Wanda Jones Miller

Wanda Jones (born c. 1960) is the owner the Trussville Antique Mall on North Chalkville Road.

On August 10, 1983, Jones was abducted from the parking lot of the Baby Doe's Matchless Mine restaurant on Red Mountain during a friend's birthday party. She was taken to a house in Pinson where she was raped by as many as seven men. Three of them, Stanley Wilson and brothers Kenneth and Michael Thornton, were convicted of rape, sodomy and kidnapping in trial, but the conviction was overturned because prosecutors unfairly kept African Americans off the jury.

Before the retrial, the defendants agreed to plea guilty. Wilson, considered the ringleader, received a life sentence while the Thornton brothers were sentenced to 40 years. Jones subsequently moved to Antiqua for several years, but later returned to Alabama and opened the antique mall in Trussville.

In 2000 her attackers were granted parole, but the decision was overturned after then-Governor Don Seigelman protested and a judge voided the result of the hearing because Jones had not been properly notified of a pre-hearing screening.

In 2004 another parole hearing was attended by dozens of law enforcement officials and victim's rights advocates. They testified that the convicted men had never shown remorse nor identified the other participants. Family members of the Thornton brothers argued that Jones, Wilson and the Thornton brothers had all been drinking and using drugs and that she agreed to go with them to their house to continue partying and it was only later that the party got "out of hand." Jones firmly denies that claim. They also produced a transcript of the plea deal in which the Jefferson County District Attorney agreed not to protest parole. David Barber, who represented that office at the parole hearing, said that he was not present at the plea deal and was not aware of any such agreement. The prisoners are next eligible for parole in November 2009.

References

• Kennedy, Joey (November 10, 2004) "Ordeal for Wanda Jones never ends." Birmingham News
• Crowder, Carla (November 10, 2004) "Parole again denied in 'Baby Doe's' rape." Birmingham News