Flying the coop

“He killed a 6-year-old child in a rage,” a prosecutor described the father on trial for killing his 5 children.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr. is facing the death penalty if found guilty by 12 jurors of murdering his children — Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2 and Elaine, 1 — in their Red Bank home on Aug. 28, 2014.

Opening arguments began Tuesday afternoon at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in downtown Lexington. The first witness was expected to be called Wednesday morning.

Jones beat Nahtahn to death for blowing out the electrical outlets in the mobile home, assistant 11th Circuit Solicitor Shawn Graham told the jury.

Jones was arrested for DUI Sept. 6, 2014 in a Mississippi police checkpoint. Police discovered in his Cadillac Escalade blood and notes describing how to mutilate human bodies.

The jury will also get to see his cell phone searches into how to dispose of bodies, Graham said. Jones led law enforcement to his children’s bodies in Alabama where he allegedly disposed of them in plastic bags.

Graham said Jones’ ex-wife called the night of the killings and heard him screaming in a rage at Nahtahn for blowing out the electrical outlets. Graham said Jones then beat Nahtahn to death and decided to cover up his crime by strangling his other children with his bare hands and the 2 youngest with a belt.

Defense attorneys have plead Jones not guilty by reason of insanity.

Jones drove his dead children around the south for 9 days before dumping their bodies off a logging road in rural Alabama.

Jones suffers from schizophrenia, drug and alcohol abuse and a traumatic brain injury, public defender Rob Madsen told the jury.

Madsen says Jones was involved in a car crash as a teen that left a divot on his skull. Jones turned to drugs and alcohol to ease his pain before joining the US Navy.

After being kicked out of boot camp, Jones returned to drugs and alcohol before marrying his ex-wife Amber in Chicago.

Amber agreed Jones was more fit for caring for the children, and he gained custody of them, Madsen said.

Jones was also high on synthetic marijuana the night of the murders, Madsen said.

“A court appointed psychiatrist will say he was sane,” Graham told the jury.

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