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'I never thought he'd hurt his children' Grandmother of Timothy Jones testifies

Jurors heard Friday from the grandmother of the man accused of killing his five children in South Carolina.

LEXINGTON, S.C. — The grandmother of the the South Carolina man charged with killing his five children remembered him as being 'intelligent' growing up, but said that he became rigid in his beliefs and appeared to be bi-polar when he became an adult.

Roberta Thornsberry testified during the trial of Timothy Jones Jr. Jones is accused of killing his five children in August of 2014 before dumping their bodies in Alabama. He was eventually arrested in Mississippi.  Jones has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him. 

Grandmother testifies 

After the lunch break on Friday, May 24, defense attorney Casey Secor beings interviewing Roberta Thornsberry, Tim Jones Jr’s grandmother, the great-grandmother to the five children — Abigail, 1; Gabriel, 2; Nahtahn, 6; Elias, 7; and Mera Gracie, 8 — in Lexington County Court.

Secor asks Thornsberry about her family history as it relates to Tim Jones Jr. 

Thornsberry was 18 when she married current husband. The couple had marital problems, abused drugs and alcohol, sometimes there was violence in the home. 

The couple divorced once, she married another man and then divorced him, then Thornsberry remarried her first husband. 

When her son Timothy Sr married Tim’s mother Cynthia, the young couple were living with her.

Thornsberry testified that Cynthia became more alone after becoming pregnant; she’d crawl through windows to escape Thornsberry’s home or hide in her closet and cut up clothes. 

Thornsberry described Jones’ mother as “Nutty as a fruitcake.”

She testified that Cynthia’s interaction with Tim Jr was strange. Thornsberry never saw her be a mother she thought was “normal.” She said Cynthia would let the infant lie in his urine, and wished the baby would “shut the F up” when he cried.

Thornsberry said, “It’d be 90 degrees outside and she’d dress him in flannel jeans and shirt.” When Thornsberry asked about changing him into other clothes, she said Cynthia told her that the boy needed to be covered. According to Thornsberry, Cynthia gave Tim laxatives to cleanse his body, refused to feed him, and let him cry.

Thornsberry testified that Cynthia would take Tim and disappear — sometimes for a week — and didn’t know where she went with him.

Eventually Tim’s father had Cynthia committed to a mental hospital. 

Thornsberry testified “Big Tim (Jones Sr) and Cynthia's relationship began to fall apart. Cynthia would take Timmy for a week, bring him back, and take him again.

She recounted the last time Cynthia saw the baby: Cynthia and her sister came to take Timmy, and Roberta’s daughter intervened. The cops were called and Cynthia and sister were arrested. Tim was maybe 2 years old at the time.

Thornsberry testified that she took care of Timmy while Tim was at work.

The family had problems while Timmy growing up — cops were called for fights, gunshots, and drug dealing.

Thornsberry said that everyone in the family was very forgiving. except Timmy — he would shut down if things didn’t go his way. He asked a lot about his mom.

Thornsberry testified that Tim Jr didn’t have a lot of friends, but that it didn’t matter much considering that theirs was a large family — usually 20-25 kids at birthday parties.

“Timmy so intelligent, so smart.”

Thornsberry testified that Tim had been in a bad accident when he as 15 years old but he appeared to be OK as far as they knew. According to Thornsberry, Timmy didn’t change and doctors assured them he was OK. She attributed any changes in him to being a teenager, a normal part of growing up. 

She said Tim was always a good student. He got arrested once, tried enlisting in the US Navy — not unusual she said, he wanted to be something special.

As far as his rejection by the Navy — previous testimony says it was because of a diagnosis of schizophrenia  — she said Tim told her it was something about his ears. She didn’t know the Navy let him go for mental illness. 

After prison, Thornsberry testified, Tim was everything about the Bible. She said he told her she wasn’t going to heaven because her church was wrong and tried to force his (United Pentecostal) religion on her; he spoke in tongues. 

She thought Tim was bi-polar and thought himself superior.

Thornsberry testified his kids weren’t allowed to watch tv or listen to music.

