LEXINGTON, S.C. — Jurors heard from the father and the stepmother of the South Carolina man charged with killing his five children, who both described a troubled childhood and adulthood for the admitted killer.
Witness testimony resumed Wednesday morning in the trial of Timothy Jones Jr at the Lexington County Courthouse. Jones has plead not guilty by reason of insanity to killing his five children on August 28, 2014. Prosecutors are arguing for the death penalty.
The state rested its case last week and now Jones’ defense team has been calling witnesses to attest to Jones’ character.
The main witness of the day was Timothy Jones Sr., who took the stand after the lunch break and was on the witness stand for more than two hours.
Jones Sr. was asked to testify about his son’s early family life with his father, mother and stepmother and then, later, about Tim’s life with Amber and his five children.
WARNING: SOME LANGUAGE MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES
Tim Jones Sr, starts around the time of Tim Jr’s birth. Cindy and Tim Sr were 16 when they met, and Cindy got pregnant soon after.
Tim describes Cindy as “lovely girl, very pretty, I liked her; but things started to change when she got pregnant.”
He testifies that he didn’t know what a pregnant woman should act like, he thought Cindy was normal. When Sr was around she seemed to be a good mother, when others around not so much. Cindy tried hard — he thought she was a good mother to Tim.
Then the problems started: she became violent.
Cindy wanted to feed Timmy certain foods to act as laxatives on the 1-yr-old.
The couple lived with his mom, Roberta Thornsberry, about 25 miles out of Chicago. Tom Sr testified that he discussed Cindy’s behavior with his mother, and that they disagreed on Cindy’s behavior: Tim Sr thought she was ok, Roberta did not.
Timmy was with Cindy during Tim Sr’s work hours. Cindy became pregnant again soon after Tim’s birth, but that baby was lost.
Tim testified that Cindy’s behavior became erratic, she began cutting up clothes with a knife, sitting in the corner crying, when the baby (Timmy) was crying, she was unresponsive. He said that became scared of her and he finally signed her into a mental health facility for a week.
He signed her out later and that’s when she began to disappear, sometimes with Timmy. She took everything with Timmy and Tim didn’t know where she went.
Tim Sr went to stay with his mother Roberta.
Tim Sr testified that a friend pulled him over and found photo of Cindy in back of escort magazine — Tim was maybe 18 months old at the time. The next time Tim Sr said that knew of Cynthia’s whereabouts was when Fort Lauderdale police picked her up but wouldn’t pay bail unless she gave up Timmy. The boy was found at Cindy’s mom’s house.
Tim Sr didn’t want to divorce but it got to be too much, and Tim loved Timmy. In the divorce, the judge gave Tim Sr custody.
When Tim was 3, Roberta Thornberry becomes de facto mom for Timmy. Tim Sr isn’t yet 20 years old.
Roberta and husband had violent home atmosphere — fights, drug use, alcoholism — that Timmy grew up in. Tim Sr recounts the time that his girlfriend (Marie) was staying with Roberta and Roberta beat her.
Growing up — a child raising a child — Timmy turned out ok. He was a loner that had 2 or 3 friends, he was smart,
First computer Sr bought computer for Timmy, he took it apart and out it back together.
Tim Sr had marital problems and on more than one occasion was arrested for violence.
After Timmy’s car accident, Tim Sr said, “everything changed: he was too smart for his shoes.” Some of the changes Tim Sr thought were due to Timmy entering adolescence.
According Tim Sr, he did not think it was a good choice for Timmy to join Navy… “it was unrealistic for Tim to be a Seal, although I thought he might at least make it through boot camp.”
The boy had “no common sense, no backup plan for Navy.”
Timmy was staying with Tim during Timmy’s junior year of high school and the father said that his son “could have been anything he wanted but started hanging with bad crowd — strippers and alcohol.”
Timmy cussed the cops when Tim bailed him out of jail.
Then Timmy started taking money from Karen and Tim Sr — that got Timmy sentenced to one year at a boot camp. The biggest change when Timmy leaves jail is his new religion. Tim Sr thought it was a cult, but Tim Jr had stopped drinking and drugs.
About this time, Tim Jr meets Amber.
Tim Sr testified that he didn’t want them to marry — Tim Jr wasn’t in the right place to marry, Tim Sr hadn’t met her parents.
When both father and son lived in Mississippi, Tim Jr would bring his family to visit — when the father and son were talking to each other.
After Amber had a miscarriage, Tim Sr told his son “sometimes the Lord has a way of taking care of things” because Tim Sr thought the couple didn’t need any more kids. Tim Jt was very upset,
Tim Sr testifies that his son — as a father — was not ready, not worthy of being a parent. And neither was Amber.
