Jury convicts man who raped informant in unmonitored sting

Source: Associated Press

Jury convicts man who raped informant in unmonitored sting

By JIM MUSTIAN
November 18, 2022

A Louisiana jury Thursday convicted a career criminal of raping a police informant who had been sent into a drug house in a sting that went unmonitored and unprotected by law enforcement.

Jurors in Alexandria looked away at times as prosecutors played graphic footage of a sexual assault that happened as the woman went undercover to buy methamphetamine. She wore a hidden camera that recorded Antonio D. Jones forcing her to perform oral sex on him — twice— but the device did not transmit the attack in real time.

Jones, 48, was found guilty of two counts of third-degree rape. He had been scheduled for trial last month but skipped bail and was later captured in Mississippi.

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The conviction came two months after the attack on the woman was reported in an AP investigation that exposed the perils such informants can face seeking to “work off” criminal charges in often loosely regulated, secretive arrangements.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/us-news-crime-louisiana-sexual-assault-0838a0f1fc5d8bca18a723d8b0f1489e