Andrew Lee Jones was born around 1955 in Louisiana, though much of his early life remains largely undocumented. What is known is that by the 1980s, Jones was living in Baton Rouge and had become romantically involved with a woman who had a young daughter named Tumekica Jackson. His relationship with Tumekica’s mother was reportedly volatile and troubled, marked by emotional instability and tension. It eventually ended, leading to visible bitterness on Jones’s part. He was known to frequent the family home even after the breakup, and the young girl was familiar with him. Leading up to the crime, Jones had reportedly made several disturbing calls, warning Tumekica’s grandmother that he might “not be responsible for his actions” if his former partner refused to see him again.

At the time of the murder, Jones lived with his sister and half-brother. His movements around the time of the crime were initially corroborated by his family, but those alibis later began to crumble. His background includes a pattern of manipulative behavior, as reflected in the shifting stories told to police and those closest to him. He showed signs of emotional distress and possibly untreated substance abuse problems, including alcohol use. Though some of his relatives supported him emotionally during his trial and sentencing, his past relationships, including the one with Tumekica’s mother, painted a picture of a man who was emotionally unstable and unable to deal with rejection in a healthy manner.

On February 17, 1984, Tumekica Jackson went missing from her bedroom in the early hours of the morning. Her grandmother discovered she was gone at around 4 a.m. Police found signs of forced entry and a shoeprint in the mud outside the house. The shoeprint was a match in size and tread to a pair of tennis shoes later found in Jones’s possession. Tumekica’s mother had recently ended a long-term relationship with Jones, and he had made disturbing phone calls the night of the murder. These factors led investigators to focus on him early in the case.

Police visited Jones’s apartment that morning. He said he had been home all night, and both his sister and half-brother supported his claim. However, just hours later, his sister retracted her statement and allowed police to search the apartment. Inside, Jones was found in the bathroom, washing his tennis shoes in a tub full of dirt and leaves. Officers also discovered green gloves and seized the shoes. They later found a plastic bag containing muddy clothes that had both blood and semen stains. These items were linked to Jones by witness testimony from his half-brother Abraham Mingo, who had been asked to dispose of the bag. DNA evidence later showed that the blood matched Tumekica, and the semen came from someone with the same blood type as Jones.

That same evening, Tumekica’s body was found in a drainage canal. She had been beaten, raped, and strangled. During questioning, Jones claimed he and a man named Rudolph Springer had planned a burglary, and that Springer abducted Tumekica while Jones waited in the car. But Springer had an alibi and denied everything. At trial, the prosecution presented forensic evidence, testimony from Mingo and other witnesses, and physical items linked directly to Jones. Jones did not testify, and his defense team offered no evidence in his favor. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and the same jury later recommended the death penalty.

On July 22, 1991, Andrew Lee Jones was executed at Louisiana State Penitentiary in the electric chair known as “Gruesome Gertie.” He was the last person in Louisiana to be executed by electrocution. Though lethal injection had already been approved as the new method of execution, it had not yet taken effect. At a clemency hearing just days before his death, Jones gave a vague, emotionally conflicted statement, expressing regret but not offering a clear admission of guilt.