She wanted to buy Mera shorts and capris for summer; Tim said go to bathroom and look at symbols on door and tell him what you saw: boys wear pants, girls wear dresses.

She said there was “no talking to him about religion.”

Secor guides Thornsberry back to the subject of Tim’s mother: No one had seen Cynthia since Tim was 2, and Tim thought Thornsberry and Tim Sr had hidden her away. 

Thornsberry tracked down Cynthia in Syracuse, NY, and arranged for her to come to the family’s home in Mississippi to see Tim. Once Tim saw how sick she was he didn’t want to see her. Thornsberry said she had Cynthia stay with her but was scared of her; the woman looked unrecognizable — dressed in men’s clothes and shoes, Cynthia had let herself get fat.

Secor asked Thornsberry about Tim and Amber. The couple lived in Mississippi with three oldest, in Fulton. When the young family would visit with Thornsberry, Tim wouldn’t let the kids stay overnight.

Secor asks Thornsberry to identify some photographs: of a pregnant Cynthia at Tim's baby shower; Tim Sr with infant Tim; Tim Sr, Cynthia and Tim Jr at Thanksgiving dinner; father and son when Tim was around 5; Thornsberry and Tim Jr; Tim with Amber, Mera, Elias and Cynthia; Thornsberry and her husband and the five great-grandchildren in Atlanta on Aug. 3, 2014. 

Secor asks about tthat photo: Thornsberry says the trip to Atlanta was to meet Tim and grand babies, Tim was late. When she saw him, Thornsberry said it looked like he’d lost so much weight and he was drenched with sweat and drinking and smoking.

She said that later that afternoon Tim and her husband went to get pizza — and Tim left him there; She thought something wasn’t right and tried to get Tim to let her take the youngest kids home with them. She said that Tim told her, “G-ma, I can’t be away from my babies… I can’t be without my babies.”

Thornsberry testifies that if she thought the children were in danger, she’d never have let Tim take the kids.

A short video entered into evidence from Atlanta shows the kids, Thornsberry and Tim.The older boys can be seen running around the hotel room, Tim sitting in a chair, Thornsberry on the couch, and Mera standing behind her dad before walking off camera.

Credit: tglantz@thestate.com
Tim Jones Sr. is comforted during his son's trial in Lexington. Timothy Jones, Jr. is accused of killing his 5 young children in 2014. Jones, who faces the death penalty, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. 5/24/19

On cross-examination, Deputy solicitor Shawn Graham asks Thornsberry about more details of the Atlanta trip.

Thornsberry testifies they had gone for an overnight visit. She thought she and her husband were going somewhere with kids, but Tim had checked the family out Sunday morning after breakfast.

Tim was smoking cigarettes at the time; never explained what he did Saturday night when he left kids with Thornsberry and her husband.

Tim played with the kids; Thornsberry had tried to be a good parent to him (she raised him for Tim Sr); the family had more good times than bad.

Graham asked her about the accident: As far as intelligence, she said, “there was a difference after the wreck, but he’d gotten in trouble with his dad. He was a teenager… getting older.”

Graham: You said Tim was special and getting older, a goal setter, did well at school, very proud of him as a person as a father, first to graduate from college; vey proud when he got job at Intel; never got into trouble at work or college. He asked about Tim and Amber.

Thornsberry say they appeared to be very happy

After prison, he found religion, his beliefs were different, and to her he was so much into the religion that it was “a lot,” almost like a cult. He became very religious, very conservative while working and going to school and raising young family

Thornsberry said Tim had to be the center attention. There were no problems that she knew of, but Tim wasn’t around as much when he got older and married.

“It was all about Amber and the kids”

Thornsberry testified that Tim may have cried a lot about not having a Mom; but he never said to her that he heard voices; 

She said Tim would make comments she thought were normal jokes, like “I think the kids are out to get me.”

Thornsberry testified that there was “no knowledge of anything he’d do to hurt himself… but then I never thought he’d hurt his children.”

