The South Carolina man who murdered his five young children was sentenced to death Thursday, according to multiple reports.
The sentence came despite the plea from Jones’ ex-wife, who was the mother of the kids, to spare his life. The mom, Amber Kyzer, recalled the kids’ love for their father as her reason.
She told Jones in court: “Nothing justifies what you’ve done.”
Her appearance at the sentencing hearing as a character witness for Jones — after she’d earlier testified against him — was a surprise, according toWLTX.
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“Amber, who are you here for?” defense attorney Boyd Young asked as Kyzer took the stand, reportsThe Statenewspaper.
“I’m here for my babies,” she answered.
“Did your kids love their dad?” Young asked her.
“Yes, they did,” she replied, before Jones’ attorney later asked her: “Do you want Tim put to death?”
“I personally, myself, can’t bring myself to want anybody to die,” she replied.
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According to prosecutors, Jones killed the couple’s son Nahtahn, 6, after the boy broke an electrical outlet in their mobile home on Aug. 28, 2014. He then strangled his oldest child, 8-year-old daughter Merah, and his 7-year-old son, Elias, with his hands, they said.
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, reported Fox News.
After stuffing their bodies in garbage bags,he loaded their remains into his Cadillac Escaladeand drove for days through four states, sleeping in his SUV with the decomposing bodies in the back, before dumping them in a desolate part of Camden, Alabama.
He was arrested Sept. 6, 2014, at a police checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi, 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.
During police questioning, Jones admitted to killing his kids but claimed he did so in preemptive self-defense before the children could“chop him up and feed him to the dogs,”according to his arrest warrant, according to the newspaper.
Jurors who convicted him rejected the insanity defense.
If only one juror had voted to recommend a life sentence, he would have been spared the death penalty.
The Statereports Jones did not visibly react as the death sentence was read.
source: people.com
