Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Press releasae by Brad Rigby, District Attorney

On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, James Lonnie Smith pled guilty in Crisp County Superior Court before Judge Chris Hughes to the Malice Murders and other charges regarding the deaths os Sheena Jones and Shawna Ware. Smith was sentenced on Thursday, April 24, 2025, to a composite sentence of life without parole plus a consectutive twenty five years to serve in the Georgia Department of Correction.

The plea stemmed from events that occured in the morning hours of May 5, 2018, wherein Smith went to the residence of Sheena Jones and Shawna Ware in the City of Cordele and shot both women with two separate handguns. Police were alerted within minutes and Smith fled to Houston County where he hid out in a hotel. Later, multiple law enforcement agencies went to arrest Smith at the hotel and Smith engaged in a shootout with officers until he was apprehended. The GBI investigated both incidents with assitance from the Cordele Police Department, Crisp County Sheriff’s Office, Perry Police Department and Houston County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith pled guilty to Malice Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault (two counts of each), Home Invasion, Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a felony (four Counts), and Possession of a firearm by a convicted Felon (two counts). Orginally, the District Attorney had filed notice to seek the death penalty for these murders but it was withdrawn in exchange for the pleas of guilty.