Graham asked about a call from Thornsberry to Tim on Aug 28. She says it could have been about his visiting her in Mississippi. Tim usually called her, she didn’t have to initiate calls.

Starting around 2pm on Aug 29, Thornsberry says she was getting worried because Tim wasn’t answering her calls and she thought it unusual. Tim and the children were supposed to leave South Carolina on Friday morning and be at her house in Mississippi by late afternoon. When she couldn’t reach him she thought he had been in an accident. 

She left on messages on Friday and repeatedly texts him because she hasn’t heard from him. She is worried about him and children

Thornsberry testifies the last she heard was that the kids hadn’t shown up for school and Tim hand’t shown up for work.

Graham asked “If your grandson (Tim) had called and said ‘I need you to pick up the four children, something happened to Nahtah’ “

Thornsberry replied “I would be there.”

On re-direct by Secor, he asked Thornsberry when was the last time she had seen Tim and the children.

Thornsberry testified that it had been Christmas 2012 since she saw Tim of babies; Tim stopped coming (to her house for the holidays) after he became unhappy. He was miserable, and tried to argue with everyone (he and Amber were in the beginning stages of divorce).

>>>>>>>>>>>>> THE (HOSTILE) DEFENSE WITNESS

Defense next calls Detective Brian Travis, Lexington County Sheriffs Department. The defense asks Judge Griffith permission to treat Travis as a hostile witness.

Travis is a criminal intelligence analyst — specializing in cellular data and mapping of cell phones. Travis was requested to help on 2014 case, and used a list of provided phone numbers, open source intelligence searches, and in-house mapping to create a timeline of Tim Jones Jr’s movements from Aug. 28 through Sept 6, 2014.

Travis made hot list — who a person calls most over span of records, call frequency, associate names to numbers — from the data found on the Samsung Galaxy phone found in Jones’ Escalade at the time of his arrest, cell tower pings and paper receipts during that period.

Travis was able to track Jones from Lexington (8/28); through Georgia, to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama (8/29); back to Georgia, then Lexington (8/30); Clinton, Spartanburg, Winnsboro, and Lugoff SC (9/01); Folly Beach, West Columbia, Aiken, then Athens, Lawrenceville, and Macon, Georgia (9/02); West Columbia, Cayce, Lake City, SC (9/03), Charleston, Mt Pleasant (or nearby), Camden, Orangeburg, and Lexington (9/04); Louisville Ga (9/05); Greenville Ala, Camden Ala, and Laurel Miss (09/06).

Travis testified that the destinations appear goal driven — in his opinion, Jones went to those places for a purpose and then plans changed.

On cross-examination Deputy solicitor Shawn Graham asks Travis again about his job. 

Travis tries to determine patterns of behavior — profiling or predictive policing — by looking at historical data to anticipate crime. 

Defense attorney Madsen now opposes Travis’ qualification of expert witness to look at data. 

Judge allows Graham to ask first questions and keeps expert witness status on cell phone data and mapping.

Graham has Jones’ phone call records (already entered into evidence from Phipps’ testimony), bank records (Safe Federal Credit Union), and paper receipts found in the Escalade at time of arrest in Smith County Mississippi; Travis took all information into consideration and was able to map Jones’ whereabouts Aug 28-Sept 6, 2014.

Data is in list form Travis later used to create a map.

Graham: I believe you found 44 entry points in data file

Travis reads off the dates, times, and places of the data mined from Jones’ phone:

August 28: 6:15pm picked up kids; later Amber calls kids after 7 and 9pm, phone near Lex; August 29: 1:50am, Jones buys 10 packs of cigarettes from Coopers Corner on South Lake Road, about 1/2 mile from Jones’ house; 10:32am Jones stops in Thompson, Georgia to buy gas; during this time there are (missed) calls are coming in and texts; 10:52am he texts Christine Ehlke (the babysitter) about the two youngest kids coming on Tuesday; 12:14pm the phone is located in Decatur Ga (Atlanta suburb), a call is placed to ZamZam herbal incense shop after a Google search on phone; 2:20pm the phone is in Moody, Ala, along I-20; after a Google search around 1:15pm for illegal herbal/head shops Alabama; then in Birmingham; at 4:30pm, a misdialed call to Roberta; at 3:06pm there was a smoke shop and tattoo search in Birmingham; at 8:04pm, the phone is located in Lithium Springs, GA, after a Google search for “herbal incenses Mississippi,” “campgrounds/reservations;” a call to Market Traders Institute; phone is located in Washington GA at 10:29pm where he purchased gas; Aug 30: 10:53am at ATM ($500, Palmetto Citizens) in Red Bank; Sept 1: 4:02pm  Spartanburg Dunkin Donuts; before that, at 10:08am, Google searches of “camping in SC,” “tent and RV camping,” “campground cooking,” “trailside camping,” “SC dumps,” “Lexington County landfills,” “items accepted,” “animal services”; YouTube searches for Styx “Long Arm of the Law” and Pink Floyd “Comfortably Numb”; at 6:20pm, Jones is in Winnsboro; 7pm Lugoff; Sept 2: 1:20am Folly Beach, 10:59am West Columbia; after YouTube search for “dog,” “body in landfill,” “muriatic acid,” “muriatic acid burn”; google search “camping in Columbia sc,” “what does no extradition laws mean,” “5 countries with no extradition treaty,” “facing us legal history where should you run”; texting between Tim and Ehlke about cleaning the Jones house; 11:04am search for “camping route 77 exit 88 South Carolina”; phone in Clinton SC at 3:22pm; 4:19pm Athens GA gas station; Lawrenceville GA at 6:04pm; Grey GA at 10:06pm; three calls from nearby; Travis Jones and Roberta Thornsberry send texts that are ignored; Sept 3: 11:05am, the phone is at West Columbia Walmart (Jones is on surveillance video purchasing trash bags, a bucket, blades, saw, acid, etc); Cayce at Sunoco; Lake City (bought oil and oil filter for car); Sept. 4: 3:41am Charleston (James Island); 3:47am web history: “missing children Tim Jones"; Camden; 5:17pm Orangeburg (trash bags, Red Bull and sunglasses); 6:33pm Lexington (Augusta Road ATM, balance check; took $40; deposited $3,518.49 UBS Financial Stock Purchase Plan sold Intel stock {check cut in July 26, mailed to a PO Box in Columbia}, took $260); Sept 5: Louisville GA (east of Macon), now along rural state roads rather than interstate highway; Sept 6: 9:14am Greenville AL, two purchases (food and gas); 1:06pm Camden ALA, withdrew $500 from ATM; 6:09pm Laurel, Mississippi; 7:57pm traffic stop in Smith County, Mississippi

There is no re-direct from Jones’ defense team.

Credit: tglantz@thestate.com
Tim Jones sits in court during his trial in Lexington. Timothy Jones, Jr. is accused of killing his 5 young children in 2014. Jones, who faces the death penalty, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. 5/24/19

>>>>>>>>>>>>> THE CHARGES

Jones has admitted to killing his children — Abigail, 1; Gabriel, 2; Nahtahn, 6; Elias, 7; and Mera Gracie, 8 — on Aug. 28, 2014, after picking them up from school and daycare. The killings took place at the family home at 2155-B South Lake Dr. in Red Bank.

He was arrested on Sept. 6, 2014, after a traffic safety stop in Smith County, Mississippi, during which law enforcement officers discovered blood and handwritten notes on how to mutilate bodies in Jones’ car. Jones had left the children’s bodies in plastic trash bags in a wooded area outside of Camden, Alabama. He had been traveling throughout the South with the bodies in the back of his car since Aug. 28.

Jones has pled guilty by reason of insanity. His guilty plea would allow one of four possible outcomes in the trial: guilty, guilty by reason of insanity, not guilty by mental defect, or not guilty.

If found guilty, the death penalty would not be automatic. Jurors would then be asked to consider extenuating circumstances and could sentence Jones to life without parole rather than death.

Witness testimony will resume Tuesday morning after Memorial Day Holiday.

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