5.Opening Statements
11 linesTHE COURT: All right, good afternoon. A few opening comments and then the lawyers are going to speak to you. I wanted to come over and welcome you. As I told you, I like to eat a piece of hard candy occasionally, I brought that hard candy. I find that jurors like it a good deal and so there is plenty more. I don't want to put it all out here because sometimes the bailiffs get into it. I am aware of that so I don't put it all out there in front. Now, that is true. Folks, I want y'all to relax and to know it is going to be okay. We have got a trial to deal with, we are going to get through it, it is going to be a little lengthy but we will have breaks, there will be some times when we take a break because it is time to take a break and there will be other times we will take breaks because a legal issue comes up. And the best I can explain to you, a legal issue comes up that is a cue for me to do my job. Put something on the record with Ms.
Holston and hear the lawyers argue more in depth on the law, like, Judge rule 403 says thus and so and thus and so. And the other side will get up and say, Judge, we think the rule means that. That will happen from time to time, so when the lawyers have a legal issue and say, Judge, I have got a matter of law, that is the cue for y'all to step out because it is like a sporting event, here is the replay. So we have got to do it in reverse because ask a question, get the answer. Well, that wasn't a fair question and that was an unfair answer. And so then we can't go back and unplay it. So I have got to preview it and say, fair or not. That is how it works so I preview it legally and say, it is okay to ask or not okay to ask and my reason. Then the lawyers make their arguments to me in full and it is just really not for y'all to sit here and listen to all of that. It is a good time to take a break. Now, I am going to do my best, I am going to try to be punctual with y'all.
The only hurtle we have is there are 18 of you and so when I send you out of the courtroom to the jury room y'all got a fairly lengthy walk, it takes a few minutes. So we will take fifteen minutes at a minium probably to get y'all out and let y'all take a break and use the restroom, whatever you need to do and not be rushed right back in here. But I am aware of the inconvenience and y'all having to serve and get to serve on jury duty. Very appreciative of it and I will be mindful of that trying to schedule things with you, like, are we going to do another witness and work a little late this afternoon. That is going to be our decision, trying to get convenience. Sometimes we get in the middle of the witness, I like to go ahead and get the witness finished and the testimony ended so that witness can go on his own way because they are all kind of lined up, cued up so this one is first and this one is third and then we get to 4:30 and will take about an hour, I like to get them done.
And it is a problem for the Court to manage the witnesses if we break up between the State's the Defense's questions. It is easier to let them both have their turns, all at one time and then we break. By reason with that in mind y'all understand why I make some of my rulings like I do as far as when to finish on a witness. I like to finish at the end of a witness. That just makes things easier for me and for y'all and for the witness and for the parties, that way they know we end and the next morning they are calling in fresh witnesses. So I will try to manage that also. But like I said, I don't know, I have been given a list of witnesses, y'all read the list of witnesses, they present what they want to present in the order they want to present it. It is their job to present their case. Their job to be here and respond. So their case, not mine, but we get to consider it.
So, understanding that, I told you before that the State brought five indictments, they have got the responsibility to proving the five indictments beyond a reasonable doubt. I will define that at the end of the trial also. But, cause a person to hesitate to act is the legal definition but you will be more familiar with it through my instructions. That is the State's responsibility of proving the case. Now, Mr. Jones is presumed innocent right now and all the way through the trial until y'all reach a verdict. So, he is presumed innocent. Now, also one aspect that makes this trial slightly different is, he has entered the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. It is his responsibility to presenting evidence on that. Normally a Defendant has nothing whatsoever to prove. He made that plea of insanity, he has got to prove that, it is his burden of showing that, to proving it to a jury is more likely than not which is lower than beyond a reasonable doubt.
