A former Texas nurse has been charged with the death of an 11-month-old baby, more than 30 years after she was jailed for killing a toddler.
Genene Jones is accused of injecting Joshua Sawyer with a toxic level of Dilantin in December 1981, the year before she killed Chelsea McClellan.
Jones, who is suspected of killing as many as 60 infants, was sentenced to 99 years for the little girl’s death.
But a legal loophole means she is due to be released in March next year.
The law at the time Jones, 66, was jailed for Chelsea’s murder meant she got a reduced sentence in return for good behaviour – much to the horror of Chelsea’s mother, Petti.
Ms McClellan told ABC News in 2013 she was searching for a way to keep Jones in prison, saying she needed to find “another family that was a victim of Genene Jones”.
‘Pure evil’
Jones, dubbed the “Angel of Death” in US media, had already been sentenced for injecting and nearly killing a second child, shortly after the initial conviction.
But the former nurse, who worked in San Antonio and neighbouring Kerr County during the late 1970s and early 1980s, is still “suspected in dozens of infant deaths”, according to district attorney Nico LaHood.
Mr LaHood announced the new charge against Jones – who he described as “pure evil” – two years after he set up a task force to look into the case and uncover new evidence.
He told a press conference he was confident they had a “good case” against Jones, who is currently incarcerated in a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas.
“Our office will attempt to account for every child whose life was stolen by the actions of Jones,” he said in a statement. “Our only focus is justice.”
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