Timothy Ray Jones Jr., a South Carolina dad charged with murdering his five children and then driving around with their bodies in his SUV for a week, was found guilty on Tuesday.
According to WYFF , the jury could have deemed Jones guilty; guilty but mentally ill; not guilty by reason of insanity; or not guilty. Jones “showed no reaction” when the jury, which deliberated for about six hours over two days, delivered its verdict, USA Today reports.
The prosecutor, Solicitor Rick Hubbard III, said in court that “the worst of the worst know killing your babies is obscene, outrageous and absolutely morally unacceptable” but that Jones knowingly committed these brutal acts “in a matter of seconds,” WYFF reports.
Jones’ lawyers tried to argue that Jones was severely mentally ill at the time he killed his kids in 2014. In fact, USA Today reports that Jones’ attorney Boyd Young told the jury his client was “crazy,” saying, “You can’t rationalize crazy. But at the time, he thought it was the right thing to do.”
Jones’ lawyers argued that he was teetering on the brink of madness partially due to a dependence on drugs — per the Post and Courier, he told a forensic psychiatrist he smoked synthetic marijuana up to five times per day — and partially because his wife, Amber Kyzer, allegedly left him for a 19-year-old neighbor.
Jones, 37, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He is eligible to receive the death penalty and the jury is due back in court Thursday to hear additional arguments before his sentencing.
During the trial, Jones’ ex-wife broke down while reading a letter she wrote to her oldest daughter after she and Jones got divorced, telling the girl that “Mommy and Daddy were really blessed to have you,” the Associated Press and local station WSPA report.
“Oh, God. Oh, God!” Amber Kyzer said, sobbing. “My babies! My babies!”
Following a contentious break-up, Jones, a college-educated computer software engineer, ended up with custody of all five children — three boys and two girls.
Prosecutors say he killed his son Nahtahn, 6, by exercising him to death after the boy broke an electrical outlet in their mobile home on Aug. 28, 2014.
Jones went on to strangle his oldest child, his 8-year-old daughter Merah, and his 7-year-old son, Elias, with his hands, prosecutors say.
According to prosecutors, Merah’s last words were, “Daddy, I love you,” reports WCSC.
Next, he wrapped a belt around the necks of his 2-year-old son, Gabriel, and his youngest child, 1-year-old Abigail, and ended their lives, prosecutors say, Fox News reports.
After stuffing their bodies in garbage bags, he loaded their remains into his Cadillac Escalade and drove for days through four states, sleeping in the SUV with the bodies in the back, The State reports.
He dumped his children’s badly decomposed bodies in a desolate part of Camden, Alabama.
On Sept. 6, 2014, he was arrested in Smith County, Mississippi, at a police checkpoint after an officer detected what he described on the stand as “the smell of death” in Jones’ SUV — along with blood, maggots and synthetic marijuana, officials said, The State reports.
During police questioning, Jones admitted to killing his kids but claimed he did so in preemptive self-defense before the children could “chop him up and feed him to the dogs,” according to his arrest warrant, The State reports.
In his confession to police that prosecutors played for jurors, Jones admitted he lost his temper when Nahtahn broke the outlet.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Jones said he found his son “deceased” several hours later, he said in the confession, The State reports.
“The voices started kicking in, saying, ‘You better do something, you are [expletive], Tim,’” he said in the confession.
He had taken the children to the beach and to Disney World at some point before the murders, prosecutors say.
On Monday, Kyzer testified that she married Jones because as a college graduate with a good job, he seemed smart and responsible, Fox News reports.
His demeanor toward her changed dramatically after they wed, she testified.
“I was merely to take care of the children. To keep them out of his way,” Kyzer testified.
Jones was allegedly livid when Kyzer had an affair with a 19-year-old neighbor, according to a 2012 affidavit obtained by The State.
Following a contentious split, Kyzer said she handed over custody of the children because he could support them on his $80,000 a year job, she testified.
In their opening statements, Jones’ lawyers claimed he suffers from undiagnosed schizophrenia, The State reports.
Jones allegedly snapped because of his wife’s cheating and because he was overwhelmed by taking care of five kids, his lawyers said.
Jones’s attorneys did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Source: Read Full Article