“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 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. 

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.

“A court appointed psychiatrist will say he was sane,” assistant 11th Circuit Solicitor Shawn Graham told the jury.