I will explain those more as you go but Mr. Jones has a responsibility of proving that defense. Y'all will hear plenty of testimony in regards to those issues. It will be plenty. Now, notwithstanding that, the State still has got to go first, they are presenting on their case first and Mr. Jones presents back on his and then perhaps the State gets a possibility of reply. So all through that I will be here ruling on the law, that is my job is to rule on the law. Y'all's job is to answer questions of fact. It is the lawyers job to give y'all those questions. I bring the candy, they bring the witnesses, y'all do the listening. Now, I want y'all, as far as your notebooks go, I got those books for you. Mark it somehow so y'all know which one is yours and keep it with you throughout the trial. At the end of the trial if you want to take them home I will let you, if you don't we will shred them.
As I told you, you are not required to take notes, if you want to jot down anything, do as you please. I need you to pay attention, that is the main thing. Pay attention, y'all judge the credibility of the witnesses. That is what the jury's job is, is to evaluate testimony and evidence. So that will be your job. Now, if I have a quick issue with the lawyers and I go over here because I want to keep everything on the record, I will talk privately with the lawyers but just loud for Ms. Holston and I can hear and maybe get a quick ruling if it is going to be short. If it will be long I will send y'all out and we will have a little more lengthy presentation. But if it is quick question, over here and I can do it inside a minute I will do it here and the white noise will come on. I always tell the jurors this, I am getting up and walking around like that and I am talking with the lawyers and the white noise is on, y'all can stand up, move around, stretch, whatever.
If you need a break let somebody know. You have got SLED detail plus the bailiffs, get somebody's attention and if they say, Judge, the jury needs a break, done. I will get you out of here and you get a short break. It won't be a problem. Now, important, in a few minutes the Clerk is going to give you the oath again, part of that is in concert with the request I made each and every single time you left here is, independent research, talking about the case, not letting anything outside the courtroom influence your decision. It is so important to everybody, given a fair trial for doing that. I have no control, I have control in here about what is presented to you. No one else can give me that promise because no person on the street corner, no one has any responsibility for doing, you can't ask that question; yes, you can; is that information true or false; everything you hear from in here is testified under oath. Everything outside the courtroom, I have no idea.
It is kind of you get what you pay for. I am imploring you, under your oath, you are to consider what you hear in here under oath and anything you get outside the courtroom, no help whatsoever in deciding this case. Because of this too, y'all are sitting here, 18 of you, we took nine days to select you. And the lawyers had extra jurors, y'all were more or less agreed on, y'all are a wonderful jury, nice and mixed, top to bottom of the community of Lexington County. And I want the case decided on what y'all hear in here, what y'all see in here, the voice inflection of people on the witness stand, how they act, all of that stuff you can consider in deciding what y'all have got to decide. You read a article or something you don't get that. Y'all are getting the best evidence there is right here and that is why I don't want something outside of here that is not that to influence you in making this decision. So, first thing is first. The first trial is phase one like I described to you.
It is y'all's job to listen attentively and we will do our best from there. I will instruct you from time to time on certain issues but I need y'all to not talk about the case. I will remind you at every break, please, remember don't discuss the case even during breaks. Y'all can't go back there and say, you know, that witness, I really think he is on to something and, you can't do that. I am instructing y'all to not do that. I will remind you every evening before we go home, that is part of our responsibility to be fair and impartial and decide the case on what we hear in here. Y'all stand and the Clerk will place you under oath.
(WHEREUPON, the jury was sworn at 1:15 p.m.)
THE COURT: Mr. Graham.
MR. GRAHAM: Thank you, Your Honor. A child should be safe in a father's arms. A simple statement and it is a true statement. But Tim Jones' five children were not safe in his arms. Merah Gracie Jones, eight years old, murdered by her father August 28th, 2014. Alias Jones, her brother, seven years old, murdered by his father with his hands. Nahthan Jones, six years old, killed at his father's hands, August 28th, 2014. Gabriel Jones, two years old, killed by his father's hands, August 28th, 2014. And the baby, Abigail, one-year-old, murdered by her father, August 28th, 2014. A child should be safe in a father's arms. Thursday, August 28th, 2014 was a normal day, started off normal for the Jones' family. Mr. Jones was divorced from his, the mother of the children, Amber. He had custody of the children, he lived in Red Bank, he worked at Intel as a Validation Engineer, a good job. The three oldest went to Saxe Gotha Elementary School and he took them there and he brought them home.
