By David Lohr
July 25, 2007
OZARK, AR (Crime Library) — Last week a Franklin County jury acquitted 21-year-old Kevin Jones in the 2005 death of his girlfriend, 19-year-old beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer. An eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated for less than eight hours before returning the not guilty verdict.
Jones was accused of murdering Nona in her Russellville apartment on Dec. 15, 2005. The trial was delayed in January and a change of venue was later granted after the defendant's lawyers successfully argued that pretrial publicity, which included association with Nona's family and Crime Library's message boards, had made it impossible to find a local jury that could be impartial. The case was moved from Pope County to Franklin County.
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| Nona Dirksmeyer and Kevin Jones |
During the trial, which began on July 9, prosecutors argued that Jones murdered Nona because he had found out she had been involved with another man. Prosecutors futher alleged that Jones had altered the crime scene to make it appear that Nona had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
According to the 2005 police report, 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. 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.
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The Unsolved Murder of Beauty Queen Nona Dirksmeyer
Nona Dirksmeyer's Murder Trial Delayed
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