upton said that a man known as “Bumpy” because of his acne problem, approached and asked for 50 cents so he could buy a drink. Upton said she balked, but when the man grabbed her, Smith told the man to let go of Upton. Upton said she gave the man, whom she identified as Jones, the 50 cents and all three parted ways.
Police testified that Smith’s body was discovered shortly after 5 a.m. Detectives testified that Jones confessed that Smith had agreed to have sex with him for $10 in the abandoned Crest Hotel. According to the police, Jones said that after he refused to pay, Smith pulled a knife and they fought and that Smith “apparently got stuck” with the knife. According to the police, Jones said that he then ran away.
Serological testing was conducted on swabs from the rape kit. The tests revealed blood group markers consistent with Jones and Smith, and a Chicago Police crime laboratory analyst testified that the results excluded a large group of the population, when in fact 100 percent of the male population was included. DNA testing, still in its primitive forms, had been conducted. The results were said to be inconclusive, but that Jones could not be ruled out.
Jones testified and denied committing the crime. He said his confession was false and was the result of physical abuse. He said that one of the detectives struck him with a “small black object, about six inches long,” giving rise to a large bump on his head. A photo of the bump was introduced into evidence.
Detective Markham testified in rebuttal that the confession was voluntary. He denied that Jones was physically abused. The prosecution called a physician who testified that the photo was “a textbook picture of a sebaceous cyst” and not the result of being struck.
On July 17, 1989, Jones was found guilty of capital murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault. Judge John E. Morrissey sentenced him to death for murder and sentenced him to 60 years for the aggravated criminal sexual assault.
The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the conviction in 1993.
In 1994, Jones sought DNA testing. Judge Morrissey refused to grant it, asking Jones’s lawyer rhetorically, "What issue could possibly be resolved by DNA testing?"
When Jones’s lawyer, Richard Cunningham, responded that prosecutors originally had contended Jones was the source of the semen recovered from the victim, Judge Morrissey told him, “Save arguments like that for the press. They love it. I don’t.”
The ruling was appealed and in 1995, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed and ordered the testing to go forward. In 1997, DNA testing eliminated Jones as the source of the semen.
Two years later, on May 17, 1999, the convictions were vacated, the charges were dismissed, and Jones was released from prison.
Jones brought a federal civil rights suit against the police. The city of Chicago settled the case for $2.2 million in 2003. He also received $125,000 in state compensation.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-19-2026
