Photo: Shawn Cone
A former Mountain Home resident arrested in Florida in connection with a homicide in Jonesboro is now in the Craighead County Detention Center.
KAIT is reporting 48-year-old Shawn Gregory Cone was booked into the Craighead County jail early Monday evening.
Cone is expected to face a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of 50-year-old Alissa Gay Reynolds. According to investigative records, Cone and Reynolds shared her home along Brac Place in Jonesboro.
Cone has also been in trouble with the law in Baxter County. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2015 for selling a 78-foot-houseboat, named the “Never Enuff,” for $275,000 without having paid for the craft, leaving a lien on the boat in favor of the lender.
In addition to the prison sentence, Cone was ordered to pay $191,500 in victim restitution at the rate of $500 a month. The buyers eventually assigned restitution payments to the bank holding the note. A motion was filed by the bank in Baxter County Circuit Court late last month indicating no restitution payments have been received from Cone since late August.
In the Jonesboro murder case, Reynolds’ body was discovered Dec. 8 when Jonesboro Police Department (JPD) officers went to her residence in response to a request for a “welfare check.” Worried friends and family called police and reported they had been unable to contact her after several attempts.
As one of the officers made his way around the outside of the brick residence he reported detecting the “distinct odor of decomposition” coming from the interior of the house. Officers made a forced entry and found Reynolds’ body in a chair in the living room. It was estimated she might have been dead as many as four days prior to the discovery.
The public information officer with JPD told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot news a number of the investigative reports into the death will not be made public until Cone is brought back from Florida, and charges are formally filed in Craighead County Circuit Court.
Cone was arrested Dec. 9 at the Key West airport when he arrived on a flight from Miami by way of Memphis. Officers arrested him as soon as he came off the airplane. He was alleged to have had a credit card belonging to Reynolds and $3,000 in cash.
Investigators in Jonesboro had quickly developed Cone as a suspect in the womans death. They were told Cone was to fly out of Memphis with Key West his ultimate destination. American Airlines was contacted and provided law enforcement with the flight number Cone was on, as well as his seat number. Authorities in Key West were contacted, and Cone was taken into custody.
Cone already had an open criminal case in Craighead County. He is accused of stealing four checks worth slightly more than $17,400 from the mailbox of a Jonesboro flooring company. He is alleged to have deposited the checks into his own account during a period beginning in May and running through August.
When he appeared in Craighead County Circuit Court in the check theft case, he listed the dead woman as the person who would ensure he attended court sessions. He also listed her address as his residence.
He appeared Dec. 6 and was ordered to reappear Dec. 30. If the estimated time of Reynolds’ death is correct, she could already have been dead when Cone made his court appearance.
When the theft and murder allegation were made against Cone in Craighead County, he was on parole from the prison sentence he received in the fraudulent boat sale in Baxter County.
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