The two youngest, the two babies went to a babysitter. And it was a normal day. After work he picked up his children, he picked up the three from an after school program, Boys and Girls Club at Saxe Gotha Elementary and he picked up the two babies from the baby sitter and they went home. That is the last time the children were seen alive was when they left school and they left the babysitter. It was a Thursday night. The only thing we know and there will be testimony for sure of one of the children being alive was from Amber, the mother. There was a telephone call early that night, 7:00 or 8:00 o'clock and you will hear the exact time. She will tell you that she heard that Defendant, the father to the children in a rage, screaming and yelling at the middle child, Nahthan, the six-year-old on speaker phone with the mother because she could hear it, screaming at him about electrical outlets being blown saying, you could have killed yourself, son. You could have killed yourself, son.
Amber didn't hear anything more. Then she got into a conversation with the Defendant and he hung up on her. That was the last the children were known to be alive. Friday, the 29th, the children don't go to school, they don't go to the baby sitter. Memorial Day weekend, Monday, that Monday the children don't show up at school on Tuesday. On Wednesday the police start to get involved. The Principal from Saxe Gotha called law enforcement and asked for a welfare check. She and law enforcement go over to the Jones resident in Red Bank, no children are present, no Tim Jones is present and no Cadillac Escalade which is the car that he drove. The same day the Defendant's father, Tim Jones, Sr. called law enforcement and asked them to help him find his son and the children. Based on that law enforcement begin to look, they contact Amber, they talk about when she last had contact with the children, what she has heard, if she has had contact with Tim Jones and what he said.
Based on all of that information the Lexington County Sheriffs Department entered all five children and the Defendant and his vehicle and license plate in what they call NCIC which is a National Crime information Center. That way if those children's names pop up in some other place or his name it would alert the Lexington County authorities. That was on the 3rd which was Wednesday. Friday, September 6th, 2014, about 9:00 o'clock Tim Jones is driving his Escalade is stopped at a traffic safety checkpoint in Smith County Mississippi. He is arrested for driving under the influence and possession of synthetic cannabis. The children are not with him and the car smells like death. He is taken in custody and over the course of a few days he is interviewed and ultimately he leads the police to the bodies of his children. Each one wrapped in a garbage bag on the side of the road in the middle of no where. He is charged with five counts of murder.
He has plead not guilty by reason of insanity as you heard Your Honor say. For you all to find, that you have to find that the Defense has to prove to you by a preponderance of evidence that when he killed his children he did not understand the legal right from the legal wrong or the moral right from the moral wrong at the time he killed his children. They are going to do that by presenting experts. And I am expecting you will hear testimony from a bunch of experts to tell you pieces and parts about why he is not responsible. Maybe it is because of somehow of him using the drugs, the voluntary drug use. Maybe it is because he had a traumatic brain injury because he had a car wreck when he was a kid. Maybe they are going to say he has some kind of mental illness. But even any of those are true, even if you believe any of those it doesn't mean he is insane. That is not insanity, there is more to it.
Every expert, I ask you all, have to think about two questions when they are testifying, whether they are ours or whether they are the Defendant's, is that expert searching for the truth, are they trying to give you the truth or are they looking for a defense or an excuse. Ask those hard questions in your head, listen to their answers. Is the information they are providing you, is it coming from verifiable facts, things we know, things we can see or is it only coming from what Tim Jones tells. Those are the two things that I ask you all remember every time an expert testifies. You will also hear from a Court appointed independent psychiatrist from the State. He will tell you that Tim Jones was sane, he knew right from wrong when he killed his children. You will hear from people who knew him and saw him and they tell you what they observed in his behavior. We have, the State has the burden of proving the unlawful killing of another with malice aforethought.
