The deaths and investigation in 2014, the 2019 murder trial and death sentence, and later appellate and post-conviction proceedings.
Timothy Ray Jones Jr. kills his five children, Merah, Elias, Nahtahn, Gabriel, and Abigail, at their Lexington County home.
The children's mother reports Jones and the five children missing after she cannot reach him. Lexington County deputies enter them in the national missing-person database.
Deputies stop Jones at a Smith County safety checkpoint. He is arrested on driving-under-the-influence and drug charges; the children are not with him.
Jones leads law enforcement to the children's bodies in rural Alabama. Officers from South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi and the FBI participate in the investigation.
A Lexington County grand jury indicts Jones on five counts of murder during its January term, one count for each child.
Prosecutors serve notice that they intend to seek the death penalty in the five-child murder prosecution.
Jones pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to all five murder indictments. The court begins qualifying prospective jurors for the capital trial.
The prosecution and defense present opening statements after jury selection. The trial addresses the five murder charges and Jones's insanity defense.
Jurors return guilty verdicts on each murder indictment. The court polls the jury and schedules the penalty phase.
After the guilty verdicts, the jury hears penalty-phase instructions, opening statements, and evidence bearing on whether Jones should receive a death sentence.
The jury recommends death. Judge Eugene Griffith Jr. adopts that recommendation and sentences Jones to death.
The appeal from the Lexington County convictions and death sentence is filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court as case 2019-001008.
The justices hear Jones's direct appeal, which challenges jury-selection decisions, insanity-defense instructions, and evidentiary rulings.
The South Carolina Supreme Court affirms Jones's murder convictions and death sentence in Opinion No. 28145.
The court grants rehearing on one issue and substitutes its opinion. The convictions and death sentence remain affirmed.
The U.S. Supreme Court denies Jones's petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the South Carolina judgment.
The appellate docket records an order granting an execution stay for the filing of a post-conviction-relief application.