COLUMBIA, S.C. — A death row inmate who was being housed in Richland County has died on Saturday at a local hospital.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections reports that 60-year-old Donald Allen Jones was hospitalized on Wednesday and was the second-longest serving resident of the state's Death Row, having been there since 1984.
The sentence followed his conviction for murder, armed robbery, and larceny from an automobile in a 1983 Lancaster County shooting that left another man dead. Records show he also began sentences for criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and larceny housebreaking in 1990.
According to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford, the preliminary cause of death is believed to be a stroke. An autopsy is now scheduled to gather additional information.
State records show Jones had been housed in several facilities over his time in the correctional system but had been at the Broad River facility since July of 2019.
