Estelle Jones

Background

Estelle Jones was a 72-year-old woman when she was sentenced. She was described as the “quintessential grandmother” who had endured years of domestic abuse and alcoholic rages by her husband during their half-century of marriage while devoting her life to their children.

Jones suffered from “psychotic depression” that was triggered or exacerbated by a severe hypothyroid condition, and at times made her delusional.

A forensic psychologist evaluated Jones and did not find her competent to stand trial but also could not say that she was incompetent. Jones was sent to Piedmont Geriatric Hospital in Burkeville for about a month, where “they were able to get her to the point where she was competent,” a defense attorney said. She then took medication.

Jones was also described as a longtime member of and usher at the Community Independent Methodist Church less than a mile from her home.

The offence

Jones fatally shot her 71-year-old husband, Joseph E. Jones, after they got into an argument. Evidence presented during earlier proceedings indicated she shot Joseph Jones six times after the argument.

During the argument, Joseph Jones told Jones, “I could have married someone better than you.”

The next day, while Jones was sitting on her son’s bed talking to him, Jones told police that she kissed her son on the forehead before placing a leather belt around his neck and cinching it until he died. Police described that when his body was found it looked like he had fallen asleep.

Jones later dialed 911 at 5:20 p.m. and waited on the front steps of her home in the 11900 block of River Road when police arrived. When making the call, she told a police dispatcher that she had shot her husband and choked her son to death with a belt, according to court papers.

Jones also tried killing herself with the same belt with which she strangled her disabled son after fatally shooting her husband the day before. She placed a black belt around her neck but could not cinch it tight enough to kill herself, and she could not strangle herself with a bed sheet when she tried.

She placed one of the guns she used to kill her husband to her head but could not pull the trigger.

Jones told police she tried to comfort her disabled son, Perry Jones, who was upset about what had happened, and stayed up all night consoling him.

Victims and relationships

Joseph E. Jones was 71 years old. He was Jones’s husband and was described as a church deacon.

Perry Jones was 51 years old. He was Jones’s son and was described as severely disabled, developmentally disabled, deaf, and in need of 24-hour care. He could not speak and was unable to control his muscle reflexes, family members had previously said.

Perry Jones was the oldest of three sons.

Investigation

Detective Michael Morgott testified that Jones told him during an interview after the April 18 and 19 killings that she tried to kill herself and made statements about the homicides.

Morgott testified at Jones’s preliminary hearing in Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court that Jones placed a second gun—a .22-caliber RG-14 revolver—into the narrative after seeing her husband with the first gun.

Morgott also testified that when police later arrived, Joseph Jones was found face down in a fetal position with a towel over his head and half-covered with a sheet.

Arrest and prosecution preparation

At the end of the preliminary hearing, Judge Lynn S. Brice determined there was probable cause to certify two counts of first-degree murder and two felony firearm counts against Jones to a Chesterfield Circuit Court grand jury, which likely would return indictments in September.

Jones was held without bond in the Chesterfield County jail and was back in court in July.

Trial

Jones pleaded guilty.

A defense attorney, Randy Rowlett, implored the judge to exercise “courage” by sentencing Jones to only five years in prison for fatally shooting her husband before strangling their severely disabled adult son inside their Matoaca home.

Rowlett acknowledged that five years would normally be an “outrageous” sentence for a convicted double-murderer.

Chesterfield prosecutor Erin Barr urged the judge not to lose sight of the victims.

Sentencing

Chesterfield County Circuit Court Judge T.J. Hauler said he was convinced that Jones was “cognitively impaired” when she killed, although not legally insane.

Hauler followed Rowlett’s recommendation and sentenced Jones to a total of 50 years in prison with 24 years suspended.

Hauler then pared down the sentence to five years by staying execution of 21 of the remaining 26 years.

Hauler said he did not consider Jones to be a threat to the community and that there was no deterrent factor in incarcerating a 72-year-old woman.

Hauler recognized that Jones had strong family and community ties, with supporters filling half of the courtroom.

Hauler said: “I’m not going to victimize them further by a long sentence in this case.”

Jones could be eligible for geriatric parole in 2½ years on January 16, 2014.

In November 2012, Jones pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree murder in the April 18 and 19, 2012 killings of Joseph E. Jones, 71, and their son, Perry Jones, 51.

Other details

People and roles mentioned

• Mark Bowes authored coverage about the sentencing.
• Randy Rowlett was Jones’s defense attorney and a former prosecutor.
• Erin Barr was the Chesterfield prosecutor.
• T.J. Hauler was the circuit court judge.
• Duncan Minton was a prosecutor mentioned during an earlier update.
• Michael Morgott was a Chesterfield County police detective who testified.
• Judge Lynn S. Brice determined probable cause at the preliminary hearing.
• Leigh D. Hagen was a clinical and forensic psychologist hired by the defense.
• Eileen P. Ryan was a forensic psychiatrist.
• Hazel Brown was Jones’s cousin and neighbor mentioned in a broadcast update.
• Hazel Brown said: “My neighbor gone my cousin gone she in jail it just puts tears in your eyes.”
• A prosecutor named Duncan Minton said: “She’s an elderly woman and you can tell some of the years have been difficult on her.”
• Detective Michael Morgott testified Jones was emotional but straightforward about what had happened.

Quotations from experts and witnesses

Leigh D. Hagen testified that Jones endured “many decades” of verbal, emotional and physical abuse by her husband, sometimes during “alcohol rages.”

Hagen testified that on occasions Jones was forced to slip away into the woods with her children to escape the violence.

Hagen testified that in an evaluation of Jones, her cognitive abilities were significantly impaired, possibly from long-standing depression or even acute depression “caused by the enormity of the circumstances leading up to and flowing from the two killings.”

Hagen testified: “It was as though someone had poured concrete over her emotional surface,”

Eileen P. Ryan testified that Jones was suffering from “psychotic depression” at the time of the killings that was either triggered or exacerbated by “significant hypothyroidism,” which Ryan described as a medical condition caused by an underactive thyroid.

Ryan said Jones stopped taking her thyroid medication in September 2011 because she “wanted to die” but also believed it might have caused her to develop cancer.

Ryan wrote in her evaluation of Jones: “At the time of the offense, Ms. Jones continued to manifest symptoms of major depression and a distorted perception of reality consistent with psychosis,”

Ryan wrote: “She (obsessed) on the awful life she envisioned that Perry would have institutionalized with people who could not love and care for him as she had all her life,”

During the preliminary hearing, Morgott testified that Jones’s son Perry was in need of 24-hour care, was deaf, and had been cared for by Mrs. Jones for all of his life.

Morgott testified Jones said during the interview that her husband had hit her on previous occasions, but that it had been some time ago.

Course of events mentioned in updates

A broadcast update stated that Jones was accused of using a handgun to shoot her husband and that on the next day she allegedly killed her 51-year-old son.

A broadcast update stated that the prosecutor would not discuss what Jones said during her police interview and that Jones called 911.

A broadcast update stated that no indication of any trouble at the house had been found and that the prosecutor was waiting for autopsy results as the case moved forward.

A broadcast update stated Jones was appointed an attorney.