How the media's exposure of a police informant led to the murder of a young boy
What a case...
It’s 2012. I was picked up for a bench warrant when the vehicle I was riding home from work in was rear-ended. Upon arrival of the authorities they ran everyone’s name through the National Crime Information Center(NCIC). My name came up for failing to appear in court six months earlier. It was no surprise, and honestly I could’ve used some time to dry out.
I’d been asleep. Coming down. I’m in the dayroom bunk which kinda puts you on display for all to see. James and another guy are sitting together playing cards. The table is at the end of my feet. I shift, they notice. I try to play dead to no avail. They Know I’m awake.
I sit up.
Me: Hi
Unknown: We thought you was dead in here.
Me: No. Not dead. Just feel dead.
unk: How long you here?
Me: I’m waiting on another county to come pick me up.
JM: What ya do down there?
Me: I owe ‘em money.
Both: Ooooooooooh!
Unk: You ever killed someone?
Me: Ummmm what?!*Nervous Laughter*
JM: Bruh, Don’t ask people shit like that.
Unk: Do you know who he is?
JM: Don’t do that shit.
Unk: He killed a kid. He’s a kid killer. Did you see him on the news.
Me:*Shake my head* No.
JM: I didn’t kill no fucking kid.
Unk: Not what the news say.
JM: I’ll shoot a bitch. But I didn’t kill no kid.
Jeez!
Now there’s nervous laughter from all 3 of us. That was a fucking WILD thing to say. This was a month after his arrest for the murder of a young boy. I’ve never forgotten this exchange.
His name is James Mallory. I still don’t know his friends name, if they were friends, we tend to make alliances based simply on survival in places like this. A day later I was transferred to Larue County Detention Center where I was to await court for two more weeks then be released back into the wilderness. And that’s the last time I’ll be involved in this story.
James Mallory reached out to local news station WLKY for an interview after it was reported the day before that he was an informant for the prosecution of notorious, high-profile, and now deceased as of 2021, Jon “Hot Boy” Jones. Who had recently been found not guilty of violent crimes including murder on two different occasions. WLKY reporter Duane Pohlman showed for the interview.
DP: Alright James, why’d ya get a hold of me? Why do you-why do you wanna talk?
JM: I got a hold of you because there was some fabrication on the news, that was allegedly said that I was informing or that I’m coming to be a key witness and testify in a case that I’m not even testifying in, that I have no knowledge of, and I’ve not forewarned nobody.
DP: OK. Forgive my confusion, the reporting said, ‘This is what was said in court’. By the prosecutor. Prosecutor said they intended to call you as a witness. Have you been called as a witness?
JM: Yes.
DP: And the defense says, ‘we believe he's been an agent’, because there was this, this, and this. So you're saying that you've given no information about this case?
JM: No information about this case, when I was subpoenaed, I told the judge on record yesterday that I didn't want to come to court. I don't know nothing about testifying on this, on this guy that's in question, John Jones, and he said that I still got to come on the first, I mean on the 1:00 on Thursday. If I don't, then I'm gonna be locked up.
DP: You don't know Hot Boy?
JM: I mean, I know him, but I mean, he's never told me nothing about his case. He's never admitted nothing to me about doing anything. He's my… we Muslims I mean, I know him, but I'm not. I'm not coming to testify on him.
DP: OK, here's what they say. You wrote a letter. Did you write a letter?
JM: No.
DP: You never wrote a letter? They have a letter in their repossession.
JM: No, I've never wro-
DP: You never-
JM: No.
DP: OK, the letter said you had bombshell of information. You never-
JM: I never wrote no letter. I never talked to detectives (or been questioned) on this guy John Jones. It’s propaganda that's been going on since I've been released. It's coming from the jail. It's coming from people. I've never talked to detectives. In fact, they tried to reach me since I've been out and I've declined to talk to ‘em. I just left from my attorney’s office today. And questioning on this, on everything that's going on?
DP: They also say you visited Hot Boy in jail. Did you visit him in jail?
JM: Yes, I visited him.
DP: They said they have recordings of that. Are you aware of that?
JM: I'm aware of about what the news said.
DP: You never knew they were recorded.
JM: I mean it says it’s monitored and recorded, but it wasn't nothing that was said that was wrong anyway. I just visited him as a friendly basis.
DP: Did you know him from jail or did you know him before?
JM: I mean, I've been knowing him for a few years.
DP: OK, you visited him? How many times?
JM: I visited him once. I've only been out a few weeks.
DP: Yeah. So you visited how many days ago?
JM: Been about it was on. It was on a Sunday, so I say it's been about 10 days ago.
DP: Did he admit anything to you? Did you ask him about anything?
