Community reacts to Timothy Jones guilty verdict

[gtxvideo vid=’gKSB60Il’ thumb=’http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/gKSB60Il.jpg’ vtitle=’JONES RECAP’]

LEXINGTON COUNTY,SC (WOLO)- The jury in the Timothy Jones capital murder trial didn’t buy the insanity defense and convicted the man who admitted to killing his five children.

Jury deliberated took just over six hours Tuesday before announcing the guilty verdict.

“It’s horrific and for a community it’s kind of devastating,” resident, Dianne Groves said. “I felt for the mother completely.”

Back in 2014 Jones ex-wife reported the children missing. A short time later Jones was arrested for a DUI in Mississippi where authorities say he confessed to killing his five children, who were ages 8 to one-years-old. Their bodies were found in plastic bags on the side of a dirt road in Alabama.

Autopsies revealed that two of his kids died from strangulation while the other three died from homicidal violence.

Jones showed no emotion when the jury convicted him five years after killing his five children.
The defense argued that Jones was insane, which is something some people in the community feel should be taken into account before the jury decides his punishment.

“There is a deeper mental reason for someone to do that to young children and make the claims that he made,” Dianna Dees, a resident said.

While prosecutors say he was nothing more than a murderer, many people in Lexington say he will get what he deserves.

“He should know now that his life is gone,” Groves said. “His children are gone, then his life should be gone as well.”

The punishment phase is expected to begin Thursday morning.