Lauderadale Man Guilty of Memphis Murders May Now Face Local Inquiry

Henry Lee Jones

Former Fort Lauderdale resident Henry Lee Jones was convicted this week of a double murder in Memphis. Now the question remains whether Jones will be sent back to Florida to face murder charges in Broward County.

Police have said they're considering whether Jones might be responsible for the unsolved murder of Keith Gross on September 9, 2002, in Fort Lauderdale's Victoria Park. The 24-year-old Gross was walking to Keith Walker's house to watch football but never showed. Walker found Gross' raped and murdered body in Gross' apartment two hours later.

Fort Lauderdale Police arrested Jones in 2003 for the double murder in Memphis. It took jurors a hundred minutes to find him guilty this week, according to the Commercial Appeal. A spokeswoman with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not respond to questions about whether the agency will now bring Jones back to Florida for questioning in Gross' killing.

Walker said today that he's not sure he wants to see Henry stand trial on possible murder charges here. "It's very hard going over this again, and I would have to replay it over and over and over if there were court proceedings," he said. Finding his dead friend has haunted Walker, who says he hasn't slept regularly since. Walker watched every day of Henry's trial in Memphis via the Internet.

Meanwhile, Gross' brother, Michael Gross, has no hesitation about what he'd like to see happen now. "Things need to happen to hold him responsible for my brother's death," Michael Gross said today. "To be honest, right now I just want to take a break from Henry Lee Jones. But eventually, I want to see him here stand trial."

Jurors in Memphis are now considering whether Henry will spend his life in prison or face the death penalty for the double murder there.