JM: What does he have to admit, we wasn't talking about nothing of no case. I just came to see him on a friendly basis and see how he was doing and it(there) was stuff that was being said, It(that) wasn't true, so I was trying to clarify and and and make things you know. clear and come out, that I'm not, I'm not here to testify on nobody.
DP: You were there to tell him you weren’t ratting him out.
JM: Yea, it's just not my character.
DP: So you were there to say, ‘Look, dude. I'm not doing this.’
JM: Yeah, this- that stuff being said, and me and him talked, and whatever the taped conversation said, neither one of us said nothing that was about his case or nothing of that sort.
DP: Did you share a jail cell with him?
JM: I've been in jail with a lot of people.
DP: Yea but, I mean, with him.
JM: It's not a jail cell.(it’s) A dorm, I Mean I would be lying if I said I wasn't in a dorm with him.
DP: Did you talk to him while you were in?
JM: Yea, we muslims, we fasted together, did Ramadan, he raps and I rap, I got an album coming out. And you know, I support his rap.
DP: Ok. So you've been in trouble. Your most recent trouble that brought you into jail was probation violation?
JM: Yes. Last year, on May the 12th I got locked up, which I have paperwork in my hand that shows that I was with revoked.
****Shows reporter his paperwork. What’s important in this interview is that there was a reason James reached out. He’s not a great communicator but what he was is afraid and in desperation. He went to visit the guy in jail because he was afraid the guy would send people after him. He felt like he needed to clear his name, and he was right****
. . . . . . . . .
DP: You were associating with a convicted felon. You're not clean, in other words, you’re not living a clean life? You're not pretending to.
JM: Nah.
DP: But, they're saying you're an informant.
JM: Where is this coming from?
DP: The people who are arguing the case. The prosecution AND the defense had a major discussion about you.
JM: The prosecution yesterday was asked by Rob Eggert am I an agent, Or did they send me up or to see this guy? And he said out of his own mouth that I'm not an agent and he didn't send me up there to see him, and I wasn't sent up there to get this guy to admit to nothing in question.
DP: What is the letter from you then?
JM: I don't know what this letter has been, supposedly last year about. My handwriting is exposed. I've been in the system for years. I didn't write no letter, and in fact, for my *shock, to put this on the news and in questioning(?) is this is what was filed on the motion when I was at North Point Training Center, and this is when I was down there(Showing Paperwork) and it went on motion hour. This is on-this is on court docket and motion hour, which can be seen that they put me in for shock, with not being informant. They put me in for shock because 180 days was almos up and I stayed out of trouble, and I used this as a vehicle to be shocked back out in Judge Chauvin’s courtroom.
DP: Never made a deal?
JM: Never made a deal. Never.
DP: Told the authorities about anyone about any violent crime. You never tip, never informed anyone about anything.
JM. Never, never. Well, I already had my shock put in when I was revoked.
DP: So you're trying to clear your name?
JM: I'm trying to clear my name for several reasons because the media has certain ways that they could, twist and groove things to make it look at(like) something that it’s not. You know I can put-
DP: Let-let-let, me make sure you understand something. The media reports what they hear, in, court. Yeah, so you're you're contention’s not with me.
JM: Yea, It's what was said in court.
DP: So. You're trying to clear your name. You're not a rat.
JM: Yes, that's what- I'm not a rat. Why would I-I did 12 years and I didn't say nothing? I did-I did two more years on this eight. I've been doing time all my life. It's not nothing to brag about, but I Stand for something.
DP: Never cooperated with authorities.
JM: Never cooperated on anything.
DP: Is that a bad thing?
JM: I mean, it's not something that I prefer. I-I can't speak for the next guy. I gotta speak for me.
Here’s where it gets really important
DP: James, are you getting any kind of heat in the neighborhood for being portrayed this way.
JM: I mean. I mean, it's just a bunch of people calling my phone and questioning. It's like you know.
DP: Are they threatening you?
JM: I mean, nothing like threatening, I mean.
DP: Your family?
JM: Not to my knowledge. But you know my phones been ringing. I got a phone and you know, people call.
DP: What do they say, what are you doing?
JM: Yea, what am I doing and asking me? Is this true, that I got on shock, I’m doing shows. I just opened up for Kirko Bangz and I opened up a Webbie. I'm a rapper. And this is trying to tarnish my name before my career even gets out.
DP: But what kind of thing? Just. Bear with me. I know, it's tough. And I don't live where you live, but is it a bad thing to say someone? Told me something about that, they did it.
JM: Yes, it's basically like, in retrospect talking about Jesus Christ, to a really devoted Christian. It’s just something that’s not tolerated when you live a certain perspective of your life. It’s just something I’m not-I’m not-
DP: What's the worst thing you could do on the street?
