A look back at the Timothy Jones case as jury selection begins

Jury selection in Jones's charges began Monday in Lexington County

[gtxvideo vid=’VIboIqpo’ thumb=’http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/VIboIqpo.jpg’ vtitle=’Jones Trial’]

LEXINGTON, S.C. (WOLO) — Jury selection began Monday for the trial of a Lexington father accused of killing his five children back in 2014.

Authorities say Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was the primary caretaker of his five children in his Red Bank home.

On September 9, 2014, less than two weeks after his children were last seen in school and daycare, police say they found their bodies on a hillside in rural Alabama.

“When something like this happens, it just knocks the breath right out of you, and then how do you get up and move on,” said Pastor Jeff Wright of Red Bank Baptist Church at a vigil for the five children back in 2014.

Indictments charge Jones with strangling four of his children and beating the fifth one to death.

Jones allegedly put the bodies in his car and drove around the Southeast before he was pulled over at a public safety checkpoint in Mississippi on September 6.

In the car, law enforcement officials say they found cleaning supplies, blood, and children’s clothing.

Jones’s five children ranged in age from one to eight.

“It’s horrible, you’d never imagine that someone’s parent would do something like that to them. I don’t know what the situation was with the wife,” said Matthew Clark, one of Jones’s neighbors, back in 2014.

Once he was extradited back to South Carolina, Jones was charged with five counts of murder.

Jones’s trial was initially scheduled for October of last year, but was delayed.

The prosecution is seeking the death penalty, while his defense team is planning an insanity defense.      

Jones was in the courtroom today for jury selection alongside his attorneys.

Since more than 200 jurors were summoned, Judge Eugene Griffith split the pool into groups of eight.

He says jury selection could continue at least through Thursday.