After two successful appeals and three trials for the stabbing death of his wife, Jerry Bartlett Jones is right back where he was when he first was sentenced for the killing in 1989.
Jones, 58, will be going back to prison to serve out the rest of a 25-year sentence. Jones could be set free in a little more than three years, once his time already served and time off for good behavior are figured in.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer handed down the latest sentence of 25 years. It followed Thursday’s quick verdict by a jury after a lengthy trial.
Five jurors attended his sentencing, saying they have deep emotional and time investments in the case.
Jones was convicted of killing his wife Lee Jones, 41, who suffered more than 60 stab wounds, in the bathroom of their Mill Creek area home. The Dec. 3, 1988, attack unleashed a stream of a legal activity after Jones began accusing a former neighbor, who was 15 at the time, of the killing.
It was partly because of the continual assault on the former teenager’s character – a move that the latest jury didn’t buy – that Allendoerfer decided to reaffirm Jones’ 25-year sentence.
If Jones possessed a “true sense of accountability,” he probably would not have maintained a 16-year campaign to convince people that the teen killed his wife, Allendoerfer said.
Jones won two appeals to his 1989 trial. He successfully argued for new trials by saying more evidence should have been presented about the former neighbor boy.
The boy’s mother spoke Tuesday before Jones was sentenced. She tearfully asked the judge to impose as much time as possible.
“First he killed his wife. Then he put his children and mine through three horrendous trials,” she told the judge.
Jones’ two daughters asked for as little time as possible. They have stood behind their father throughout.
“We believe in his innocence absolutely,” Beth Blood said. They love their dad and they also loved their mother, she added.
Kim Jones, who helped her father be his own lawyer during the recently completed trial, talked about her mother.
“Each time he goes back (to prison), it’s like she was murdered again,” she said. Kim Jones asked for her dad “to come home now.”
Allendoerfer could have sentenced Jones to as little as 20 years behind bars, a term that would have allowed him to be set free immediately.
The judge told Jones that the maximum penalty for the crime in 1988 was nearly 27 years. Under the law, he could not impose more time than previous judges because Jones has not exhibited criminal behavior since his last sentencing in 2001.
Jones was arrested the night of his wife’s murder when his story about an intruder in the house didn’t seem to make sense to investigators. He had cuts on his hands, which deputy prosecutor Ron Doersch said were caused by his hand slipping on the bloody knife.
Jones was released on bail in July, and spent most of the intervening time preparing his defense. In July, his earliest release date was Oct. 22, 2007, said Veltry Johnson, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
Jones doesn’t get credit for being out of prison since July, so his earliest release date now is pushed back to June 2008.
If for some reason he doesn’t get credit for good behavior in prison, the state would be able to hold him until July 2016.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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