In closing statement, prosecutor says Timothy Jones is an evil murderer
Is Timothy Ray Jones Jr. a cold-blooded murderer who brutally snuffed out the lives of his five children or is he truly insane?
Attorneys spent more than two hours Monday arguing both sides of the question before handing the case off to a Lexington County jury of 10 women and eight men.
During closing arguments, 11th Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard attacked the testimony of health experts who, he said, weren’t there to find the truth, but rather to put up a defense. Jones’ own actions after the 2014 killings – searching for places to dump his children’s bodies and places to run – proves he knew right from wrong, Hubbard said, and he was driven by anger toward his ex-wife, Amber.
“He’s trying to make himself look mentally ill. He’s looking for schizophrenia. He’s looking to present that to you, and everybody, and maybe even himself,” Hubbard said.
Prosecutors are asking jurors to return guilty verdicts for the murder of all five children and to begin the next step of the trial – the penalty phase during which Jones could be sentenced to death.
But Jones’ defense attorney, Boyd Young, said Jones has a “damaged and diseased brain” that led him to believe his children were better off in heaven than leading a “tortured existence” like their father.
“Does it make sense? No, he’s crazy. You can’t rationalize crazy. But at the time, he thought it was the right thing to do,” Young said. “Everyone says Tim loves his kids. And tragically, horrifically, that love killed them.”
Over the past 14 days, jurors have heard testimony about what happened the night of Aug. 28, 2014. Jones confessed to police that he punished Nahtahn, 6, for playing with the home’s electrical outlets by forcing the child to do intense physical exercises, which led to his accidental death.
With one child dead, and two others terrified, he downloaded a movie clip of a prison rape scene, Hubbard said. And after all five were dead, Jones called the babysitter the next day to say they would be late. A couple days later, he told the babysitter of plans to move away and start over. All of this is evidence that Jones knew right from wrong, Hubbard said.
And during his nine-day trek through the Southeast with the bodies of his children in the car, he frantically plotted his next move.
“His kids are dead in a car while he’s walking through Walmart and he looks just like any other shopper. Only in his basket, he’s got some saws, acid and things to dismember and mutilate the bodies of his babies.”
Jones grew up always wanting his way, Hubbard said, and dealing with him was like walking on eggshells.
In a dramatic moment, Hubbard attempted to help the jury understand Jones’ thought process when confronted with the reality of an unfaithful wife: “After all I’ve done,” Hubbard said in a stern tone, pretending to be Jones. “Do you know who I am? You’re nothing without me. I’ve got an education. I’ve got money. There’s no way you’ll get these kids. You have nothing!”
Jones made sure to take letters Amber had written the children as well as family photos on the car trip. He didn’t just burn down his dream, Hubbard said, he burned down Amber’s, too.
“I have the unique role of speaking for the dead and today I am speaking for five little babies,” Hubbard said, “And I’m asking for justice.”
But the defense argued the tragedy started with Jones’ own childhood, which was marked by abuse, neglect and violence — some of it at the hands of his mentally ill mother. Jones also suffered a traumatic brain injury at 15 and abused drugs, including large quantities of synthetic marijuana called Spice leading up to the crime.
When he was questioned by police, Jones’ profuse sweating and foaming at the mouth was evidence of what he was going through, Young said.
“He is screaming about the voices in his head, screaming that Cindy (his mother) put them in there, screaming to ‘put a bullet in my head’. The state says, ‘That’s all Spice. He’s not psychotic, not in any way delusional,’” Young said.
Young then stacked on a table about a dozen gallon-sized bags filled with pills to illustrate the amount of medication Jones has been taking since going to prison — evidence he is mentally ill.
“He only saw one inevitable outcome for his kids and that was a tortured existence,” Young said, including institutionalization or worse. “Killing someone out of hatred is murder. Killing children out of love is insanity.”
Jurors spent about 90 minutes deliberating Monday evening before heading home. They are expected to continue at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
This story was originally published June 3, 2019 at 9:22 PM.