April Hames

April Hames, a marriage and family therapist, testified for the defense on Day 18 about counseling Tim Jones received in 2012 and early 2013. She described his reported marital distress, fears of abandonment, religious views, concerns about his children, and efforts to obtain counseling for them. After he said he wanted to strangle Amber, Hames questioned him and found no plan or timeline to harm her.

Hames identified records reflecting recurrent moderate major depressive disorder and an unspecified nonpsychotic mental-disorder code. Defense Exhibit 134, her affidavit for a Family Court emergency hearing involving custody of the children, was admitted. When the affidavit was later read to the jury, it stated Hames's professional opinion at the time that Jones was a highly intelligent, responsible father capable of caring for his children as the sole custodial parent. The court sustained the State's relevance objection before she answered a question about diagnostic codes on the children's records.

On cross-examination, after the court qualified her as an expert in marriage and family counseling, Hames explained her diagnoses and said she had not observed delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, flat affect, or avolition during treatment. Redirect addressed the limits of her practice concerning traumatic brain injuries and whether schizophrenia symptoms can be masked. On recross, she agreed that people can fake symptoms of schizophrenia.