SAN ANTONIO – Although the trial of the first of five infant death murder cases against "Killer Nurse" Genene Jones has tentatively been set for mid-July, it seems unlikely that the trial will get underway then, according to Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas "Nico" LaHood.
Jones is facing murder charges in the deaths of five infants under her care at a San Antonio Hospital in the early 1980s.
LaHood said he expects Jones' lawyers to file pretrial motions that could delay the first trial.
"We've provided all the evidence over to the defense," LaHood said Tuesday. "They obviously need time to look through that, and we support that. But we're ready to try the case, and we're hoping that it's sooner rather than later."
Among the evidence is a confession from Jones.
While Jones was serving a life sentence for injecting a Kerrville child with a fatal dose of a powerful muscle relaxant in 1982, prosecutors said she told a fellow inmate that "voices in her head" made her inject infants in her care at a San Antonio hospital with fatal drug doses.
"Just because someone allegedly makes a confession in any case, you have to look at what the circumstances were around that," LaHood said. "How it was done and to whom."
LaHood said he expects that Jones' lawyer will ask for a change of venue.
"The evidence is the evidence," LaHood said. "We're ready wherever we try the case, here or somewhere else, it's irrelevant."