39-year-old Donnie Frank Jones Jr., the man accused in the 2012 rape and slaying of 24-year-old Tullahoma, Tenn., nursing student Megan Sharpton will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a special motion hearing in Sequatchie County.

Circuit Court Judge Curtis Smith heard and granted a new motion filed by Jones related to the guilty plea he made on Feb. 4, 2013. Jones had been trying to withdraw his plea but now the original judgment goes back into effect.

Jones and Sharpton lived in Coffee County, the 13th Judicial District, but the crime was prosecuted in Franklin County because that's where Sharpton's body was found.

Sharpton's 1995 Ford Mustang was found the same day on Three Forks Bridge Road in Bedford County, 15 to 20 miles away. An autopsy showed she died of blunt-force trauma.

Authorities said Jones met Sharpton through his wife, who also attended nursing school.

Jones now is an inmate at the Turney Center Industrial Complex, the state prison southwest of Nashville in Hickman County, Tennessee Department of Correction records show.

Source:

Partner Station WMSR