Albany resident Allah-Son-Allah was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for his killing of 32-year-old Michael Jones on Christmas Eve 1995 while they were both incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday, Oct. 10.
According to the DA’s Office, at around 8 p.m. on Dec. 24, 1995, Allah-Son-Allah used a buck knife to stab Jones in the chest, puncturing his heart and causing him to bleed to death inside the correctional facility.
The initial investigation into Jones’ death began in 1995 and was resumed in 2019 by the New York State Police and DA’s Office, which determined that Allah-Son-Allah and Jones were both members of the Five-Percent Nation, a Nation of Islam breakaway group established in the 1960s also known by the name “Nation of Gods.”
Members of the group voted the day before Jones’ death to attack him after he violated their beliefs by wearing a cross, officials said.
As part of the resumed investigation into the death, police and the DA’s Office Cold Case and Homicide bureaus traveled to several states to interview witnesses who had been incarcerated at Sing Sing at the time.