Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Just before 1 a.m., the front door opened at the Northwest Roanoke home and a man in a hooded sweatshirt appeared in the doorway. Eric ``Nike'' Jones shouted at the man, who then fired a gun, hitting Jones in the chest.
Jones had been at the house in the 3700 block of Signal Hill Avenue for only 20 minutes. He was dropping off a girlfriend.
The killer fled on foot. Jones, 21, died shortly afterward at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Police continue to investigate. They could not say whether the slaying - Roanoke's 13th this year - was drug-related.
At the time of his death, Nike Jones had been out of jail for two months. He was awaiting an Oct. 11 sentencing on a marijuana charge.
``All he was thinking about was to try and turn his life around,'' said his mother, Deborah Jones. ``He got a job. He stayed at home. ... This is the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life.''
Nike Jones lived in the shadow of his younger brother, Jerome ``Doobie'' Jones - who drove a white BMW through the streets of Wasena and was convicted of supplying crack to Southwest Roanoke's addicts. He told police he dealt a kilogram of crack a week. Nike Jones became caught up in the drug business his brother ran so shrewdly.
In court this summer, Doobie Jones, 19, testified he occasionally would give a couple of ounces of pot to his older brother. He agreed to testify against Nike as part of a deal to help himself. But his testimony wasn't strong enough to sway 12 people. The jury was hung and a mistrial declared.
Nike Jones plea bargained to possessing marijuana and was facing only two more months in jail. He was likely to have received probation, said his attorney Randy Cargill.
``I'm shocked,'' Cargill said about the killing. ``He was really a good kid. He was just a naive, relatively unintelligent boy in a man's body.
``He had the unfortunate bad luck of growing up in a home without a father figure and with a brother deeply involved in drugs.''
Nike Jones had just begun to put his life together, said Cargill and Jones' mother, by getting a job at a restaurant and meeting with his federal probation officer regularly.
``He told me, `Mom, I'd done bad. I'm sorry for everything I'd done,''' Deborah Jones said. ``Then he start talking about his father. He was glad his father wasn't around to see how he had gotten into trouble.''
City vice officers busted the brothers in January after searching Deborah Jones' house on Ferdinand Avenue Southwest. They found 6 ounces of marijuana in Nike Jones' room and 5 ounces of crack in Doobie Jones' room. They also found $47,000 in cash underneath Doobie Jones' bed.
Two guns also were found, and each brother was charged with possession of one.
Federal authorities eventually prosecuted the case because of the scope of Doobie Jones' connections, which included purchases from Colombians in New York City. In July, Doobie Jones was convicted of drug and gun charges. He remains in Roanoke City Jail awaiting his sentencing next week.
Tuesday afternoon, Deborah Jones sat on the porch of her home, surrounded by family and friends. She said she believes the shooting was revenge for a fight last summer between her three children and another boy.
``It wasn't like he was into anything,'' she said of Nike.
- Jan Vertefeuille contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
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by CNB