Tim Jones Jr. should die for brutally murdering his children.

It took less than 2 hours for a jury of 12 Lexington County citizens to condemn him to death Thursday afternoon.

Jones was expressionless but slightly swayed from side to side.

His father bowed his head weeping as his wife held him. Family were crying.

Judge Eugene C. Griffith Jr. sentenced Jones to die Nov. 30, 2019 between 6 pm and 6 the next morning by electrocution or lethal injection, whichever Jones requests.

An automatic appeal in death penalty cases is required by law.

"These 5 little kids finally got justice," 11th Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard said after the trial.

Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was convicted last week of  murdering his 5 children — Merah, 8; Elias, 7; Nahtahn, 6; Gabriel, 2 and Elaine Abigail, 1 — in their Red Bank home in August 2014.

He admitted to authorities strangling Merah and Elias with his hands and Gabriel and Elaine Abigail with a belt. After sealing their bodies in black plastic bags and driving them throughout the Southeast for 9 days, he dumped them off a logging road in Alabama.

The jury heard closing arguments from the prosecution and defense Thursday morning in Lexington.

“The punishment has to fit the crime,” Hubbard told the jury. “Isn’t (Jones) the worst of the worst? A man who brutally murdered his 5 children?”

In order to sentence Jones to death, SC law states there has to be aggravating circumstances, Hubbard told them.

This case meets 2 of those circumstances: that 2 or more are murdered in one act and that someone 11 or under is murdered.

The jury found both.

“What kind of man is Tim Jones?” Hubbard asked. “He is a mass murderer.
“He chose himself over them and they paid with their lives.”
“His grandmother said Tim Jones is a selfish man.
“Everything about him is ‘me,me,me.'
“His demand is to be the center of attention.”
“You heard his daddy say he was acting like a baby.”
“This is a man who says I am Mr. Christian.”
“I will not share with anyone... or you will feel my wrath.”
“He chose to self medicate. He chose Spice (synthetic marijuana).
“His brother... said ‘no, no, no. Don’t go down that road.’
“He married Spice, and every child in that house felt it."
Hubbard re-enacted how Jones grabbed 6-year-old Nahtahn after the child broke his brother’s train set, picked him up by his throat and slammed him against the wall, then dropped him like a rag doll.
“He singled out Nahtahn from May to August. His life was a living hell.
“He is the worst of the worst.”

On the phone with his mom the night of  murders, Nahtahn pleaded, “Mommy, I didn’t mean to."

Nahtahn was making a cry for help, Hubbard said.
“Nahtahn met white, hot rage.
“That night when he brutally murdered his children... what is his 1st thought? 'My life is over. Tim, you’re f**ked.'
 
“He deliberated... he is a one man jury... he became the executioner.
“Elias was on his side. He said ‘Daddy, take me with you.’
“He squeezed that neck so hard he broke that hyoid bone.
With Merah, “he had to chase her down and she said ‘no, no, no,’" Hubbard continued.
“She tried to find the daddy inside that beast and said, ‘daddy, I love you.’”

“They wanted nothing more than to be loved,” Hubbard said, showing a picture of the children.
“This is a beautiful family. That man couldn’t see that.
“He turned it into this — black bags,” Hubbard said showing the jury a picture of the black garbage bags the children were found in, in early September.

“This is a guy who had gifts... he had 5 beautiful treasurers,” said Hubbard.
His “is a pattern of choices and he chose what he is today — a murderer.”

Hubbard recounted a phone conversation between Jones, his father and his father’s wife from prison, that Jones said, “I feel like I am insane.”
“He says, ‘I snapped.’
“So you see you can put this one on Amber.”

Jones' ex-wife Amber Kyzer asked the jury for mercy for Jones on Tuesday but also said she would be okay with whatever the jury decided — life or death.

“3 months after he killed his kids... he blames Amber. He blames Nahtahn," Hubbard said.
“It is that man manipulating his family... he is reaching for you,” Hubbard told the jury.
“Feel bad, feel guilty for me.
“He left them for the wild. He left them to rot.
“If you have any inkling of doubt, look in those bags,” Hubbard said holding up the picture of the black bags containing the children’s remains at the dump site.

Defense attorney Casey Secor asked the jury in closing, “How much more death does this family have to endure?”

Numerous family members asked the jury for mercy in sparing Jones’ life.
“Severe punishment is necessary, but show compassion for this family,” Secor said.

Secor said Jones’ father feels great guilt for his son’s actions.
“You can tell him it is not his fault by sentencing Tim to life without parole.”

Secor said Jones' grandmother who raised him also blames herself.
“You can tell her it is not her fault.
“Amber came here for mercy. You can honor that.
“You have determined he will never leave prison.
“The death penalty is not required in any case.
“There is no such thing as an automatic death sentence.
“He can be safely housed in prison without hurting anyone ever again.
“The law empowers you to vote for life for mercy alone.
“Bestowing mercy on Tim is bestowing mercy on the family that loved these children.
“Blessed are the merciful.”

Decomposition was massive after the children’s bodies were left in the hot sun in the black garbage bags, a forensic pathologist testified early in the trial.
Dr. Janice Ross found:
• Merah died by “homicidal violence.”
• Elias was strangled and ruled it a homicide.
• Nahtahn died by homicidal violence.
• Gabriel was “probably” strangled and the manner of death as homicide.
• Elaine Abigail died by homicidal violence.
• It appeared a hand saw was used near the knee joint of Nahtahn inflicting a wound down to the bone.

Jones said he was trying to dismember the bodies.
“I tried to saw a leg but I couldn’t do that,” he said.

In an audio confession Jones said:
• “I used my hands to strangle my kids. I used a belt, too.”
• Elias pleaded “Take me with you, dad” as Jones strangled him to death.
• Merah struggled and said “I love you” as he strangled her to death.

Jones told authorities he feared Nahtahn was going to kill him by “cutting him up and feeding him to the dogs.”
He also said that after Nahtahn’s death, he heard a demonic voice telling him to kill the other children. He said he had been smoking the illegal drug Spice that night.

Defense psychiatrists diagnosed Jones as schizophrenic. An insanity verdict would have spared Jones’ life.
But a court-appointed psychiatrist found Jones was sane at the time of the murders and he knew what he was doing.