Man who was youngest to be convicted of murder released from prison
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A man who was at one time the nation's youngest convicted murderer has been released from a Florida prison after serving 16 years of an 18-year sentence.
Florida Today reports that 29-year-old Curtis Jones was released from the South Bay Correctional Facility on Tuesday.
In January 1999 Jones - then 12 years old - was arrested and convicted of second-degree murder along with his 13-year-old sister, Catherine Jones. The pair killed their father's girlfriend, Sonya Speights, and plotted to also kill their father and a male relative who they said sexually abused them.
Home alone with Speights, they shot her, and fled into the woods near their Brevard County home. They were arrested the next day.
Months before the murder, child welfare investigators found signs that they were being sexually abused by a family member, reports Florida Today.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections database, Catherine Jones is scheduled to be released Aug. 1.