Cory Jones enters plea deal

Another murder trial will not make it to the trial stage.

Just days after a Fort Recovery woman was sentenced for her role in a January 2020 murder, Cory M. Jones, 44, Redkey, pleaded guilty Friday in Jay Circuit Court to voluntary manslaughter for the Aug. 22, 2020, fatal shooting of Shanna Jones of rural Dunkirk.

A sentencing hearing is schedule for 10 a.m. Dec. 20.

Cory Jones had been charged with murder. On Sept. 30, Jay County Prosecutor’s Office added a habitual offender enhancement to his charges. He had been scheduled to go on trial Jan. 10.

The voluntary manslaughter charge that Cory Jones agreed to plead to carries a sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison with an advisory sentence of 17.5 years. The habitual offender enhancement, which is also part of the plea, can result in an additional six to 20 years in prison. So he faces a minimum sentence of 16 years with a maximum of 50.

“Looking at the overall sentence range that was a possibility, with the maximum … we’re very close to the advisory of murder,” said Jay County prosecutor Wes Schemenaur.

(Murder carries a sentence of 45 to 65 years with an advisory sentence of 55 years.) “So this guarantees a conviction and puts him in prison for a very long time, potentially.”

He added that he consulted with Shanna Jones’ daughter, Natashia Jones, about the plea and possible sentencing. He said she was supportive of taking that path.

“Just looking at it from that perspective it’s better to get the conviction and get justice for the family and put this behind us,” said Schemenaur.

According to court documents filed in connection with the case, Ray Jones, Cory’s father, called police late on Aug. 22, 2020, to request a welfare check at the home of Shanna Jones. He told police that Cory Jones said he accidentally shot Shanna Jones.

Police searched Shanna Jones’ property at 10402 W. 400 South and found her laying face down with apparent injuries to the back of her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy showed she died of a shotgun wound to the head.

The U.S. Marshal Service’s Fugitive Task Force arrested Cory Jones three days later in Martinsburg, West Virginia, about 75 miles west of Baltimore.

Court documents show Cory Jones pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor charge of battery resulting in bodily injury in 2008. He also has been found guilty or pleaded guilty to felony charges of burglary (1994) and auto theft (2014). Those charges led to the habitual offender enhancement that had been filed along with the murder charge.

His plea comes two days after Hannah Knapke, 20, Fort Recovery, was sentenced in Jay Circuit Court to 17.5 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in connection with the January 2020 death of Shea Briar of Portland. Two other women, Shelby N. Hiestand, 20, and Esther J. Stephen, 31, both of Portland, were convicted by Jay Circuit Court juries in the Briar case earlier this year and each sentenced to 55 years in prison.

One more murder trial stemming from 2020 remains on the court’s docket as Roger L. Boyd, 36, Portland, is currently slated to stand trial beginning Feb. 7. He is charged with the Sept. 5, 2020, murder of James P. Miller of Montpelier.