Killing of another with malice. And the Judge will tell you all what malice is. It could be hostility, it could be hatred, it could be ill-will, it can be a wicked or depraved spirit, evilness in your heart. That is what you are looking for and that is what we have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to you. How are we going to do that. How are we going to prove to you that he had evil in his heart and evil on his mind when he killed those children. It will be from the words that he told the police and listen for the truth in the words. It will be his actions in killing and how he killed his children. It will be the fact that he ran and he tried to hide. It will be in the way that he thought of to dispose the bodies of his children and how he actually did it. It will be in the deception, the way he lies to people to cover up his crimes. It will be his thoughts and you will actually get to see his thoughts in the cell phone because it recorded his web searches, his internet history.
You will get to see what he was doing and what he was thinking about starting on the 28th. You are also going to see it on the clip board, it was found with writing in the car when he was stopped by the police in Mississippi. A detailed list of how he planned to dispose of his children's bodies. You will see evidence of this, be on the lookout for it. Every time Tim Jones made a choice starting on August 28th of 2014 with his son, Nahthan, it was all about him. What was going to happen to Tim Jones, how was it going to affect him, what did he need to do to protect himself. No thoughts for the children. He killed a six-year-old child in a rage, six years old.
MR. MADSEN: Your Honor, we have an objection. May we approach?
THE COURT: You may. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)
MR. GRAHAM: A six-year-old child. The words of Tim Jones, he PT'd his son, physical training. We don't know the truth, that is what he says. Pushups, squats, jumping jacks, whatever that entails, forty-five minutes to an hour. And he sends him to bed, he says he goes to check on him and he collapses in his arms. He also tells the police that he puts his hands on him. Nahtahn Jones, six years old died at his father's hands in a fit of rage. Did Tim Jones, when he saw his son collapse, did he call 911, did he call for help. No, he didn't. Did he call the children's mom and tell her. No, he didn't. Did he call his father. No. Did he call anyone. No. What he did was he, no one is going to believe this was an accident. And what did he do next. He strangled his son, Elias, seven years old to death with his bare hands. He strangled his daughter, Merah, eight years old with his hands. He took a belt to the babies, across their throats and taking the life away from them and strangled both of them, Gabe and Abigail to death. He knew what he did was wrong. That is why he didn't call 911. He knew what he did was wrong, that is why he ran. He ran and tried to save himself and he hated his ex-wife so much that he killed the children so she would never see them again. A child should be safe in a father's arms. A father is suppose to love his children, Tim Jones loved himself more. A father is suppose to protect his children. Tim Jones was worried about protecting himself. Timothy Ray Jones, Jr. is not a father, he killed his five innocent children, he did it with malice, with an evilness in his heart, he is not insane, he is a murderer. Thank you.
THE COURT: Mr. Madsen.
MR. MADSEN: May it please the Court.
THE COURT: Yes, sir.
MR. MADSEN: You can't judge the health of a forest by only looking on a few trees. You can't judge the health of a forest by only looking at a few trees. I have got a friend who works at the Forestry Commission and he always says, you can't judge the health of a forest by only looking at a few trees. That is what the State is going to ask you to do in this trial, is just to look at a few trees. They are not going to ask you to look at the seeds that the forest is planted with. They are not going to ask you to test the soil to see if a foundation of that forest is poor. They are not going to ask you to go to the right and see the disease has decimated the forest. They don't want you to go to the left and see that Kudzu has overtaken that part of the forest, destroying it. They certainly don't want you to sniff the air because you might get a whiff of smoke and realize the back of that forest is on fire. You heard the Judge say that Tim has plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
That was not a defense that Tim picked out like when you were in voir dire and the Judge read you a list of defenses. That is a defense that the lawyers in consultation with experts, a full examination of Tim and a review of his family history. Tim has schizophrenia, something he wasn't diagnosed with prior to his arrest. Tim's mind is broken. In deciding whether Tim knew the legal or moral right from wrong you need to look at the full forest, not just a few trees. Tim was genetically loaded from mental illness. Children come into this life with genetic predispositions. Some genes determine your hair and your eye color, other genes can influence diseases such as diabetes or heart disease. Other genes can determine vulnerability to psychiatric conditions such as addiction, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Tim's mom has schizophrenia. She has been institutionalized for the last two decades.