Tim Sr said Jr thought he was going to live and breathe the Bible and Tim Sr tried to tell his son that it wasn’t going to work with a modern woman. Tim Sr said, “If a man loves a man he will follow her to the ends of the earth.”
Tim Sr said that his son would preach to Amber after “beating her ass.” Tim Jr thought Amber was happy, but Tim Sr said he talked to her and knew she was unhappy.
Tim Sr moved Tim and family to SC
Tim Sr said that it seemed his son was heading gin right direction with the move to South Carolina and the job at Intel but that “smart people are fragile.”
According to Tim Sr, Amber thought they’d get nannies and big beautiful home, and when she found out Tim had bought a trailer, “she was pissed.”
Tim Sr said he bought appliances and put them in the trailer but at that point, "Amber didn’t give a shit and didn’t want to be there. The place was real bad.”
Tim Sr stayed there a week and finally go the toilet to work. He said that Amber didn’t want to work for it like Jr did. Tim Sr thought the time he spent with them fixing up the trailer “was like boot camp.” In his mind Amber had given up.
Tim Jr was paying cash for everything.
Then the marriage falls apart —his father says that Tim acted like he didn’t care. The situation became “a big shit sandwich that the kids were gonna get stuck in the middle of.”
Amber was having an affair with teenage neighbor, and Tim Sr said he was telling Tim Jr, “I told you so.”
Tim said he was going to take the kids, and Tim Sr said his son has custody because Amber said “take them.”
He adds, “I never knew a woman that didn’t fight for her kids.”
During the summer of 2012, the three oldest kids are with Tim Sr in Mississippi.
Tim Jr wants to get his baby, Gabriel, Tim Sr didn’t think it was a good idea and told his son to “let Amber have it.”
In the end, Tim Sr accompanies Tim Jr and another son to South Carolina to get the baby.
Tim Sr says that when the men pull up to the trailer, “it looks like a bomb went off.”
The father says that Ti Jr still in love with Amber.
Tim Sr can’t believe the condition of the house, and almost loses it when Amber’s boyfriend — a 17-year-old neighbor — comes out of one of the rooms.
The Jones men take Gabriel to Mississippi.
That summer, Tim Sr had babies and Tim Jr was driving back and forth on the weekends from South Carolina to Mississippi — an 8 hour drive. Tim Sr was concerned about his son making trip every weekend and suggested that Tim skip a week or work something out with his boss; he knew that Tim still loved Amber.
On Christmas 2012, Tim brought the kids to Mississippi.
Tim Sr thought something was wrong. Tim Jr was “pissed off” — Tim Sr knew his son was angry about something so Tim Sr called his mother Roberta and warned her Tim was “pissed off.”
Tim Sr knew that holidays were meant for family and Tim Jr didn’t have that and took it out on everyone, picking at his sister — he went off about how his parents didn’t want him.
Tim Jr left mad. Tim Sr was upset because he thought his son was disrespectful, Tim didn’t apologize. It was the last time Sr saw the babies.
The father/son went without communication for almost a year. Tim Sr said that his mother kept in contact with his son, so he kept up to date with his son’s children.
Tim Sr talked to Tim a few weeks before August 28 — the conversation was about Tim visiting and bringing the children. Tim Sr was excited about the planned visit.
Roberta had seen Tim and babies in Atlanta, thats why Sr reached out. Tim Sr said that Roberta’s husband had sensed something was wrong.
Tim Sr said he first heard about the babies missing from Roberta.
Tim Jr had taken his father off the emergency contact list at Saxe Gotha so Tim Sr began calling Intel, the school, and anyone he knew who might know where the children might be.
He had police go to Amber’s house, but was told that neither she or Tim Sr could put out Amber Alert because Tim had custody of the children.
Then Tim Sr told law enforcement that Tim may have an undiagnosed mental illness.
Then the Undersheriff of Smith County Mississippi called and told him that Tim Jr had been arrested. Tim Sr said that he was told not to go to Smith County, law enforcement didn’t know for certain about the deaths of the five children.
Tim Sr said that he did ask to come back to Raleigh, Mississippi, the next day to talk to Tim about children.
The father testified that he raised his kids to never talk to cops without lawyer.
Tim Sr wanted to know where the kids were.
During the Sept 7 interview, Tim Sr said that the Tim that he saw was “off the charts, ranting and raving, not my son.”
The father said, in an effort to get information about the children, he tried being nice, tried getting Tim mad, but nothing worked. “I thought he had snapped.”
Tim Sr said that “when we were talking about how (Tim) was arrested and one of the cops jumped up and said there was a substantial amount of blood in the vehicle and asked where the hell were the kids… I knew kids were dead.”
