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HARTINGTON — Convicted murderer Jason Jones may do something at his wife’s murder trial that he never did at his own trial.
Jones was convicted last September of killing four Laurel residents and then starting their houses on fire.
He did not testify in his own defense at the trial. In fact, District Judge Bryan Meismer ruled he did not even have to attend the trial because sitting for long periods of time was too painful. He suffered life-threatening burns as a result of the fires he set at the victims’ homes. His wife, Carrie Jones, will stand trial in late July. That trial was moved to Madison County because Jones’ lawyer didn’t feel she could get a fair trial in Cedar County.
Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Sandra Allen filed a motion in May asking Judge Meismer to grant the state permission to depose Jason Jones before the trial of Jones’ wife, as a result of the prosecution’s belief that Jason Jones will testify at his wife’s trial, set to begin in late July.
Carrie Jones, 46, is charged with first-degree murder as prosecutors believe she aided and abetted her husband, although she is not accused of physically carrying out the murders of Gene Twiford, 86, his wife, Janet Twiford, 85; their daughter, Dana Twiford, 55; and Michele Ebeling, 53, in the early-morning hours of Aug. 4, 2022.
Carrie Jones is alleged to have pushed her husband to kill Gene Twiford in response to Twiford allegedly making sexually-charged comments toward her over a multi-year span.
Carrie Jones also stands accused of harboring a fugitive — her husband — after the killings and disposing of the clothes he was wearing at the time, resulting in the state also charging her with being an accessory to murder and tampering with evidence.
