Jesse L. Jones, wearing a hospital helmet from an injury suffered in a failed suicide attempt and a sling on his right arm from a jail accident, was sentenced Monday to 19 years to life in prison for killing his lover during a police standoff.
Constance Lee, the mother of the slain De'aira Wall, said her daughter "made a fatal mistake by letting him into her life" several months before the May 12, 2009, standoff on Millicent Avenue.
Wall, who was killed just seven days before her 22nd birthday, had three young children.
Jones, 31, tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head near the end of the four-hour standoff after he had killed Wall.
State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller agreed to give Jones less than the maximum sentence to spare the victim's family the trauma of a trial. He told Jones that he expects prison officials will deny him an early parole.
Homicide prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable said Jones pleaded guilty to the highest charge he had faced in the case -- second-degree murder.
John R. Nuchereno, Jones' attorney, said his client, who had undergone nearly nine months of treatment in a state prison psychiatric facility, was recently deemed mentally fit for trial.
Nuchereno said Jones suffers from a permanent traumatic brain injury that has left him with a low intelligence level. He also said his client lost a finger on his right hand when he failed to take his hand away from the electronically closing door on his cell in the Erie County Holding Center.
Jones' mother, who is deaf, left the courtroom moaning loudly after she was told of the sentence the judge had imposed.
Jones pleaded guilty April 27 to the killing in an apartment at 355 Millicent that he was sharing with Wall and her children.
The standoff ended at 3:30 a.m., when Jones shot himself, according to a police report.
Jones had been involved in another police standoff on April 13, 2003. Jones, reportedly upset that his then-wife, Tasha, was threatening to leave him, held his three stepchildren hostage at knifepoint during the standoff on Guernsey Street.
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