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MADISON — Convicted killer Jason Jones took the stand Wednesday in his wife’s defense in her murder trial.
He told the jury he and his wife never discussed his intent to kill Gene Twiford and Michelle Ebling, or burn their houses down.
Jones agreed to testify in Carrie Jones’ defense, even though District Court Judge Bryan Meismer advised him before taking the stand his testimony could be used against him in his upcoming sentencing hearing.
Jason Jones is scheduled to be in front of Judge Meismer Nov. 20, when it will be decided if the death penalty will be imposed on him for the murders of Gene Twiford, his wife Janet Twiford, their daughter Dana, and Michelle Ebling.
On Wednesday, a shackled Jones was ushered into the courtroom by Cedar County Sheriff Larry Koranda. He hobbled with a noticeable limp to the witness stand, where he then sat answering questions for nearly three hours.
Jones said his wife is a “complicated person. She has kind of a temper on her.”
“She can be emotional. A lot of things, just minor things, would make her upset. Things that normal people would blow off, she’d take it personally,” he said when asked to give an example of how she handled things emotionally.
She was also prone to having issues with other people, he said, and when that happened, he would have to confront the person and tell them to stop bothering his wife.
“She knew she had a temper so most of the time it was better for me to go do it instead of her blowing up at people,” Jones said. “Sometimes I wish she had gone and dealt with things on her own, rather than relying on me to take care of it for her.”
Despite her temper, she wouldn’t kill anyone, he said. “She was scared of guns. She was scared to hold a loaded pistol. She couldn’t even confront people,” he said. “She couldn’t do the little stuff, so I don’t think she could do the major stuff.”
One person Carrie felt was especially bothersome to her was Gene Twiford. Twiford was a constant topic of conversation in their house, Jason said.
She was bothered by what she felt were inappropriate comments made by the 86-year-old Laurel native.
The day before the murders, the couple got into a huge fight, he said. Carrie was mad, Jason Jones said, because he didn’t stand up for her and confront Twiford. She was mad he’d been gone for over a month, and she was mad the bills were stacking up.
Jones said after the argument, he sat and played his XBox for awhile. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he had to do something.
“This was the last straw for my stress and everything else,” he said. “I just snapped.”
Carrie was not aware of his plans, though, he said. “She never told me to kill anyone, to hurt anyone or to burn anyone’s house down,” he said.
His testimony began with a calm and collected Jones telling his life story. How he and Carrie met. Where they first worked. When they moved to Nebraska, and the challenges of living paycheck to paycheck.
Jason Jones said he and Carrie, both truck drivers for Omaha trucking company Hill Brothers at the time, decided they wanted to own their own home and began looking for real estate. They happened upon a home on Elm Street in Laurel which fit their budget perfectly, and even though they didn’t know a soul in Laurel, they packed up and moved to Cedar County in 2020.
