OCALA, Fla. – A man who pleaded guilty to killing his wife and her four children in 2019 in Marion County was sentenced to death on Friday.
A Marion County judge sentenced Michael Jones, 41, to death in the murders of the children. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, Casei Jones.
After the sentencing, Jones’ attorney, John Spivey, said he plans to appeal the decision.
“I think it was written in the walls what was going to happen today with the jury’s recommendation. I had no expectation that the judge wouldn’t follow the jury’s recommendations,” he said. “We move forward. We are already preparing the paperwork to get that moving to the Florida Supreme Court.”
Jones pleaded guilty in November to killing his wife and her four children, ages 2 to 10 years old.
Marion County investigators called the case “gruesome and senseless.”
“We can’t make sense of something so senseless. This is just an enormous tragedy, and I can’t understand,” Marion County sheriff’s Lt. Paul Bloom said.
According to investigators, the victims were reported missing by relatives in September 2019 and were not seen for six weeks.
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Jones was later found in Georgia with his wife’s body in his car after he get into a crash.
Investigators said he beat her to death with a baseball bat, with Jones claiming that she was being unfaithful to him. Jones then told detectives the location of the children’s bodies.
Jones’ trial went into the penalty phase in January and the jury recommended the death penalty.
His lawyers filed a motion asking the judge to remove the jury’s death penalty recommendation for life in prison without parole, but it was denied.