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By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

Lowndes County triple murder suspect Deandra Marquis Lee was found guilty by a Lowndes County Circuit Court jury of promoting prison contraband in the first degree, a Class C felony, and third degrees, a Class B misdemeanor, Tuesday.

The verdict, which came in Lowndes County Circuit Court before Judge Terri Bozeman Lovell, followed indictments dated July 22, 2013 regarding incidents dating back to October 16, 2012.

According to the indictment, Lee was indicted for promoting prison contraband in the first degree while being confined at the John Hulett Correctional (Detention) Facility in Hayneville for intentionally and unlawfully making, possessing or obtaining a “deadly weapon, instrument, tool or other thing which may be useful for escape.” The item was listed as “shank and/or razor blade.”

That charge is a Class C felony and carries a sentence of up to 10 years.

According a second indictment on the same date as the other and regarding an incident on the same date as the other at the John Hulett Correctional Facility, Lee intentionaly and unlawfully made or possessed contraband which was a cell phone.

That charge is a Class B misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to six months.

A sentencing date for Lee on these charges has been set for Wednesday, May 3 at 10:30 a.m.

Previously, according to Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk Tiffany McCord, on Feb. 22, 2016, a Montgomery County jury found Lee guilty of destroying state property.

She said it “appeared” that Lee (allegedly) “broke a sprinkler head” at the Montgomery Detention Facility. And she said Lee was sentenced to five years in prison, ordered to pay $300 in restitution and to pay the crime victims’ fund $50.

The trial of Lee on six charges of capital murder in connection with the 2012 deaths of 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett, from Montgomery, and their 73-year-old caretaker, Jack Mac Girdner of Hope Hull, is set for Oct. 10.

According to court documents, Lovell issued an order to delay the trial until Oct. 10 on Tuesday, March 28 on a motion filed by Lee by and through his attorneys.

Also on Friday, March 17, Lovell ordered Lee to undergo a supplemental examination on an outpatient basis to determine whether the defendant “has sufficient present ability to assist in his or her defense, by consulting with counsel, with a reasonable degree of rational understanding of the facts and the legal proceedings pending against the defendant.”

On June 5, 2012, the bodies of the Dejerinett twins and Girdner were discovered by the Lowndes County Sheriff ’s Office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) on a dirt road off of Alabama Highway 21 near Hayneville, three miles south of U.S. Highway 80.

The three had been reported missing on Monday, June 4, 2012.

The defendant, Lee, was 22 at the time of the crime. He is represented by attorneys Jerry L. Thornton of Hayneville and Logan R. Taylor of Hayneville.