By Chuck Hustmyre

Court Documents:
State of Arkansas V Kevin Nicholas Jones

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According to police, Jones said he and his mother, along with a friend named Ryan Whiteside, discovered Nona's nude body lying in a pool of blood on the floor of her apartment near Arkansas Tech University at about 6:30 on the evening of Dec. 15, 2005.

An autopsy later determined she had been stabbed and beaten to death. Police suspect the killing blow to the back of her head came from a nearby floor lamp.

At the time of her death, Nona was a music major at Arkansas Tech and the reigning Miss Petit Jean Valley. She had planned to compete in the Miss Arkansas beauty pageant.

Jones, who was 20 at the time, said he last saw his girlfriend just past midnight on Dec. 15, and that he became concerned about her later that day because he hadn't heard from. He asked his friend Whiteside to go by and check on her, but when Whiteside got no answer at Nona's door, Jones and his mother, who were on the way to a party, stopped at Nona's off-campus apartment.

Jones told police that he had not brought his key to Nona's apartment with him and had to force open the sliding-glass back door.

Once inside, Jones said he found Nona lying dead on the floor. He said at some point during the next few minutes he touched her body and the blood lying around her.

Jones or his mother, perhaps both, called 911. Police arrived less than 15 minutes later.

Other than Jones's entry through the back door, police said there were no signs of forced entry and no evidence anything had been stolen. Both doors had been locked.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy found no evidence of sexual assault and estimated that Nona died sometime around 11:00 a.m.

Jones said he had left Nona's apartment just past midnight and spent the night at his parents' house. He talked to her again at 1:30 a.m. He said he left his parents' house about 11:45 that morning and arrived for work at their family-owned gas station about noon. Cell phone records show Jones received a text message from Nona's phone at 9:07 a.m., and that he made several calls to Nona's cell phone beginning around 4:00 that afternoon. At 4:28 he sent her a text message that said "U ALIVE."

After an intense three-month investigation, police obtained an arrest warrant for Jones on March 31, 2006 charging him with first-degree murder.

Following his arrest, Jones was released after posting a $250,000 bond.

This week, prosecutors announced that they would not charge Kevin Jones, Ryan Whiteside, or another man, Jeffery Simmons, with the alleged Dec. 28 rape of an 18-year-old woman at Whiteside's house.

The victim and another woman accused Whiteside and Simmons of raping the 18-year-old while Jones watched.

Prosecutors decided not to press charges due to inconsistencies in the victim's statement and the content of her text messages to at least one of her alleged attackers the day after the rape.

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Contact Chuck Hustmyre at chuck3174@yahoo.com

Court Documents: State of Arkansas V Kevin Nicholas Jones

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