“I tried. I tried so hard.”
Tim Sr said that he tried to help any way he could, and that he was “very grateful to law enforcement.”
He offered to go with Tim to find the babies… but the Tim you know now, since the arrest is “the Tim I was always scared I’d meet.” Tim Sr blames “bad DNA. He’s a sick man, there’s a look that Cynthia had…”
Hubbard on cross asks Jones.. does he recall when we met in Sept 2017 in (Hubbard’s) office and again this year… we sat down at your dining room table… and again in March 2019. In all discussions we talked out Tim growing up.
You mentioned Cindy had mental issues but Tim had no memories of the bad things that happened to him when he was a small child.
The whole time growing up, Tim Sr said, he wanted to make sure — through all the chaos — that his son knew he was loved.
He wasn’t a bad kid. He was good at school — Tim Sr was proud of him.
When Tim went through school, he tried wrestling, gymnastics and bowling — he hated football, basketball “all the good stuff,” said his father.
Through everything, Tim Sr didn’t see Cindy in Tim at all. In his teens, when Tim started pushing back, Tim Sr said “there is fine line between brilliance and insanity — and I saw my son, a little geeky.”
In his teens, Tim got in the car wreck that caused his skull fracture.
Sr understands that Tim’s cousins were driving and that Tim was in backseat. The teenagers had been drinking and smoking and hit a tree. Tim spent a day or two in hospital.
Tim Sr said his son was a normal kid during adolescence, just turning into a young man. He’d experiment with drugs and alcohol; wanted Tim not to be like him; he said he never saw Tim out of control.
Tim Sr said he always supported his son, and instilled right from wrong.
Jail was boot camp, was good for him…. Tim started turning his life around, went to school and work.
When Tim Jr chose to get married to Amber way too soon, Tim Sr said his son married her to sleep with her.
The religious thing crazy — he’s raising a family, working, going to MSU with 3 kids, no education for Amber.
Tim Sr never met Amber’s family — he thought Amber was looking for a way out, he says she was homeless. His son was brilliant.
Still, Tim Sr saw things — the way Tim tried to control her and asked Amber if Tim ever was violent to her. He told her that if he was, she was to come to him and call the cops on Tim.
Hubbard asked: Before the separation Amber had stillborn child, and she was never the same? Tim Sr said she was fine, not as bad as Tim.
Hubbard: Tim Jr was obsessed with Amber?
TIm Sr: he loved and hated her, he couldn’t let go of her but she didn’t want him. Amber rejected all that Tim had for the neighbor .
Yet, Tim Sr said Tim wasn’t angry at Amber about the divorce.
Tim Sr said the kids didn’t belong with either Tim or Amber. He believed he was a better grandfather than father.
The father said that he hoped that Tim Jr believed he could always turn to Sr for help — with the kids or anything. When he heard that Tim and the children were missing, Tim Sr first thought that his son and Amber had reunited and didn’t want to say anything to anybody.
Tkim wanted Amber back, and was willing to do anything. Tim may have thought they’d come to an arrangement but Tim Sr thought she was leading him on, but, if it were true, the kids needed two stable parents.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> THE BABYSITTERS
During the morning session, a succession of babysitters took the stand.
First there was Jodie Durney, the in-home care giver to Jones’ four children from 2011 to summer 2013. Jodie Durney and her mother Ruby Durney (who took the stand after her daughter) both testified that Tim Jones was “an amazing father” who took the kids camping, skating, and to church.
According to the two women, Jones took every opportunity to be a dad. When the question of discipline came up, Jodie Durney said Jones would restrict privileges or take toys away from the children.
As far as home life was concerned, the Durneys testified that the home was immaculate and there was always plenty of food for the children.
The Durneys stopped caring for the Jones children after Jodie said she wanted to return to school.
The Durneys’ testimony was in contrast to the next defense witness, Chrystal Ballentine, another babysitter.
It was Ballentine’s testimony that she met Tim Jones in October 2012, when she was 17 years old. She and Jones bean dating and she and her daughter were living with Jones by January 2013. Ballentine took care of the children while Jones was at work and slept with Jones at night.
Ballentine testified that the first four months with Tim were “decent… he took care of us (Chrystal and her daughter).”
Mera, Nahtahn, and Elias were in school and Gabriel and Elaine were at home.
Ballentine was attending an apostolic church with Jones and she said there were rules she had to follow concerning the way she dressed and dressed the children.
The couple broke up in June 2013 and when she came by the Jones home later to visit the kids, Ballentine said that the trailer “was a wreck… Tim was a wreck.” There were dishes piled up, Jones’ shirt was stained and he appeared unshaven, looked rough, not normal. Ballentine said she went and got food for kids.
