In the fall of 2015, the life of Horace Jones Jr., a 45-year-old male attorney from Rock Hill, South Carolina, came to a tragic end under a cloud of serious legal troubles. On Monday, October 12, 2015, a day he was scheduled to appear in a Jasper County courtroom to face a felony charge, Jones was found deceased in a wooded area on Falls Road outside of Rock Hill.
Authorities reported that he had what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his death was investigated as a suicide.
Jones was entangled in significant legal battles, facing accusations of stealing substantial amounts of money from his clients. In Jasper County, prosecutors alleged that he had stolen $600,000 from the descendants of slaves who had owned property near Hardeeville since the post-Civil War era. He was accused of selling their land, valued at $10 million, in a clandestine deal and keeping the proceeds. Had he been convicted on this breach of trust charge, he could have faced up to a decade in prison.
The legal woes for Horace Jones Jr. did not end there. In York County, he was accused of pilfering $150,000 from the estate of a dentist who had passed away. Authorities in York County had been searching for Jones since August 17 of that year after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to appear in court. In total, Jones, who had been suspended from practicing law in 2013, was accused of bilking his clients out of three-quarters of a million dollars.
The discovery of Jones's body brought an abrupt end to the criminal proceedings against him. Prosecutors in both Jasper and York counties dismissed the cases, with one stating, 'I can't prosecute a dead man.' His funeral was held on Saturday, October 17, at Mount Hebron Baptist Church in Rock Hill, with his burial following in the church cemetery. The legal sagas and the lives of those who had accused him were left in the wake of his untimely death.
