Jones’ potential three-week trial began Monday with jury selection in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court with the selection of 12 jurors and six alternates. If Jones is found guilty, the jury would then hear a mitigation phase to determine whether he should be put to death.
“This case is a rush to judgment,” defense attorney Marshall Lachman, mentioning that Hughley’s son was affected by the breakup of his mother and Jones. “It is with that background that (the boy) would immediately believe that it was Harvey who shot his mother that early January morning in 2013.
“That initial rush to judgment by (the boy) would lead to many more rushed judgments by law enforcement in the hours, days, weeks, months and years following Carly and Demetrius’ death.”
The prosecution and defense both told the jury the key testimony will come from the now 14-year-old boy, who prosecutors said peeked around a wall to see the incident.
Montgomery County assistant prosecutor Erin Claypoole told the jurors that the boy “watched in horror” as “the defendant yelled at his mom and Demetrius, and as his mom and Demetrius begged for their lives,” Claypoole said. “He then watched as the defendant shot and killed his mom and Demetrius.”
Jones has pleaded not guilty to six counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of having a weapon under disability.
Claypoole said the boy’s account, cell phone records, the location of a gold Chrysler Concorde that Jones was known to drive and the testimony of another one of Jones’ girlfriends will prove the prosecution’s case.
Claypoole said that Jones said to the other girlfriend the morning after the shooting, “Tell them I was asleep.”
Lachman said no gun was recovered, that Beckwith’s wallet and truck were removed from the scene and never investigated by police.
“There is no physical evidence shown to put Harvey Jones in the apartment that early morning,” Lachman said. “There’s no DNA. There’s no fingerprints. And none of the cell phone data that Ms. Claypoole referenced puts Harvey in that apartment on Jan. 24, 2013.”
Dr. Susan Allen of the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office testified about autopsy photos showing Hughley’s gunshot wounds to her head and chest and two gunshot wounds to Beckwith’s head.
Lachman said the killings are not in doubt, but that the case was a “whodunit” and that when police apprehended Jones the morning after the shootings, they ruled out every other scenario.
“Since that time, law enforcement considered no other suspects, followed no other leads, conducted no additional investigation,” Lachman said. “It became a matter of building a case against Harvey Jones, a rush to judgment.”
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday.
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