A State District Court judge approved a plea deal Thursday morning for a former nurse accused of killing five San Antonio children in the 1980s.
Genene Jones, 69, pleaded guilty on Thursday for the 1981 death of an infant named Joshua Sawyer in San Antonio — which she received a life sentence for. Four other similar cases were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
She was initially convicted in 1984 for the death of a 15-month-old girl in Kerr County.
Jones worked at what is now University Hospital in the early 1980s. Prosecutors said Jones killed babies using injections of pain killers or muscle relaxants.
Bexar County Major Crimes District Attorney Catherine Babbitt said the 69-year-old will "take her last breath in prison" for killing innocent babies.
“These patients were not only children, they were often critically ill children and for her to decide on her watch who lived and who died is nothing short of evil,” said Babbitt.
Rosemary Vega is the mother of one of Jones' other suspected victims, also named Rosemary.
"I waited for this moment, 38 years of my life to get justice, to be released from my heart," Vega said. "Nobody knows this pain I carry, only I. And finally, it's over."
Before Thursday's plea agreement, Jones was set to be released early in 2018. Evidence was then presented to a grand jury that would indict her for the deaths of other children in her care in Bexar County.
Investigators have said it is not known really how many victims Jones may have had.
Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at Brian@TPR.org and on Twitter at @TPRBrian.
