By Mark Bellune
markbellune@yahoo.com
Confessed child killer Tim Jones Jr. knew murdering his 5 children was wrong.
That was the testimony of a court-appointed forensic psychiatrist Thursday in the trial of the Red Bank father.
Jones faces the death penalty if found guilty of murdering Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2 and Elaine Abigail, 1, in their Red Bank home Aug. 28, 2014.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Dr. Richard Frierson, a professor at the University of South Carolina, interviewed Jones 6 times over 19 hours and reviewed thousands of pages of documents, he told a Lexington County jury. He is under contract with the state Department of Mental Health and isn’t paid by the hour like other experts who testified in the case.
Jones knew the night of the 2014 killings what was legally and morally right and wrong, Frierson said.
He “realized his actions were legally and morally wrong,” he said.
“I’m not an advocate for either side” for the defense or prosecution, Frierson said on questioning by defense attorney Boyd Young.
The defense asked Frierson if Jones’ history of alcohol and marijuana use, a traumatic brain injury and having a mother with schizophrenia could increase his chances for schizophrenia. 
About 7% to 15% he replied. 
Frierson, who is not a defense or prosecution witness, was the only witness to take the stand before court was adjourned about 5 pm Thursday. Court resumes at 9 am Friday.
Frierson testified that:
• Jones told him Nahtahn’s death was accidental but told him 2 different versions in different interviews.
• Jones had gone to work that Friday and smoked the illegal drug Spice or synthetic marijuana throughout the day before picking the kids up from after school programs and a babysitter’s.
At home he realized an electrical outlet was not working and believed Nahtahn had caused it.
He got mad when the child would not tell him what he did.
He PT’d (physical training) him with push ups and squats for 20 to 30 minutes and in another version 1 to 2 hours. 
He also spanked the boy and finally sent him to bed early when he wouldn’t confess. 
He checked on the boy shortly after that and found him unresponsive in 1 version and slumping in Jones’ arms when he shook him in another version.
He went into a mad panic and considered calling 911 but believed nobody would believe him.
• He next watched a brutal clip of a male on male prison rape in the movie American History X.
“I am going to prison and they are going to do bad things to me because I’m a baby killer.”
• At nearly 2 am, he went to a convenience store with Merah to buy 10 packs of cigarettes. 
On the way home, he said he heard a demonic voice saying “to kill the kids.” 
In another interview he said he heard the same words in the car in a “creepy gremlin voice.”
Jones may have heard an outside voice in the car but if he did, it was probably due to his heavy use of the drug Spice.
• Jones said he had been hearing “voices” since he was 10 but Frierson said it was his own “stressful anxious thoughts” and not psychotic behavior.
• Jones thought he was morally justified in his actions but knew they were wrong and was regretful and remorseful.
• In prison awaiting this trial, Jones said he tried to hang himself with a bedsheet tied to the prison door. 
The defense showed an overhead picture from his cell showing him leaning forward with the sheet tied around his neck.
Jones was ambivalent and probably didn’t want to kill himself. For nearly an hour Jones kept adjusting the sheet before guards finally came and cut him out of it.
“I never saw him lifting his feet up to get maximum ligature,” Frierson said. “It’s easier to get gravity to strangle” oneself.
Jones later said he wasn’t suicidal, just mad that nurses wouldn’t give his medication that night.
• Jones also said he tried to kill himself after killing his children by overdosing on Spice but passed out before waking up paranoid in the morning.
“He said he would never commit suicide because of religious beliefs,” Frierson said later.
• He said he last used marijuana 2 weeks before his arrest. He did test positive for Spice after his arrest.
• Jones would frequently forget to take the anti-smoking prescription Chantix linked to psychotic behavior in some.
• Jones did not have “disorganized speech and behavior” associated with schizophrenia. He did show those signs the day after his arrest due to withdrawal from Spice. The next day he was back to “normal” behavior.
• Jones fear of his children “being out to get him” wasn’t “indicative of mental illness.”
Spice use can cause psychotic behavior but the prosecution asked if he was aware drug use was no defense. “Correct,” he replied.
Jones was not delusional, a necessary symptom of schizophrenia.
“You can have paranoid thoughts without delusional intensity.”
After Nahtahn’s death, Jones said of the other 4 kids “I cutoff their windpipes, kissed them and took their lives.”
8-year-old Merah struggled showing Jones’ “determination on his part.”
Most people would stop and ask “what am I doing?”
Frierson said Jones is not “guilty but mental ill” either since he didn’t lack conformity of conduct or he could “resist what he did.”