JM: The worst thing you can do on the streets is-is set people up or try to be a rat because you want to get deals, because you messed up and, you want to get help on your case.
DP. If you’re known as a rat is someone gonna get you?
JM: I mean it's it's a possibility. Anything is-
DP: Are you worried?
JM: I'm not worried about nothing. I just want to make this clarified. There’s people that believe in me, and there’s people that know what I stand for, and that's that's putting me basically. It’s like marketing, if you put out something or advertise a car and you say that this is ‘Built Ford Tough’ but then everybody, that buys your car, and they’re driving around and your car shuts down, nobody is going to buy your product anymore.
DP: So they’re chipping away at your credibility.
JM: Yes.
DP: Right?
JM: Yes, yes, that's exactly what's going on. Paperwork don’t lie.
DP: Have you talked to the prosecutor?
JM: I talked to the prosecutor yesterday, when they called me to court and I told him, exact words, ‘I don't wanna be here. I'm not testifying on nobody and I'm gonna tell the judge that, and then on the docket, the news cameras didn’t see this, but I told the judge I didn't want to come and I didn't want to testify on nobody because I didn’t know nothing.
DP: Let me ask you this. If you knew something, someone told you about something so… Critical like an attempted murder would you tell anybody then?
JM: I'm saying, this just seemed like a trick question. I don't want to be in nobody else's business, so I wouldn't even let nobody confide something like that to me.
DP: But would you talk to the authorities, if you knew somebody did something wrong?
JM: No, because it's not my business. I'm living my own life
DP: Got it. We’re good.
That interview was posted to Youtube on February 22nd, 2012. The murder of 15-year-old Gregory Holt took place on April 11th that same year. Hours after the mother of the boy helped a trio of killers get to Mallory, so they could “execute” James Mallory for the crime of being an informant. Which he was not. At the behest of Jon ‘Hot Boy’ Jones. A killer, yes, informant, no, but this begs the question, what would you do if every news station was calling you an informant, and one of Louisville’s most known criminals was sending people to kill you? Did he know who he had killed? I don’t know. We might never know. If this story hadn’t been botched so terribly, or if maybe, they had chosen to protect a police source, whether he was or not, instead of airing it out that little boy might still be alive. I believe in bringing the truth to the light, but this is an example of when it goes bad. They could’ve at least, not printed his name, or waiting until after court. Jesus christ!
*Shock refers to ‘shock probation’. When you recieve a sentence of time in state prison at ‘Final Sentencing’ the judge has the option to give you your sentence on probation instead of being remanded to the state. If they decline to do that for whatever reason the judge has the option 60 days after you’ve received your classification level to probate your sentence, which is called ‘shock probation’. We used to say, it’s a ‘shock that you got it’ because not many people do. I never did.
Although it does seem that James offered information in a letter, that he didn’t have, in order to get shock probation. It’s not obvious that he let on who the information was about. The fact of the matter is he did not inform on anyone, but they made it seem to everyone that he already had. James was in jail, desperate to get out, he wrote a letter claiming to have “bombshell information” and they fell for it and let him out. He didn’t know that would work. I’d have said the same thing. Bottom line, you can’t make nobody speak. And if he had no info, you can’t get blood out of a turnip. And you shouldn’t blast him, all over the news, calling him a rat. Does WLKY think they’re running some kind of racket? Jesus, what are they thinking?! It’s almost like they had it out for this guy.
In the next interview Mallory is in jail for the murder of a 15-year-old boy. The target was supposed to have been his mother Kendra Wilson, he shows reporters the bullet hole that is now about healed from the close encounter with death that he had the night before he killed young Gregory Holt.
In this interview he says, without a doubt, that the first interview, when he was trying to clear his name he was reaching out for help. He couldn’t out-and-out say it, but that’s what he was doing. James got out of jail on shock probation knowing he would never cooperate and take the stand against anyone. He said whatever he could to get his freedom back. They wanted him to testify against one of Louisville’s most notorious criminals, on paper at least, of course he was not going to do that, but the local news, based on what they heard in court, before talking to the guy made him seem like a ‘bought and paid for’ working informant. He tried to clear his name to Jon Jones’ face and then tried to clear his name in the media. Neither worked. There was a bounty put up for him. Kendra Wilson led him into an alley where three men were there to kill him. He was shot in his leg, but he got away. He fled. In retaliation, him and two other men broke into Kendra Wilson’s home with payback on their minds and instead of finding her they found her son and shot him to death. In the unraveling of this story, it seems, the only real victim here is Gregory Holt. Everyone else is complicit, but it starts with the media.