You will hear about major mental illness on both the paternal and maternal side of Tim's family, the seeds for Tim's brain aren't healthy. You will hear about Tim's environment, the ability to have a healthy brain, that development can be hurt. His development of his brain was negatively impacted by his environment. You will hear from numerous witnesses about his childhood, about the violence, substance abuse, the mental illness and the abandonment that he was constantly subjected to. You will gain an understanding from experts as to how an environment such as that can damage the foundation of someone's mind. In other words, Tim's forest was growing in bad soil. You will hear how a genetically at risk in a negatively impacted brain is further damaged by a traumatic brain injury. Tim suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was a teenager when he was in a car accident.
You are going to hear from experts, you are going to actually see scans of the damage, you are going to hear about the frontal lobe damage that still exist today, the blood that is still there. You will actually see the divot that is still in his skull all of these years later from a depressed skull fracture. Tim's unhealthy seeds that were grown in bad soil were damaged by a traumatic brain injury and all of this was through no fault of his own. You will hear that when Tim was a teenager he started using mood altering substances to deal with that emotional instability. Exposure to sustained emotional trauma, head injuries and substance abuse can have an effect on the developing brain. As Tim's forest developed it was malnourished, without an understanding of the later devastating impacts that this might have. Despite all these problems Tim was determined to make something of himself, he joined the Navy, he wanted to be a Navy Seal.
After a month and a half he was separated in boot camp for a depressive disorder. A mental health disorder that was diagnosed by the United States Navy. Tim was devastated, he went back to using drugs and alcohol, he got in trouble and he went to prison. In prison he found religion. To Tim a love of Jesus was unconditional. It helped soothe his emotional instability and his feelings of abandonment. To Tim the Bible is the literal and infallible guide on how to live your life. The answers to all questions can be found in the Bible, no matter how extreme those views can be. Scripture was a way for Tim to try to gain control of his life. He has a phenomenal memory, he could memorize vast amounts of scripture. But social and emotional abilities are such that he even thought he could read the scripture he couldn't understand for its meaning or its meaningful application. Once Tim got out of prison he met Amber McCalluey, they met at a place called an Enchanted Castle in Chicago.
It is a place very similar to Frankie's Fun Park. It was love at first sight and they got married months later. They moved around for a little bit but they eventually followed Tim's dad down to Mississippi. Tim started working down there and going to school, supporting Amber. Tim was good at school, specifically math and computers. Those trees in his forest looked good. They had their first daughter, Merah. Following a year later their son, Alias. The following year after that they had their son, Nahthan. Tim transferred from a community college to Mississippi State where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Tim enjoyed school but he loved his wife and he loved his children. He got good enough grades that he was offered a job with Intel in South Carolina and so they moved. Once they moved here they had their son, Gabrielle. You talk to the people at Intel they can't tell you a lot about Tim's personal life except for his children.
Intel was over in Blythwood but Tim moved his family to a trailer in Leesville, intent on homesteading where they had thirty chickens, four geese, three ducks, three rabbits, two turkeys, two dogs and a number of cats. Amber was going to home school the children even though she never graduated from high school. Intel can be a tough place to work with high stress and long hours. You will hear about Tim's strict observance of the scripture. To Tim it wasn't spare the rod, spoil the child, it was that the rod was loved. They regularly attended Sunday services and Tim would often speak in tongues in church. And you will hear about their nightly Bible studies at home. Not long after moving to South Carolina Tim suspected Amber was having an affair with a neighbor. She was pregnant with their last daughter, Elaine. Soon after that they separated. Tim's forest was devastated. The emotional instability and abandonment from his youth came back.
