Who is Michael Wayne Jones? Jury to decide on Florida man's death penalty for killing wife and 4 children
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised
MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida man's fate for death sentence will be decided by a jury for the murder of his wife and her four children in 2019. Using a basketball bat, he beat his wife to death and went on to murder her four children, storing their dead bodies in tote bags.
Undergoing his court trials, Michael Wane Jones has already admitted to killing his wife and the children. His fate will be decided by the jury based on the findings of the horrifying slayings.
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Who is Michael Wayne Jones?
Michael Wayne Jones, 41, from Florida pleaded guilty to killing his 32-year-old wife Casei Jones, and her four children — 10-year-old Cameron Bowers, five-year-old Preston Bowers, two-year-old Mercalli Jones, and one-year-old Aiyana Jones in 2019.
He confessed to the arresting officers that the reason which led to the grizzly murders was rooted in a heated argument between him and his wife when she looked through his phone and accused him of infidelity in July 2019, reports the New York Post.
MEAWW previously reported that the authorities questioned Jones after they discovered the bodies in Brantley County, Georgia, where he transported the bodies from his home around 140 miles north of Marion County.
The murderer narrated the scene in their Marion County home during a fiery argument where Casei poked him with a baseball bat and Jones beat her to death out of anger. Two of the four children he murdered were his own children.
According to New York Post, Jones put Casei's body in a closet after wrapping it in blankets and storing it in a large tote bag. Attempting to cover up her missing, Jones tried to make it appear that she was active and alive by posting on her social media using her phone.
He then began devising plans by dropping the boys, his two stepchildren Preston and Cameron at their father's place and dropping his two daughters Mercalli Jones and Aiyana Jones, two children he shared with his wife Casei at her mother's home.
Concerned that the absence of the boys may drive suspicion as the Fruitland Park Elementary staffers may ask questions about them. A week before the next school year began, Cameron was dragged out of his bed and was fatally strangled on the floor. The body was then put in a suitcase. he told detectives. He then put the child’s body in a suitcase. Preston was choked with a zip tie the following day. He was then drowned in a bathtub and his body was also put in a suitcase.
Jones drove with his two young daughters a few days later after the first three heinous killings. Planning to turn himself in, he parked outside a police station. However, he dropped the plan and decided to drown the girls in a bathtub. Both of their bodies were put in a single tote bag.
“I don’t know, just everything mounted up and it seemed like the way out,” Jones told the investigators when asked about his motive behind the murders, according to Martin County Sheriff’s Office documents.
The outlet reported that for the argument of death or life sentence, Jones' attorneys defended him saying that his traumatic upbringing under an abusive father and violent stepfather has a bad impact on his mental health. However, the prosecutors have not welcomed these defenses and argues for his execution. From a previous marriage, Jones has three other children.
Jones was arrested on September 15, 2019, after a deputy officer detected the stench of a decaying body when he arrived at a scene where Jones was involved in a single-car accident. He then admitted to the murders committed and led the detectives and investigators through the place where the bodies were dumped and other evidences.