Jerry Bartlett Jones blurted some disjointed phrases over the telephone to a 911 emergency dispatcher.
Dan Bates / The Herald
“My wife,” is all he said. With coaxing, he gave an erroneous address. “I need an aid car now,” he said. “She’s hurt. I’m hurt.”
There were lengthy gaps as dispatchers tried to get an accurate address for the Mill Creek-area home.
A tape recording of the 911 call made Dec. 3, 1988, was one of the first things a jury heard Wednesday as testimony started in Jones’ first-degree murder trial in the stabbing death of Lee Jones, 41.
This is the third time a jury has heard Jones’ apparently panicked voice from the recording. In two previous trials, Jones was convicted of the killing.
Appellate courts twice have sent the case back to Snohomish County Superior Court for new trials and additional evidence about the man Jones claims was the actual killer.
Lee Jones was stabbed more than 60 times in the bathtub of the couple’s home. Jones said he confronted the attacker when he heard his wife’s screams, was knocked down and remained dazed as the person fled.
Deputy prosecutor Ron Doersch played the 911 tape and a second one made by a neighbor as part of his opening statement.
When sheriff’s deputies and aid units arrived, Doersch said they found Jones soaked in his wife’s blood. He had knife cuts on his hand consistent with a wet hand slipping while thrusting a knife and hitting a bone, Doersch told jurors.
The new trial took an unusual turn from the start because Jones, 58, is acting as his own attorney, making all the arguments and questioning witnesses. He told jurors he is in the best position to present the evidence.
An emotional Jones told jurors Wednesday that he dearly loved Lee Jones, whom he described as an excellent wife and mother to their three children. He had no reason to kill her, he said.
He asked jurors to listen to various police officers who will testify about their actions. And he asked the jurors to note what the officers did not do.
In the two previous trials, Jones blamed a 15-year-old classmate of one of his daughters for the assault, and claims the man has not been thoroughly investigated for the murder. Police didn’t check for fingerprints on a door that was left open, he said.
Besides, police found none of Jones’ fingerprints, blood or DNA on the fillet knife that was used to stab his wife, he said.
That’s because “I never had that knife in my hand,” he said.
He wasn’t trying to hide anything or delay a response when he called 911. He was in shock, Jones told the court.
“I don’t talk like that. I don’t get hysterical like that, but I did,” he said.
Jones conceded that he didn’t act logically. His time was divided between getting help for Lee Jones and taking his 5-year-old son Thomas to a neighbor’s house so the boy wouldn’t see his wounded mother, he said.
“I couldn’t stay away from Lee,” he said. “I had to be by her side.”
He lifted her out of a bathtub and put her on the floor. Eventually, with directions from the 911 dispatcher, he started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Jones said his reaction to the stress of seeing his bleeding wife caused his attempts to help to be a “dismal failure.”
“It’s my fault. I’m the one who did it wrong,” he said, adding that he let his wife down when she needed him the most.
“I did not murder my wife,” he told jurors. “I did not do it.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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