Remembering Sheriff David Jones

SAN ANGELO, TX — Sheriff David Jones died early this morning in Houston after a courageous and valiant fight against leukemia. Jones had been battling cancer for about two years.

Sheriff David Jones served as the head of the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office from 2013 until his retirement in January 2021. He began his career as an officer with the Sul Ross State University Police Department in Alpine in 1973. The Texas Department of Public Safety hired him in 1976 where he served the State of Texas for 32 years, first as a DPS trooper and then with the intelligence bureau at the DPS Criminal Investigations Division.

He retired from the DPS in 2008. His retirement was brief. In 2011, he was appointed Chief Deputy of the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office under interim Sheriff Truman Richie. He was elected sheriff in November 2012 and served as the county’s top lawman from January 1, 2013 until January 1, 2021. In all, Jones accumulated 46 years of service in law enforcement.

Jones, tall and slender, with the signature cowboy hat, fancy belt and boots, was a quintessential west Texas lawman. He selected Dale Pearce to serve as his administrative and operations point man in the position as his chief deputy. Pearce said this morning that his job working for Jones was the best six years of his life.

“He was humble and had an impeccable character,” Pearce said of Jones. Pearce noted that Jones brought new innovations to the sheriff’s office, including enhancing the ability to investigate crimes using his vast experience as a DPS criminal investigator. Jones brought in criminal investigator Terry Lowe, for example, who cracked open several cold cases, some of which are getting solved now. More than that, however, Pearce said that Jones really cared about the citizens he served.

“He understood that the TGCSO was a very large burden for the taxpayers of the county,” Pearce explained. “He was careful with every penny he spent. He looked at the budget everyday and was a great steward of the tax dollars spent. He spent every dollar as if it was his own.”

Pearce said Jones as a politician never endorsed another candidate. “He thought politicians needed to earn the peoples’ trust,” he said. He recalled how Jones campaigned in 2012, knocking on more than one thousand doors. He won with 69 percent of the vote against TGCSO deputy Walter Bryant. Jones did the work and he expected others seeking public office to do the same. Jones was easily re-elected in 2016 against the same candidate with 75 percent of the vote.

In part because of the rivalry but also because Jones was adamant that the county law enforcement community retain its integrity, he broke his rule of never endorsing a candidate publicly in the race for constable precinct 2 candidate in 2016. Back then, Jones endorsed Deen Dickson who was running against a Bryant colleague named Dusty Thompson. He never publicly explained why, but Thompson had a long-standing felony indictment against him. Thompson was eventually convicted of another felony, cattle rustling, in 2019. The race was close, with Dickson edging Thompson by only 4 points at 52 percent. Pearce said Jones actions that may have been the deciding factor in Dickson’s win were to protect the citizens.

“Jones was a great family man with three awesome children,” Pearce said. His two sons work in law enforcement — one is a game warden and the other an FBI agent. His daughter is an oncology nurse, Pearce said.

Jones named retiring Texas Ranger Nick Hanna as his chief deputy after Pearce retired in 2019. Like his predecessor before did with Jones, the then-sheriff was ensuring continuity of the sheriff’s office before his own retirement. Hanna, who was later elected sheriff to replace the retiring Jones in 2020, always fretted over the inability of his office to publicly and in person thank Jones for his service to the Concho Valley as Jones was by then very ill.