Christina Ehlke

Christina Ehlke testified on Day 12 as a neighbor and childcare provider for the Jones children. On direct examination, she described caring for all five children during the summer of 2014 and later caring for Gabe and Elaine while the older children attended school. She said Jones picked up Gabe and Elaine on August 28 and that nothing then seemed out of the ordinary.

Ehlke authenticated text-message records and described a September 1 call in which Jones said he and the children had left South Carolina and would not return. She said he offered property from the residence to address unpaid childcare fees, and that the explanation was convincing to her at the time. The court admitted photographs, a residence diagram, text-message screenshots, and an aerial photograph through her without objection.

Defense questioning addressed belongings at the residence, her care of the children, a DSS visit, and an eye injury to Eli. Ehlke said she told DSS the children did not seem overly hungry and said she had not seen bruises suggesting abuse or beating. She also qualified her memory of some details and connected her earlier perception that Jones sometimes seemed depressed or changed moods to his separation from his wife.

On redirect, Ehlke explained that Jones had described Caribbean medical school as less expensive and that she had accommodated late childcare payments because she understood him to be a struggling single father. She characterized him as socially awkward and reserved, but said she had never had reason to believe he was not of sound mind. On recross, she qualified her recollection of a reported statement by Merah about her mother.