Since that night in 1988 when his wife was found in a pool of blood in their Bothell home, Jerry B. Jones has been trying to convince people he didn’t do the crime.
On Monday, the twice-convicted murderer apparently won another chance.
The state Court of Appeals tossed out Jones’ 2001 first-degree murder conviction, his second for the stabbing death of his wife, Lee Jones.
It is another twist in a case that already has a tortured legal history.
A federal judge in 1998 tossed out Jones’ first conviction, ruling that his original attorney had failed nearly a decade earlier to present evidence Jones and his family contended pointed toward a then-teenage neighbor boy as the true killer.
Jones was convicted again in 2001. Snohomish County jurors said they were more convinced by blood stains on Jones’ clothes and a knife cut on one of his hands than defense efforts to focus the blame on somebody else.
But the state appeals court on Monday ruled Jones’ second trial was flawed because he wasn’t allowed to present detailed evidence about the man the neighbor boy eventually grew to be.
Now in his early 30s, the man has arrests and convictions for engaging in domestic violence and death threats toward women who have rejected him romantically.
Judge Gerald Knight limited the testimony jurors heard about the man’s criminal history. That was wrong because Jones maintained his wife was killed because she, and a then-teenage daughter, had rejected the boy’s advances, the appeals court ruled.
"Without hearing this evidence and matters associated with it, the jury was left to speculate about what possible motive (the former neighbor boy) would have had for murdering Lee Jones. Thus the evidence is relevant," said the ruling, signed by appellate judges Ronald Cox, Faye Kennedy and William Baker.
Jones, 57, is in prison and has served roughly half of his 25-year sentence.
His attorneys were elated with the ruling.
"The possibility that a convicted defendant is actually innocent can always turn it around," said David Koch, a Seattle attorney who handled this appeal. "There is compelling evidence suggesting somebody else committed the crime."
David Zuckerman, the lawyer who helped Jones win a second trial in 1999 and then handled his defense in 2001, said he was thrilled by the appellate court decision.
"We were really hamstrung at the second trial," Zuckerman said, referring to how they could portray the neighbor boy. "We were permitted to show he had the opportunity to commit the crime, but we were not allowed to show the motive."
Prosecutors said Monday that they plan to review the court’s ruling then consider their options.
They have 30 days to decide whether to challenge the decision, either asking the appeals court to reconsider, or by seeking review in the state Supreme Court, said deputy prosecutor Seth Fine, the county’s chief appellate attorney.
The court’s ruling Monday spelled out guidelines for a third trial for Jones, not only specifying what evidence the defendant should be allowed to offer, but also suggesting limits on what detectives may say.
Mark Roe, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, said he supports taking another shot at convicting Jones.
"I can think of 63 reasons for retrying him again," Roe said, a reference to the more than five dozen knife wounds suffered by Lee Jones. "It is just exceptionally frustrating to follow all the rules, give someone a fair trial and convict them, fair and square, and then have the rules change."
Jones has been behind bars almost continually since his wife’s killing. He enjoyed roughly two years of freedom after his first conviction was reversed, and he was awaiting his second trial.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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