On cross examination by Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes, Ballentine was asked about a statement she gave to law enforcement officials after August 28, 2014.
In the statement given in early September 2014, Ballentine said that she had concerns about Jones’ methods of discipline: whipping, PT, standing on tippy toes in the corner.
By mid 2013, the couple had started arguing because she believed the discipline became excessive — there was bruising along the children’s legs and arms.
She testified that when Jones got angry with the children,”you could hear him through the walls.” The kids ask him to please stop, Ballentine would ask him to stop but Ballentine said Jones would say “they were his kids.”
Ballentine says she witnessed abuse of Nahtahn in one incident: the boy had accidentally broken a window and Jones made him stand on tip toes all day.
Another time, Mera was beaten because she wouldn’t admit to Tim that she was using a hair brush because she had lice. Tim wouldn’t stop until she came up with a name of a kid who had given the girl head lice.
Ballentine testified that on Sept 6 or 7, 2014, deputies from Lexington County Sherff Department kicked in her door at 3am saying they had found Tim — but not the kids. (Jones had been arrested on Sept 6, 2014, at a traffic safety stop in Smith County Mississippi) The deputies were looking for Jones’ five missing children at her house in Gaston.
Tim smoked and drank in his room — Jones preferred Crown and Smirnoff — took drugs, disappeared at night and stayed out til morning.
Law enforcement officers asked Ballentine about Jones having any mental or medical problems she may have observed: she said she saw none.
She testified that he occasionally mumbled to himself about things he had to do or about kids.
Did she think he was out of touch with reality? No, Tim was always very sure about himself, a planner.
To Ballentine, Jones seemed very religious. At 17, she relied on him for income so she went along with his restrictions until she had enough… he became too controlling, and his discipline towards her child who was less than a year old — Ballentine sys Jones tried to whip her daughter (Trinity) after she accidentally knocked over a drink. She took baby and left.
Ballentine testified that Tim knew what he did, knew right from wrong; he was sure of himself and everything .
Young calls Det. Sandra Black, an investigator with the Lexington County Sheriffs Department, who interviewed Crystal Ballentine on Sept 9, 2014.
Yong asked Black: did Ballentine tell you about two voices coming from a room in Jones home?
Black: Yes
After talking to her did you write a statement?
Black: I wrote it for her in which Ballentine said he would talk to himself, began acting like he had mental problems. Jones had never been diagnosed with mental problems that she knew of.
On cross, Mayes asked about the statement taken on Sept 9: Black was at her house in Gaston in middle of night? Black couldn’t remember the time of day.
When Black is writing statement, Ballentine is giving Black a whole history — of the relationship, bruising Mera, Jones trying to control Crystal and kids.
Crystal says in the statement that Jones was using drugs and alcohol, and that Tim would tell kids Amber didn’t love them, she wasn’t coming for them, and that their mother ran away with another man.
Young then calls Joy Lorick. She is friends with Christina Ehlke, and worked for another family before Jones — during summer 2014
Lorick testified that when she arrived at the Jones house, it was messy — dishes, clothes everywhere. She tried to clean while there doing in-house babysitting.
Lorick went to Myrtle Beach with the family June 27-28, 2014. For Lorick, it seemed to be a normal trip. Jones and the three oldest children played on beach, in surf; Tim screamed at kids to join him in the water.
A video taken from trip shows the kids playing in ankle-deep water. Tim can be heard telling Mera to go further out and ends with showing the baby Elaine at Tim’s feet.
Lorick testified that the family came back to Lexington the next day, and Jones dropped Lorick at Ehlke’s house. There was another trip planned for Disney World in Florida and Sea World
In Orlando June 30, 2014, on the way to Florida, the kids got agitated, jumping around in car. Tim told them to settle down ore’d pull the car over and the kids would have to get out and do squats.
The family and Lorick stayed at Disney.
Tim went to a bar first night, the family spent the following day at Disney, then went home next day without going to Sea World.
Did Tim talk to you about family, mother, etc… No
Did you give a statement to law enforcement in this case? Yes
Have you read your statement? Not in a while
Lorick says in statement that at the Disney hotel, after Tim went to bar, Nahtahn starts jumping on bed, Gabriel started squealing; Jones came back and pulled both boys’ pants down and started spanking them with a belt.
Lorick concerned with food … sharing a 20 piece nugget box, a single pizza, oatmeal all day, she worked 7am-7pm at Jones house
Photos from Florida show the kids smiling with badges around necks; 3 oldest have Disney hats, pose with Toy Story characters and Disney princesses. Lorck testified that at Disney, Tim was not doing drugs.
