Sheriff: Woman threatened deputies
Wanted felon told officers she would shoot them, he says.
The Bexar County sheriff says a wanted felon had told deputies that she was armed and would shoot them before they killed her in a spray of gunfire that also left a 6-year-old boy dead.
Sheriff Javier Salazar told the San Antonio Express-News that Amanda Jones, 30, had forced her way into a mobile home where the boy, Kameron Prescott, lived on Dec. 21 and then was confronted outside by four deputies.
A person inside the home in Schertz, northeast of San Antonio, also reported hearing Jones say she would shoot the deputies, Salazar said.
“Someone from inside the trailer that ( Jones) forced her way into ... said that she had an object in her hand. They believed it could have been a weapon,” the sheriff said. “And when she exited the house, the witness heard the suspect proclaim to whoever was outside — we now know that was the deputies — ‘I have a gun, I’m going to shoot you.’ ”
Jones was found with a dark, metal tube after she was shot, but no gun. However, Salazar said that deputies had seen Jones with a gun earlier as they chased her.
All four deputies have been placed on administrative leave. The sheriff ’s office is investigating. Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood’s office said it will “analyze the initial work” of the investigation and “evaluate all additional evidence as it is gathered.”
The investigation is in its early stages, Salazar said.
LaHood’s office said in a statement that it is “important to carefully review all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the officers’ use of force and not form any premature conclusions before the investigation is finalized.” It said if the deputies’ actions “rise to the level” of a criminal offense, the office will take the appropriate steps.
Kameron was inside the mobile home when he was struck by a bullet as deputies fired on Jones. The boy died at a hospital.
“We’re not going to rest until we have some answers,” Salazar said.
“The victims were both Caucasian women in their 30s with long brown hair, were attacked and killed in their beds, died from blunt-force trauma to their heads after being hit six or eight times, had defensive wounds, were covered with pillows and comforters after the assault, and were found with pillows on their heads,” the appeals court said in a ruling delivered Friday.
Items also were stolen from both homes, the opinion by Justice David Puryear noted.
Michael Morton was freed after serving almost 25 years in prison for his wife’s murder after DNA evidence on a bandanna — collected before modern testing techniques were available — identified Norwood as a suspect in 2011.
During their fight to exonerate Morton, defense lawyers noted the similarities in the Baker and Christine Morton murders and notified Travis County prosecutors, who ordered DNA testing on pubic hairs recovered from Baker’s home. Those tests identified Norwood, cementing Morton’s claim of innocence and forcing then-District Attorney John Bradley to drop his opposition to freeing Morton, who had been convicted in Williamson County.
Norwood, now 63, was convicted of killing Christine Morton in 2013, and appeals courts have upheld that conviction and life sentence.
A Travis County jury convicted Norwood in Baker’s death in September 2016, leading to the latest round of appeals.
In its ruling, the 3rd Court of Appeals also rejected Norwood’s claim that the trial judge improperly allowed prosecutors to discuss three burglaries Norwood committed about six months before Baker was killed. All three were within a half-mile of Baker’s house in Austin’s Brentwood neighborhood, and Norwood had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of theft in the three cases.
During Norwood’s trial, prosecutors argued that the burglaries helped establish a motive for killing Baker, saying he would not have wanted a witness to an additional burglary while out on bond for the prior break-ins.
“The evidence was relevant to establishing Norwood’s motive to kill Baker,” the appeals court ruled, noting there was no evidence that Norwood knew the victim or had interacted with Baker before she was killed.
The court also determined that state District Judge Julie Kocurek properly told jurors to consider the burglaries only to determine Norwood’s motive and only if jurors determined beyond a reasonable doubt that Norwood committed the crimes.