| Posted on
Thu, Apr. 20, 2006 |
Jones, former state attorney, dies at age 79
Former State Attorney Leo Jones was able to say goodbye to his family over the weekend before dying in his home on Tuesday. He was 79.
“He had a very full life,” his wife, Barbara Jones, said Wednesday. “He was very fortunate to have had the assistance of hospice and to stay at home and be comfortable and end his life that way.”
Leo Jones was the 14th Circuit’s chief prosecutor for about a dozen years up to 1980. He left office after concluding one of the area’s biggest cases, the Sandy Creek murders.
Barbara Jones said her husband of 19 years was able to call relatives and friends over the weekend and tell them goodbye. He had suffered from heart trouble and a lingering illness.
“He had a good weekend,” she said.
His retirement was spent surrounded by exotic birds and flowers, as both became a passion in his later years. Barbara Jones said they raised birds for her business, but it became a hobby for her husband as well.
Up to 1980, Leo Jones was a political force in the area. Besides being state attorney, Jones challenged incumbent state Sen. Dempsey Barron for his seat in 1976. Barron prevailed in that race.
“He thoroughly enjoyed his political career,” Barbara Jones said.
After his retirement, and around his projects, Leo Jones kept up on current affairs. He also stayed mentally sharp to the end.
“He was such an intelligent person,” his wife said. “If he lost a little something, he had more than most people anyway.”
Barbara Jones had nothing but praise for the people of Covenant Hospice, who she said allowed her husband to fulfill his final wish to die at home among family. She said funeral arrangements were still being finalized, but services probably won’t be held until the last weekend of April.
Attorney Jim Appleman, who supplanted Jones from 1980 to 2004 as chief prosecutor, said he was privileged to have worked with Jones.
“In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with what I consider to be the three finest lawyers in Bay County: Charles Isler, N. Russell Bower and Leo Jones. Leo was the best trial lawyer,” Appleman said. “You could give Leo a case file on Thursday afternoon. He’d digest it over the weekend — and we’re talking about a thick file — and by Monday he’d start to try the case. He never missed a thing.”
Appleman said Jones had a unique closing argument at trial that was as effective as it was unusual.
“Leo stuttered,” Appleman said. “Sometimes, when he was addressing a jury he’d be almost to the end and he’d start to say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we’re asking you to find the defendant g … g … g … g … and all of those jurors would be saying that word ‘guilty’ right along with him. I don’t know if it was controlled, but it was one of the most effective techniques I’ve ever seen.”
Circuit Judge Glenn Hess echoed Appleman’s assessment of Jones’ skill in the courtroom.
“When Leo was focused on a case there was nobody in the Panhandle that was better in a courtroom,” Hess said.
He recalled his last conversation with Jones, a few years ago in the aisle of a department store. Hess said Jones talked to him for 20 minutes about the properties of a certain species of parakeet.
“It was amazing what he could master,” Hess said.
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