Judge Barbara Gorman scheduled Jones’ sentencing June 10. Jones will face a minimum of 15 years to life in prison and a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“We’ll be filing a sentencing memorandum asking for the maximum for this particular defendant,” said Montgomery County assistant prosecutor Eric Michener. “This abuse went on for a prolonged period and caused severe damage and emotional stress to the child.”
After the verdict was announced, defense attorney Michael Monta polled the jury, making all 12 verbalize that the guilty findings were their’s. When the hearing ended, Jones was led off by Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies, and some members of his family cried.
The jury deliberated for two hours Thursday afternoon and resumed Friday morning. Jurors watched video of both the 11-year-old victim’s testimony and her mother’s testimony before announcing they reached a verdict after lunch.
The girl cried on the witness stand a couple times but was mostly calm Tuesday as she described the molestation she said she endured at the hands of Jones between 2011 and 2013. “Don’t tell,” is what the girl testified that Jones said to her more than once.
“I’m just grateful for her, because she’s really the hero here,” Michener said. “The person who was willing to come forward and put an end to the kind of acts that this defendant was doing against her by being brave and stepping up and sharing what awful things had happened to her.”
The girl notified school officials about the abuse in April 2013 and later was taken to CARE House, and later to a hospital to be examined. The girl’s mother testified that her daughter reported some tearing of skin, but she did not report sexual abuse to her until after talking to school officials. The newspaper is not revealing the girl’s identity because she’s a minor and the victim of a sex crime.
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