A man who murdered his five children in 2014 has been sentenced to death in the State of South Carolina.
The man Timothy Jones Jr, 37, was sentenced death after a jury of his peers found him guilty of five counts of murder.
According to reports in the US, Jones who pleaded guilty of murder by means of insanity, after he strangled four of his children, Merah, 8, Elias, 7, Gabriel, 2, and Elaine, 1 in Lexington, in August 2014.
Jones was also found guilty of murdering his other son Nathan, 6, after he forced him to exercise until he collapsed and died.
In a trial that heard harrowing testimony, Jones was found guilty of all counts of murder despite the defence using testimony that highlighted his mother’s mother’s schizophrenia as well as three generations of rapes, molestation and the history of continued drug use within the Jones family.
It is believed that the children were killed after their father had snapped when they broke an electrical socket at their home in August 2014.
During the lengthy trial the jury were told that Jones killed Nathan by making him exercise until he collapsed, whilst he strangled the other four children shortly afterwards.
The jury who were told how Jones’s behaviour changed drastically before the murders, also heard how forensic testing proved that he strangled two of his youngest children with his belt.
They also heard testimony from Jones father who said that his son’s mental state changed drastically as he became a cultist and physically abusive despite previously being religious and having a good job.
It is was also discovered that the 37-year-old that had detailed descriptions on how to ‘melt’, saw’, ‘burn’ and dispose of his children’s bodies.
Jones who had pleaded guilty to the murders upon his arrest was also found to have carried the children’s remains in the back of his car for over a week.
Despite pleading guilty to murder by means of insanity, the jury presiding over the trial found him guilty of all charges brought against and unambiguously agreed that the he should be sentenced to death after two hours of deliberation.