Amber agreed that Tim was better suited to raise the children so Tim got custody. Initially Tim, the children went to live with Tim's dad and step-mother in Mississippi. Tim would leave Intel on Friday night, drive all the way to Mississippi, turn around on Sunday, drive back to South Carolina arriving at Intel on Monday morning to start his job. And Tim would utilize baby sitters to help him with the children. Tim knew that there was a problem but Tim did not want to be like his mother, institutionalized. That is a fear that he would always have. He is a man, he thought he could fix himself. You will hear he went to a counselor and the kids to a separate counselor because he loved them and because he was worried about growing up without a mother, how that would affect them that their mother wouldn't be in their every day life as it affected him. Tim would self-medicate himself and starting using drugs and alcohol. In 2014, in May, he started using synthetic marijuana or Spice.
Tim felt like it was an anti-psychotic and an anti-depressant all in one but it was just masking the problems. Struggling to juggle his job, his kids and the emotional devastation of his wife's adultery, Tim's forest had been held together for ten years by the love of his life, his abstinence from drugs and alcohol, his children, his job and religion. That all came crashing down at the same time. You will hear about the summer of 2014 how Tim took the kids to Disney World. He was trying to hold it together, he was trying to be a good father, to get his kids to love him the Bible told him they would. He knew something was wrong, he was trying to fix himself. You are going to hear about his purchases on Amazon, self-help books, religious books. You will hear about ways he was trying to make money off the internet. Spent $4,000.00 dollars on how to be a millionaire and he didn't have the money. You will hear how he applied to St. James Medical School in the Caribbean and was accepted.
Applied in July, accepted in August. One of his coworkers asked, what are you going to do for money. Tim wasn't concerned, the lord would take care of him. The disease in Tim's forest was getting worse. Tim's work was deteriorating. Coworkers at Intel saw that he was missing days and he was losing weight and he had started smoking. There had always been a divide in Tim's functioning who had this academic side where he could perform, achieve and be an expert. Those trees were good but always struggled with a social and emotional life. You will hear how his paranoia is growing, internet searches at all hours, how he thought Amber being prostituted, how he his kids were colluding with DSS, how Nahthan has a suspicious fascination with electricity. The children's behavior issues that were a normal product of a stressful divorce, to him it was failure of faith. He must not be doing what the Bible told him to do because if it was it would all be good.
Does this sound like a man who had a healthy forest. On August 28th of 2014 he picked up the kids for the last time at the Boys and Girls Club at Saxe Gotha, the three oldest one. He picked up the two younger ones at Day Care at the neighbors and he fed them. At some point and time he became convinced that Nahthan had intentionally blown the outlets. He began exercising and trying to find out what the truth was. Tim was unsuccessful in giving what his delusional belief was out on Nahthan for reasons that are still unknown to this day, we don't know why Nahthan died. Tim's forest was on fire, it was burning out of control. Over the next couple of hours he did strangle his children, he wrapped them in sheets and blankets and placed them in his Cadillac Escalade where they stayed for nine days. He wasn't ready to let them go. He thought that was his way of spending time with them, he even played them songs. You will hear about his disorganized driving pattern.
Bishopville, Camden, Spartanburg, Folly Beach, Charleston, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama. It was a man who didn't have a healthy forest. You will hear eventually how Tim was on a country highway in Alabama and he pulled off on a logging road. He tried to cut off one of Nahthan's legs, one of the many notions that the voices told him and he wrote it down but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He took the remains and placed them in garbage bags, he said a prayer and told them goodbye. He was stopped at a safety check point in Mississippi later that same day. Since Tim's arrest he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, a major mental disease. You will not hear testimony from anyone who says that when Tim killed his children that he wasn't psychotic, even the State's psychiatrist. You will hear how over the last four years the State of South Carolina has given Tim a variety, and a plethora of psychotropic medications. But they want you to believe he is fine, they want you to look at a few trees. Tim's forest was diseased, decimated and burned. He had a few good trees but they don't want you to see the whole forest. On August 28th of 2014, because of a disease Tim could not appreciate legal or moral right from wrong. After you hear all of the evidence you will find Tim not guilty by reason of insanity, not guilty by reason of insanity.