Court-appointed psychiatrist says Timothy Jones Jr. does not have schizophrenia

Dr. Richard Frierson says he diagnosed Jones with a substance-induced psychotic disorder

LEXINGTON, S.C. (WOLO) — In Day 12 of the Timothy Jones Jr. murder trial, a court-appointed psychiatrist took the stand to say the man charged with the murders of his five children in August 2014 does not suffer from schizophrenia.

In his testimony today, one psychiatrist said Jones’s use of synthetic marijuana may have led to psychological issues, but they did not result in a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Dr. Richard Frierson testified that Jones tried to convince himself that he had schizophrenia as a way to cope with what he did to his five children.

After talking with Jones for 19 hours over the course of six meetings, Dr. Frierson concluded that Jones was of sound mind the night of the murders.

“On the dates of August 28 and 29 of 2014, Mr. Jones would have been able to distinguish legal and moral right from legal and moral wrong, and could recognize his actions as legally and morally wrong,” Dr. Frierson testified.

Inside the courtroom, Dr. Frierson read off a report where the defendant told him he went into a “deep panic” after he found his son, Nahtahn, dead.

Jones previously said in an audio interview with police in September 2014 that the six-year-old died after being forced to do various exercises until he told the truth about playing with an electrical outlet.

Dr. Frierson said in the days leading up to the murders, Jones had begun using synthetic marijuana more frequently, even saying Jones told him he would wake up and start smoking.

“I think spice contributed to what happened,” Dr. Frierson said.

He says he later diagnosed Jones with a substance-induced psychotic disorder, but not schizophrenia.

Under oath, he says Jones Jr. said he started having anxious thoughts during his separation with Amber.

“Undergoing a divorce is very stressful, and so the way he refers to his stressful, anxious thoughts is he refers to them as voices,” Dr. Frierson testified.

Dr. Frierson said Jones Jr. told him in an interview that a voice told him to kill the remaining four of his children. However, Dr. Frierson says that the “voices” Jones claimed were in his head were just a series of “anxious thoughts” stemming from his divorce with his ex-wife Amber.

In addition to testifying about Jones’s mental state, Dr. Frierson talked about an alleged suicide attempt by Jones in prison in 2015, saying that upon seeing a video sent to him by the Department of Corrections, he said he only saw Jones Jr. tighten a bed sheet around his neck, but he said he never saw his feet leave the ground.

Also, Dr. Frierson testified that a brain injury that Jones Jr. sustained during a car accident when he was 15 did not affect his cognitive function. Dr. Frierson said he had neuro-psych tests performed on Jones since the defense told him he only had an IQ of 87.

Dr. Frierson said he was taken aback by this since Jones had graduated summa cum laude with a computer science degree from Mississippi State and had a high-paying job at Intel.

He also addressed a series of internet searches Jones made on and around the day of the murders, as well as notes found in his car upon his arrest at a public safety checkpoint in Mississippi.

On the night of the murders, Jones Jr. allegedly watched a graphic rape scene from the movie American History X and listened to the song “Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carlisle, which, Dr. Frierson concluded, meant he felt the moral and legal implications of what he did.

Dr. Frierson testified the “MB” on the note outlining Jones’s alleged plan to dispose of the bodies meant “Mexican border”, confirming that in a conversation with Jones himself.

The court-appointed psychiatrist was the only witness to take the stand in Day 12 of the trial, which marked the fewest witnesses to take the stand in a single day during the trial. The next fewest was on May 16, when only two witnesses (forensic scientist Stacy Jones–no relation to Timothy Jones Jr.– and Mississippi Bureau Investigations investigator Eric Johnson) testified for the prosecution.

Testimony continues Friday morning at the Lexington County Courthouse.