Shawn Turak, Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney, releases the following statement:
On October 22, 2025, Joseph Earl Jones, 43, formerly of Pittsburgh, was convicted of “Sexual Assault, Second Degree” and “Abduction with the Intent to Defile” and sentenced by the Honorable Judge David J. Sims to not less than thirteen nor more than thirty-five years in prison.
The investigation and conviction were part of a collaborative effort between the Wheeling Police Department and the West Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) team. The crimes occurred in 2008 when the victim, A.M., then 23 years old, was offered a ride by Jones who took her to a secluded location on City View Drive, a dead-end road, and brutally sodomized her. Law enforcement and EMS arrived, the victim was taken to the hospital and a sex crimes kit was collected. No offender was able to be charged based upon the evidence available at the time.
In 2017, all untested sex crimes kits in the State of West Virginia were taken to the West Virginia State Police Crime Lab or Marshall University Forensic Science Center for processing and testing, including the sex crimes kit taken from A.M. from 2008. Forensic evidence was processed as part of the WV SAKI project and the suspected offender’s DNA was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
An association was made by the Marshall University Forensic Science Center in late 2020. The lab connected the suspect’s DNA with a known DNA profile of Joseph Earl Jones whose DNA had been entered into CODIS as a result of his convictions for Second and Third Degree Sexual Assault in Ohio County from 2013. Jones was sentenced in 2013 to 12 to 35 years for sex crimes committed against a mentally handicapped woman, including sodomy.
Based upon the association made by Marshall University Forensic Science Center, the 2008 sexual assault investigation resumed and a SAKI investigator was able to collect and send a known swab of Jones’s DNA to Marshall University Forensic Science Center. Shawn Turak, Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney, stated “The statistical probability of the DNA being anyone other than Joseph Earl Jones was 1 in 87.12 sextillion. With that evidence, I submitted the case to the Ohio County Grand Jury in January 2025, which resulted in the Indictment against Jones.”
This case was part of the West Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). Funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative aims to create a coordinated community response that ensures just resolution to sexual assault cases. Through this program, funding is provided to support multidisciplinary community response teams engaged in the comprehensive reform of the jurisdiction’s approaches to sexual assault cases resulting from evidence found in previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits. Additional information on the program can be found at https://www.sakitta.org/westvirginia/.
“I was particularly excited to work on this case with the SAKI team. I am proud to have been a part of this County’s first SAKI cold case conviction,” noted Prosecuting Attorney Shawn R. Turak, who added, “Sometimes justice delayed feels like justice deprived. I think we can all understand that. As the then Assistant Prosecuting Attorney who handled the case against Jones in 2013, when I saw his name on the potential hit confirmation letter, I was all the more committed to re-opening the investigation.” Turak further stated, “The State was able to reach this conclusion with the full approval and cooperation of the victim, who was seated in the courtroom when Mr. Jones was convicted and sentenced. Every time I met with her or spoke with her by phone, her focus never wavered: she wanted to ensure no woman would ever go through the ordeal she experienced.” When discussing the victim, Turak said, “she is braver than she knows and I truly hope that putting this behind her for once and for all may put her on a path of healing and closure.”
Finally, Turak noted that she remains committed to working with victims and prosecuting sexual assault cases, both freshly reported and cold cases, no matter the age of the victim. “This crime is so very pervasive and so personal. It is particularly satisfying to me to restore to a victim her voice and equilibrium, but even more empowering to that victim to be restored.”
If you are a victim of sexual assault, you are encouraged to contact law enforcement and the Upper Ohio Valley Sexual Assault Help Center at (304) 234-1783.
