Thomas Jones, now 21, has scattered memories of his early childhood.
A few are pleasant, such as his mother singing Vietnamese songs to him.
Most of the memories have some trauma attached, the college junior testified Friday in Snohomish County Superior Court. Those include skinning his knee, teasing by his older sisters and hearing thunder, which scared him and prompted him to believe that a giant was after him.
The most traumatic event of his young life came when he was a few days shy of his fifth birthday on Dec. 3, 1988.
He told a jury that he heard a “commotion” upstairs while trying to go to sleep in the Jones family’s May’s Pond residence near Mill Creek. He went upstairs to a bathroom and saw his father kneeling by the tub and his Vietnamese-born mother covered in blood.
Some events that evening are forever etched in memory, Thomas Jones testified.
“It was a pivotal day in my life and that of my family,” he said.
Jones was the first witness called by his father, Jerry Bartlett Jones, to testify in defense of the elder Jones’ first-degree murder trial. Jerry Jones is acting as his own attorney, saying that only he can present the evidence the way he thinks it should be.
He’s asking all the questions.
Thomas Jones also told jurors that some time before he heard the “commotion” upstairs, he was startled by a noise coming from his bedroom door. He described it as an animal growling noise that at the time sounded to him like a lion or tiger.
“That’s when I looked up and I saw a shadowy figure looking at me,” he told jurors
He couldn’t make out any detail, only that it appeared to be a human figure that soon disappeared.
Later, Thomas Jones told the jury that a then-15-year-old neighbor boy, the person Jerry Jones maintains was the assailant, sometimes made growling noises at him.
The testimony corresponds with Jerry Jones’ assertion that the intruder stabbed his wife, Lee Jones, 41, leaving more than 60 wounds. Jerry Jones maintains that he ran into the intruder at the bathroom door after his wife yelled for help. Jerry Jones said he was knocked backward and hit his head.
He also maintains that the intruder’s knife cut his right hand, leaving one wound so deep that it required surgery. The state maintains that the bloody knife must have slipped in Jerry Jones’ hand as he held it when it struck bone.
Thomas Jones testified that it was his father who told him to call 911 for help, but the young boy was afraid to do it. Instead, his dad returned him to his room, he said.
When Thomas came back upstairs once again, his father rushed him to a neighbor’s house, he said.
Deputy prosecutor Ron Doersch later asked Thomas Jones about a police officer’s interview shortly after police and aid cars arrived at the house. The officer, who interviewed Thomas Jones at length, wrote in his report that it was Lee Jones who asked the child to call 911.
Thomas Jones said Friday he clearly remembers what happened, and he’s sure that it was his dad who asked him to summon help.
“You told me to stay downstairs. You were going to help Mom,” Thomas Jones said in answer to one of his father’s questions.
To another, he responded: “Nothing from that day or night ever led me to suspect you’d hurt Mom.”
The state rested its case after lengthy testimony by sheriff’s detective Joe Ward, who detailed for the jury how the investigation proceeded.
Jerry Jones confronted Ward, questioning the quality of the investigation and why more wasn’t done to investigate the then-15-year-old neighbor boy. This is Jerry Jones’ third trial. Appellate courts twice before sent the case back for more evidence concerning the neighbor boy Jerry Jones accuses of being the assailant.
Jerry Jones is expected to call several medical experts to the witness stand beginning Monday. Both sides say they hope to have the case to the jury by Thursday.
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