A South Carolina man faces the death penalty for killing his five children and driving hundreds of miles with their bodies in his SUV for a week before disposing of them in Alabama.
His death penalty trial began on May 14 in Lexington County before a jury.
In court on Monday,his ex-wife broke down while reading a letter she wrote to her oldest daughterafter she and Jones got divorced, telling the girl that “Mommy and Daddy were really blessed to have you,” the Associated Press and local station WSPA report.
“Oh, God. Oh, God!” Amber Kyzer said while sobbing in court. “My babies! My babies!”
Prosecutors say he killed his son Nahtahn, 6, after the boy broke an electrical outlet in their mobile home on Aug. 28, 2014.
Jones went on to strangle his oldest child, his 8-year-old daughter Merah, and his 7-year-old son, Elias, with his hands, prosecutors say.
According to prosecutors, Merah’s last words were,“Daddy, I love you,”reports WCSC.
Next, he wrapped a belt around the necksof his 2-year-old son, Gabriel, and his youngest child, 1-year-old Abigail, and ended their lives, prosecutors say, Fox News reports.
After stuffing their bodies in garbage bags,he loaded their remains into his Cadillac Escaladeand drove for days through four states, sleeping in the SUV with the bodies in the back,The Statereports.
He dumped his children’s badly decomposed bodies in a desolate part of Camden, Alabama.
Tracy Glantz/AP/Shutterstock
On Sept. 6, 2014, he was arrested in Smith County, Mississippi, at a police checkpoint after an officer detected what he described on the stand as “the smell of death” in Jones’ SUV — along with blood, maggots and synthetic marijuana, officials said,The Statereports.
Rogelio V Solis/AP/Shutterstock
During police questioning, Jones admitted to killing his children but claimed he did so in preemptive self-defense before they could“chop him up and feed him to the dogs,”according to his arrest warrant,The Statereports.
In his confession to police that prosecutors played for jurors, Jones then admitted he lost his temper when Nahtahn broke the outlet.
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Jones said he found his son “deceased” several hours later, he said in the confession,The Statereports.
“The voices started kicking in, saying, ‘You better do something, you are [expletive], Tim,’” he said in the confession.
He had taken the children to the beach and to Disney World at some point before the murders, prosecutors say.
On Monday, Kyzer testified that she married Jones because as a college graduate with a good job, he seemed smart and responsible, Fox News reports.
His demeanor toward her changed dramatically after they wed, she testified.
“I was merely to take care of the children. To keep them out of his way,” Kyzer testified.
In their opening statements, Jones’ lawyers claimed he suffers from undiagnosed schizophrenia,The Statereports.
Jones’s attorneys did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
