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By Fred Guarino

The Lowndes Signal

Lowndes County triple murder suspect Deandra Marquis Lee, who 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, in April, was sentenced to 10 years and six months for the offenses on Wednesday.

Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Terri Bozeman Lovell sentenced Lee to 10 years to a penitentiary for the charge in the first degree and six month in the county jail for the charge in the third degree.

According to court documents on the promoting prison contraband in the first degree, Lee will pay a fine of $500, court costs, pay a crime victim’s assessment of $100 and attorneys’ fees. A credit will be allowed for the time served for the present charge.

On the charge of promoting prison contraband in the third degree, Lee will pay a fine of $100, court cost, a crime victim’s assessment of $50 and attorneys’ fees. A credit will be allowed for the time served for the present charge.

The verdicts in April 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.”

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 intentionally and unlawfully made or possessed contraband which was a cell phone.

The sentences handed down Wednesday were the maximum for the charges.

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.

McCord 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.

Additionally, on Friday, March 17, Lovell ordered Lee to undergo a supplemental examination on an out-patient 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 under-

standing of the facts and the legal proceedings pending against the defendant.”

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.

Wednesday, Lovell also took motions regarding the upcoming murder trial.

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.

 

Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams and Deputy Leroy Yelder escort triple murder suspect Deandra Marquis Lee from the Lowndes County Courthouse after he is sentenced for promoting prison contraband. Signal photo/Fred Guarino