In this clip it all comes to fruition. Mallory takes the stand and helps neither side, the prosecution or the defense. All sides lose in this story. I wish there was a happier ending but their just is not, except for this, Movies aren’t real. When you agree to help the authorities they WILL get what they want and hang you out to dry. There’s no safehouses like on “Sons of Anarchy”, although that safehouse doesn’t end well either. I’d bet if someone talked to Mallory today, off the record, he would’ve rather finished that 8-year sentence that he was already 2-years in on.
Jordan Lee, Editor-in-Chief, Declaration of WarLiberty
Jon “Hot Boy” Jones dies at 33
By Liz Adelberg
Updated: May. 14, 2020 at 1:15 PM EDT
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A Louisville man who evaded murder convictions twice and was found not guilty in two other attempted murders has died from a drug overdose.
Jon “Hot-Boy” Jones was once considered one of Louisville’s most dangerous criminals. Every time he was charged, he walked away with a lesser charge at most. He eventually called himself Mr Not Guilty .
Jones died of a drug overdose on Wednesday. Jones was released from prison in 2019.
Once called the “most dangerous man in Louisville” by authorities in 2012.
Won two separate murder trials.
Received 10 years for attempted murder in 2012-2013.
Was released in 2019.
Died at age 33 in 2020. Overdosed on fentanyl.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- John 'Hot Boy' Jones seems to be an elusive criminal not because he can't be caught, but because a murder charge doesn't seem to ever stick. Back in 2005, police arrested then 18-year-old Jones and charged him for the shooting death of Christopher Harrison on June 16, 2005. The crime happened at 39th and Main Streets. Police said back then Jones shot Harrison and another man multiple times.
In 2005, we talked to Prosecutor John Heck about this case, who said they didn't have a lot of evidence and witnesses didn't come forward. Heck stated then 'When you're dealing with one gang member taking out a drug dealer, this is going to scare the community. People in this community don't want to get involved out of fear of their own safety.' Heck offered Jones a lesser charge of reckless homicide if he would plead guilty. Jones took the plea and was released from jail less than a year after the shooting, in April of 2006.
Then just a year later, in April 2007, another shooting death was linked Jones. This one was at a gas station on Broadway, and the victim was James Bland. The day of the murder we talked to Bland's grandmother who said 'They told us he was here getting some gas, putting gas in a can, and someone wearing a hood on his head walked up and started shooting.' In March 2009 Jones was acquitted of Bland's murder.
Now, in 2011, Jones is wanted again. Police say he shot a woman in St. Matthews at the Jamestown Apartment complex across the street from Baptist Hospital East. Police say they're not sure if it was a carjacking or robbery, but they say when Jones approached the woman's car she tried to drive off. Then police say he backed up and shot into the car, striking the woman in the head. She survived and police are hunting Jones once again.
Detective Larry Alvey spoke with us off camera Sunday. He says the woman shot at Jamestown Apartments is doing very well, and that at this time Jones will likely face a persistent felony offender charge, which carries with it a minimum 10 year sentence.
After a lengthy and complicated trial, John Jones was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday.
There have been many developments in Jones' trial. He was found not guilty for attempted murder. Instead, the jury convicted him of two other charges from when Jones, also known as Hot Boy, was accused of trying to kill a woman in 2010.
The verdict came back in his favor, but in the case, the jury said he was guilty of something else, tampering with a witness and being a persistent felony offender..
"I'm going to follow the jury's recommendation and sentence Mr. Jones to 10 years based upon the jury recommendation," said Jefferson County District Court Judge Fred Cowan.
That recommendation stemmed from Jones' visit with James Mallory in jail.
Mallory was a witness in the Jones case, and prosecutors had plenty to say about that visit and its impact.
"The victim is our criminal justice system. When people try to tamper with the system, when they try to predetermine their face in their case, when they try to fix it before they even walk into the courtroom, that is a very serious crime and we believe that it should be taken very seriously," said Commonwealth Attorney Tom Van De Rostyne.
Jones' attorneys, on the other hand, requested the court grant him probation.
"And now he's supposed to do time for tampering with an accused murderer, who they let out and then went to the jail, to talk to him?" said defense attorney Rob Eggert. "I mean really, it turns justice on its head."
Mallory is accused of killing a 15-year-old boy and being an informant.
For both the prosecution and defense, Monday's sentencing begged the question about the validity of jailhouse informants.
"He's your classic jailhouse snitch that they never should have dealt with, never should have gotten out, never should have freed," said Eggert.
Jones' attorneys said in court Monday that they plan on appealing the 10-year sentence.
Now for some easy listening….
Above is the tribute at his funeral which is terribly sad. And oddly nostalgic seeing the chairs being social distanced and people in masks. It’s hilarious how dumb we were. As if sitting 6 feet apart would stop a virus that is aerosolized in the air.