Jones headed to court

By Brian Livingston, community@laurelleadercall.com

Former Laurel Ward 7 city councilman Joseph Glenn Jones, who has already been convicted of felony attempted escape, will go on trial Wednesday for sexual battery in connection with an incident involving a then 13-year-old girl.

In the past several months, Jones has been one of the most high profile individuals to ever come before the people and court of Jones County. In that time, Jones has been in and out of court with several attorneys pleading his case.

The upcoming jury trial, which is expected to take two days, will be the culmination of a story the Leader-Call has followed closely since it was first reported Nov. 2, 2005. Here is a timeline of events up to this point.

Nov. 2, 2005

Jones is taken into custody at the Jones County Sheriff’s Office in Laurel after giving himself up on charges he committed sexual battery and impregnated a 13-year-old girl on or about July 30, 1999.

The charges were filed by Jones County Assistant District Attorney J. Ronald Parrish after Parrish conducted his own investigation into an old case file. Parrish then obtained DNA samples from Jones which were sent to Reliagene Laboratories in New Orleans, La., for testing. Those test results said Jones was the father of the child conceived as a result of the incident in 1999.

Jones said at the time of his arrest, “No, I’m not guilty. This is an attempt by my enemies to get me out of office.”

Nov. 5, 2005

Jones had his bond hearing in Jones County Circuit Court postponed by Judge Billy Joe Landrum after Landrum learned Jones’ attorney, Robert Smith of Jackson, expressed a need to put witnesses on the stand to argue for Jones’ release on bond.

Landrum, citing the court was not informed the defense wished to do this and it would take up more time than the court had allowed for a normal bond hearing, postponed the proceedings until the following Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, and ordered Jones to be held in the Jones County Adult Detention Center in Ellisville.

Nov. 7, 2005

A second sexual battery charge was filed by Parrish and the Jones County DA’s Office, this time involving a girl who was reportedly 14 at the time of the incident which was said to have occurred in 1994, when Jones was about 34 years old.

Unlike the first case in which the baby died as a result of a miscarriage, this second child was born, and, according to Jones County Chancery Court Records, Jones admitted to being the father of the child and in fact took custody of the child.

Nov. 9, 2005

Based largely on the second sexual battery charge, Judge Billy Joe Landrum refused to allow Jones to post bond, instead ordering him to be held in the Jones County Adult Detention Center in Ellisville until his trial could be set.

Landrum, in making his decision, cited the DNA test results from the first charge that alleged Jones was the father of a child that died as a result of a miscarriage to a 13-year-old child. The test results were said to have been 99.97 percent positive that Jones was the father.

Jones admitted in court documents he was the father of a child he was caring for. The second charge was filed just two days prior to the bond hearing.

Nov. 11, 2005

This marked the battle over Jones’ blood Parrish wanted to obtain in order to satisfy questions initially raised by Jones’ defense attorney Robert Smith.

Smith questioned the methods of the samples used in the first DNA testing that led to the first sexual battery charge. Parrish’s request for a second sample was, in his words, “to answer the questions by the defense and to prove without a doubt Jones was the father.”

Jones refused to honor the order on the advice of Smith who had brought up the validity of how the DNA samples were obtained.

Nov. 29, 2005

Joseph Glenn Jones was charged with attempted felony escape as he allegedly tried to scale one of the fences surrounding the exercise yard at the Jones County Adult Detention Center in Ellisville.

Two corrections officers in the yard with Jones at the time of the incident were able to talk him down from atop a 30-foot fence, one of two that encompass the grounds.

Parrish filed charges against Jones soon thereafter and Jones County Sheriff Larry Dykes said Jones would not be allowed outside his cell again without ankle shackles.

Dec. 7, 2005

An Ellisville grand jury hands down an indictment on Jones on the attempted felony escape charge.

A few days later, with another attorney, Ricky Johnson of Vicksburg, Jones pleaded no guilty to the charge.

Jan. 18, 2006

Jones was ordered by Judge Landrum to honor the request of the Jones County DA’s office and give a blood sample for DNA testing.

Jones had, on Nov. 11, 2005, refused one such order.

Jan. 19, 2006

Jones refused, yet again, to give a blood sample for DNA testing as requested by the JCDA’s office citing it was against his religious beliefs.

“It is against my religious beliefs, as a Jehovah’s Witness, to give or receive blood,” Jones said in a statement to the court.

This latest claim of his religious beliefs angered many of the Jehovah’s Witness faith in Jones County.

Jan. 20, 2006

The elusive blood sample was taken from Jones during a procedure at South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel.

Feb. 15, 2006

Jones, citing irreconcilable differences with his attorney Ricky Johnson of Vicksburg, filed a motion asking the court to allow Johnson to be released as his defense attorney in the attempted felony escape case to be heard in Ellisville March 2.

Jones claimed in the handwritten motion that Johnson refused to file the appropriate paperwork on his behalf and to do other work Jones had paid Johnson to do, leading Johnson to comment, “I get the impression he’s fed up with me.”

March 1, 2006

Last-ditch motions Jones had filed prior to the beginning of March to try and postpone his upcoming attempted felony escape trial in Ellisville were smashed by Judge Landrum.

Landrum refused to grant a continuance on the grounds Jones’ case had received so much media attention.

March 4, 2006

It took only 40 minutes for an Ellisville jury to find Jones guilty of attempted felony escape.

The charge, the third one the Ward 7 councilman had collected in less than two months, came about after a Nov. 27, 2005, attempt by Jones to scale a security fence at the Jones County Adult Detention Center in Ellisville.

Jones was sentenced to 30 months in prison as a result of the conviction. He was also later stripped of his seat on the Laurel City Council.

From the time of his escape conviction in the First Judicial District until April 17, Jones filed countless more motions trying to fire his other attorney, Robert Smith, accusing Parrish of having sex with one of the victims, and demanding Judge Landrum to remove himself from the bench in hearing the sexual battery case.

If a guilty verdict is handed down in this trial, Jones could be serving from 20 years to life in prison.

He is currently being held at the South Mississippi Correctional Institute in Leakesville.

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