After the Disney trip, Lorick had to return the car she was using to get to the Jones house to her parents. That left her without transportation so she quit caring for the Jones children. Tim said he had paid her for two weeks in advance and she owed him that money and he was going to take her to court to get it. Lorick said she told him if he needed to do that, go ahead.
Lorick called DSS in August 2014, reporting that the kids were spanked with a belt and weren’t getting enough food.
She then asked Ehlke to make sure the Jones children were fed; Lorick said it was Tim’s policy if the kids didn’t eat the food he gave them, the uneaten food was put in fridge until they ate it.
Lorick testified that the kids weren’t scared of Jones: they loved their daddy but knew that when they did something they’d get in trouble.
On cross-examination, Mayes asked Lorick did she take the job because you loved kids? Yes
Lorck testified that she didn’t know about previous DSS case and that the DSS safety plan said that Tim wasn’t supposed to use corporal punishment on the kids. Some of Jones’ discipline tactics included standing poses, squats, and squats while holding a bedpost.
Young on re-direct asked Lorick if Jones knew right from wrong, was rational…spanking a 2 year old is not rational Lorick: YES
Making a 2-year-ld real old leftovers is not rational. Lorick: YES)
Lorick said Jones thought women should be seen and not heard and when she tried to suggest other methods of discipline, Jones would say “they were his kids.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>> THE STEPMOTHER
Secor calls Karen Williford, stepmother. She and Tim Sr were married for 15 years, beginning in April 1991 (she was 19, Tim jr was 10). Tim St and Willifird have tow sons: Tyler and Travis (b1991, 1992).
She knew Cynthia’s family (her sisters and brother) and it struck her as abnormal that the grandparents never visited or participated in family events.
Domingo (Cynthia’s brother) committed suicide 2 years ago
When she married Tim Sr, Tim Jr was big brother in family; problems arose with Tim Sr and his alcohol use, He became physically violent, cops called on several occasions, Tim Jr saw it all.
If Tim Jr got upset, he would spend time with his father’s mother Roberta Thornsberry. Thornsberry also had teenage son and there was probably drinking and smoking, as they were in the Jones home.
About Tim Jr’s relationship with Aunt Elaine — she was great lady, great relationship, she was beautiful inside and out, she had three children, she died young from cancer (Tim was 13); Tim Sr drank a lot during that time, but the family took care of each other. Elaine was dying at home and Elaine’s 3 kids were in a bitter custody battle, and stayed with Karen & Tim Sr.
After Elaine’s death, Tim Sr’s drinking got worse as did violence at home; if Sr came home with a bottle “it was going to be a hard night… and Tim Jr knew it too,” she said.
Tim Jr tried to prove himself — he got a job, did well in school.
According to Williford, Tim Jr started going to the Baptist church on Sundays — from 7:30am to after noon at age 10 or 11. When he got home from church, he was happy, he would eat, interact with brothers, and go to his room.
Asked about Cynthia and Tim Jr wanting a connection with his mother — did Williford know her, heard stories, etc. but she had never met Cynthia, and Cynthia never reached out to Jr
At 15, Tim Jr’s car accident put strain on relationship with Tim’s aunt and uncle; Williford was upset in general that they were drinking and driving. His father seemed know, but Williford didn’t notice anything different — Tim seemed like a normal teenager. He’d talk back to her, not clean up messes, became more reclusive. Williford knew Jr was smoking pot.
She didn’t know Tim's injury was as bad as it was (skull fracture).
The relationship between Jr and Sr got worse after losing another family member; the drinking got even worse, the verbal abuse got worse. In confrontations between father and son, Tim Jr was sarcastic and always thought he was right. Tim Jr was quite smart. Williford testified that at times she had to separate the men.
She was shocked when Tim joined Navy — when he wouldn’t follow instructions and do what people told him what to do at home, she didn’t think he was tough enough to handle military. Williford thought he had popped his eardrum to get out, not that Tim was discharged after a mental evaluation.
Tim Jr arrested for using Williford’s checking account and credit cards and for taking a vehicle, sent to prison; she and Tim Sr broke up and she refocused on her two boys and gave up on Tim Jr.
On cross-examination, Williford said she didn’t know which drugs Tim was on when he was arrested (crack cocaine); she was surprised he wanted to join Navy because Tim didn’t like ordinary rules of the home; and as parents, she and Tim Sr did their best to teach right from wrong. Tim lasted in Navy about 6 weeks, Williford was led to believe punctured eardrum, Mayes said drug addiction.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 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 Thursday morning with Tim Jones Sr on the witness stand.