After deliberating for two days, jurors yesterday convicted Donald W. Jones of stabbing, raping and robbing his Overlea neighbor, a 63-year-old grandmother of two.
Jones, 26, who faces the death penalty, hung his head and looked at the floor as the jury in Anne Arundel County -- where the case was tried -- announced its verdict.
The family of the victim -- Evelyn Jane Cunningham, who was found in the bathtub of her Baltimore County home Dec. 15, 1995 -- appeared to begin to cry.
Cunningham's son, David, said: "Two days is not a long time, but when you are waiting for something like this, it seems like forever."
Jones' attorneys in the two-week trial, William Purpura and Arcangelo M. Tuminelli, said they were not surprised by the verdict and noted that prosecutors had DNA evidence against their client.
"No one is a winner in a situation like this," Tuminelli said. "Both families will continue to be devastated by all of this."
Tuminelli's defense strategy rested on discrediting DNA evidence garnered from semen samples taken from Cunningham that matched Jones' DNA.
The DNA evidence was important because it appeared, according to the testimony of police detectives, that the killer had cleaned the crime scene, wiping away blood from the tub and any fingerprints.
"The crime scene was cleaned to destroy all trace evidence," Prosecutor Robin Coffin said. "He almost committed the perfect crime. "
A state police crime lab expert testified that there was a 1-in-1.1 billion chance that the killer could have been someone other than Jones.
But the five men and seven women on the jury appeared to struggle with the complexities of that evidence, asking for transcripts of testimony and the DNA overhead slides to be shown during their deliberations.
"The jury seemed to question the DNA procedures and the issues of contamination," Tuminelli said. "And I hope those questions continue to plague them during the sentencing phase of this trial."
Coffin said she thought the jury did a complete and thorough job of evaluating the evidence. A sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Jones, who was Cunningham's next-door neighbor in the 400 block of Old Home Road, was charged in July in her death.
Jones testified Monday that he had lived next to Cunningham for only 17 days before she was killed and that he was not involved in the crime.
Pub Date: 5/17/97
