A man convicted in the first-degree murder of his 7-year-old son — who was tortured and abused before he was killed and fed to pigs — is now seeking to withdraw his guilty plea in the horrific case.
Michael Jones, a 46-year-old former bail bondsman in Kansas, was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years in May after pleading guilty to felony first-degree murder in the 2015 death of his son, Adrian Jones. The boy’s remains were found in November 2015 on the family’s rental property in Kansas City and prosecutors said during trial that he was tortured, abused and starved before being killed and fed to pigs.
Jones on Friday testified that his attorney persuaded him to plead guilty in the case and threatened not to defend him if he took his chances at trial, the Kansas City Star reports.
“There’s a lot I’m guilty for,” Jones told a judge. “I’m just not guilty of first-degree murder.”
Joe Duma, an attorney of more than three decades who represented Jones at trial, said he told Jones that he would deliver the defense he wanted, but thought a jury would find him guilty of a more serious crime — premeditated first-degree murder — had he gone to trial.
If convicted on that charge, the Star reports, Jones would have faced a sentence of life with no chance of parole for 50 years instead of the 25-year term prosecutors offered in a plea deal.
“I told him I think they’ll do everything they can to find you guilty of the most serious crime available,” said Duma, adding that he advised Jones to take the plea deal.
Jones, in order to withdraw his guilty plea under Kansas law, must prove he was the victim of manifest injustice, or a plainly and obviously unfair outcome in a case, according to the newspaper.
Deputy District Attorney Crystalyn Oswald claimed there is “simply no manifest injustice” in the case and told Judge Mike Grosko that she thought Jones would be found guilty of premeditated murder if the case did go to trial now.
Grokso said he intends to issue a written decision within 60 days.
A police investigator testified during Jones’ trial that “what was left of [Adrian’s body] was fed to his pigs” and recalled how the boy was regularly abused, including being shocked with a stun gun for up to 20 seconds at a time.
The boy’s stepmother, Heather Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to felony first-degree murder in November and is serving a life sentence. She claimed she was helpless to protect Adrian and herself from Jones’ violence, but detectives said she also abused the boy.
Judy Conway, the boy’s grandmother, told the Kansas City Star in April that she had been prepared to testify in Jones’ trial, but was grateful for his guilty plea.
“It makes me pretty happy,” she told the newspaper. “I’m relieved that [Jones] and Heather [Jones] will hopefully be behind bars for the rest of their life. It won’t bring Adrian back, of course, but it makes me feel really good that neither one can hurt another child again.”