Daughters' hopes crushed as second jury finds their father killed their mother
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EVERETT - Kim Jones and Beth Blood took their story public: No way could their gentle, loving father have stabbed their mother to death 12 years ago.
The prosecutors had accused the wrong man. Even the jurors in an earlier trial made a grave mistake, convicting their father, Jerry Jones, of first-degree murder. Their mother's killer was still on the loose.
Yesterday, cameras and microphones captured the sisters' grief from every possible angle after Snohomish County Superior Court jurors arrived at the same verdict the sisters heard in 1989. Jerry Jones, the jury decided, is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of first-degree murder.
Jones will be sentenced Feb. 15.
Jones, 54 and a former pharmaceutical salesman, served 10 years of his 25-year prison sentence, while his family and lawyers fought to get his case overturned. In 1999, a federal judge tossed out Jones' conviction and ordered a new trial, saying that jurors should have heard about another suspect - a teenage boy who allegedly lied about his whereabouts on the night Lee Jones was murdered.
Through the years, Jerry Jones' daughters stood by their father, fiercely defending him and demanding that police arrest the true murderer - the teenage boy.
Yesterday the two collapsed on the courtroom floor, clutching each other and asking, "What are we going to do now?"
Camera flashes popped and furry microphone booms hovered above as the two sobbed for more than half an hour.
Son-in-law Chad Blood huddled close and Jones' father, Jerry Sr. who traveled from Attala, Ala., remained sitting on the bench lost in disbelief.
"I don't know how any of this could have happened," said Chad Blood. "Without a shadow of a doubt I know he did not do this. He's an innocent man in prison. I have no more faith in the system."
During this trial, Jones and his family had hoped, the jury would be swayed by hearing about the teen suspect, the boy they said harbored a crush on Jones' daughter and a hatred and sexual attraction for Jones' wife. Jones' lawyer, David Zuckerman, described him as a teen prone to "explosive" behavior and verbal abuse. The boy would later build a lengthy adult criminal record, including violent assaults against women.
Jones, who did not testify in this trial, has stuck steadfastly to the account he gave when he took the stand in 1989: On the night of Dec. 3, 1988, he heard his wife scream from the bathroom of their Bothell home. As he ran down the hall to her, he collided with a knife-wielding intruder.
Dazed by the encounter, he groped his way to the bathroom and found his wife stabbed and bloodied. His hand had been cut by the intruder as well.
But what followed in his chaotic narrative of events detectives found highly suspicious. Jones told investigators he tried to get his wife out of the bathtub. At the same time, he attempted to put his 4½-year-old son back to bed several times before taking the boy to a neighbor's house.
He called 911 and gave operators an old address, abandoning the phone a number of times to help his wife. At some point, he found himself, fully clothed, under a running shower in a second bathroom.
Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Ron Doersch mentioned the Joneses' marital problems.
The two had separated a year before the murder but had apparently resolved their issues with marriage counseling.
And Doersch and detectives challenged Jones' version of events, noting that Jones had given them different accounts of what happened that night. And why had Jones showered and attempted to clean himself?
In addition, Doersch noted the cuts on Jones' right hand - an injury likely caused by a hand slipping on a bloody knife, experts testified.
However, they did acknowledge that the wounds could have been caused by Jones swatting away an attacker's knife.
Doersch scoffed at Zuckerman's theory that the teenage neighbor had committed the murder. There was no forced entry. The only trail of blood was inside the house.
But investigators were unable to lift prints from the knife, left in the bathroom. And DNA analysis, which was not available during the first trial, showed that the blood on Jones' clothes belonged to him and his wife, Zuckerman said. Zuckerman isn't sure if he'll appeal.
"I have a hard time understanding where they found proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Zuckerman said after talking with jurors about the case. "... The experts couldn't reach a conclusion about how this happened. Apparently the jurors felt they could."
The evidence, Zuckerman had explained, could not prove Jones' innocence.
But the facts of the case could point to the notion of an intruder slashing Lee Jones 63 times while she sat in a tub, he said. And jurors weren't allowed to hear about the teenage suspect's criminal history, Zuckerman added.
A stolid, somewhat stunned Jones shook his head as Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight read the jury's verdict and confirmed each juror's decision. Jones removed his gray suit jacket and touched his daughter's outstretched hand before police handcuffed him and took him into custody.
"I can't imagine what you have to do to prove your innocence," Jones said as he walked down a court hallway.
Keiko Morris's phone-message number is 206-464-3214. Her e-mail address is kmorris@seattletimes.com