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MADISON - After seven days of testimony, the prosecution and defense both rested their cases Thursday morning in the Carrie Jones murder trial.
She is charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and accessory to a felony in connection with the deaths of Gene Twiford, his wife Janet, their daughter Dana and neighbor Michelle Ebling.
Prosecutor Corey O’Brien tried to paint a picture of Jason Jones as merely a puppet being controlled by his wife during closing arguments here.
‘’Jason Jones was the puppet. Carrie Jones was the person behind the curtain making him dance and act as she wished,’’ O’Brien told the 11 women and one man jury during his 70-minute closing argument.
As O’Brien stood at a podium facing the jury to give his closing argument, he urged the jury to consider what happened in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 2022 in Laurel and why these things happened. Without Carrie Jones’ influence, he said, these events would have never taken place.
‘’Does any of this happen were it not for Carrie Jones — her words, her acts — not just in the minutes and hours before, but in the weeks and months before the tragic events of Aug. 4, 2022," O'Brien asked.
Defense attorney Douglas Stratton then addressed the jury.
"This is a difficult case. This is a horrible case. We can’t let sympathy for these families or sympathy for the people of Laurel affect what we do here," Stratton said.
Stratton said jurors need to stay focused on the true issue of the case.
"The issue isn't did whether Jason Jones killed these people. The issue is whether Carrie Jones aided him in that," he said.
Stratton said the state presented a lot of evidence about the murders themselves, but nothing to prove Carrie Jones was involved in them.
"There is a boatload of evidence but what does all the evidence go to?" Stratton asked. "We spent hour upon hour, day after day talking about how bad the murder was. We spent time on every single shell casing. We spent time on the surveillance cameras to show the gas was purchased by Jason Jones that day. We’ve got ballistics. We spent time looking at where Jason was when he shot these people. We know Jason Jones committed these crimes, and we also know Carrie Jones had nothing to do with these crimes. She was away at work."
After prosecutors and the defense presented their closing arguments, Judge Bryan Meismer read off a 19-point list of instructions to the jury. They were dismissed at 12:42 p.m. to begin deliberations. Meismer said if a decision has not been reached by 9 p.m., the jury would break for the evening and reconvene at 9 a.m. Friday.
Stay tuned for updates.
