On a September morning in 2021, a sense of unease settled over a home on Amarillo Street in the Cherokee Park area of Memphis, Tennessee. It was there that the lives of 53-year-old Ronald Jones, a Black male, and his 73-year-old mother, Martha Jones, were brought to a violent end. The initial call to the Memphis Police Department came from Ronald's own son, Andre Jones, who claimed to have returned from a trip to a nearby store to find his father and grandmother deceased.
Upon their arrival at the residence, law enforcement officers were immediately struck by the lingering smell of gunfire that hung heavy in the air. Both Ronald and Martha had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators noted that there were no signs of a forced entry into the home, raising early questions about the nature of the crime.
As detectives delved deeper into the case, the narrative provided by Andre Jones began to unravel. He maintained that he was away from the house when the killings occurred, but surveillance footage from the neighborhood told a different story. The cameras revealed that no one had entered or exited the home during the timeframe that he had provided to the police. This critical piece of evidence cast a shadow of suspicion on the young man who had first reported the tragic discovery.
The search of the residence would prove to be a turning point in the investigation. Inside Andre Jones's bedroom, authorities uncovered a cache of incriminating evidence. They found live ammunition that was a match to the shell casings scattered near the bodies of his father and grandmother. Alongside the ammunition was an empty 9mm magazine and a handgun that appeared to have blood on it.
Faced with the mounting evidence that contradicted his account, Andre Jones was taken into custody. He was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as two counts of employment of a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony. In June of 2022, a grand jury indicted him on these charges. He is currently being held without bond in the Shelby County Jail as he awaits trial for the murder of his father, Ronald Jones, and his grandmother, Martha Jones.
