Live updates: Columbus cop, new DA share testimony about Mark Jones in day 3 of trial
It’s the third day of trial and second day of witness testimony in the misconduct case against suspended Columbus District Attorney Mark Jones.
Jones faces nine felony charges alleging he tried to influence witnesses, to persuade a detective to commit perjury, and to bribe staff prosecutors. Selected Monday, a jury of nine women and five men, two of them alternates, will decide Jones’ fate.
Testimony began Tuesday with four witnesses for the prosecution. More are expected Wednesday.
Here are live updates from the courtroom:
Live updates
4:17 p.m.: Lumsden told Breault she is holding him in criminal contempt for his repeatedly disobeying her orders regarding answering questions directly and not bringing up evidence already ruled inadmissible.
“I’m going to have you taken into custody and you can serve 48 hours,” the judge told Breault.
Two deputies took Breault into custody after the attorney emptied his pockets and doffed his tie and belt, handing his personal effects to Keyla Nunez, a legal assistant serving with Jones’ defense team.
4 p.m.: With court about to adjourn for the day, Judge Lumsden told jurors they will have to return Thursday, Veterans Day, for another day of trial, though the Government Center otherwise will be closed for the holiday.
Lumsden called for Breault to come out of the witness room so she can talk to him.
3:46 p.m.: Carter testified that when the Drevon Johnson case ended in a mistrial, Jones wanted Loyd arrested. Jones later sent Carter an indictment charging Loyd with murder, and asking Carter to take it to a grand jury. Carter said Loyd was only a witness, not a suspect, in the fatal shooting Johnson was charged in.
Carter said he reported Jones’ actions to Sheneka Terry, the chief assistant district attorney, and asked her to speak with Jones about it.
Under Wright’s cross examination, Carter acknowledged that Jones never had Loyd indicted for murder, and instead a material witness warrant was issued for Loyd’s arrest. Captured in August, Loyd is still in the Muscogee County Jail.
The warrant Jones sent Carter no longer exists, Carter testified, so it is not in evidence.
3:31 p.m.: Fowler called Andrew Loyd to the witness stand, but asked few questions. He had Loyd testify that he uses the name “Don Casper” on Facebook. Breault has claimed he was never sure whether he communicated with Loyd on Facebook because the account was in the name “Don Casper.”
Fowler next called to the stand Jeff Carter, an investigator with the DA’s office. Carter was the investigator assigned to the Drevon Johnson case, in which Loyd was considered a witness. Johnson was accused of fatally shooting Richard Collier in 2016 at a party on Hodges Drive in Columbus.
Fowler in court filings has said Jones allegedly told Carter to charge Loyd with murder in Collier’s death, to have him jailed to secure his testimony against Johnson.
3:10 p.m.: After Breault’s testimony ended, Judge Lumsden said he is to remain the witness room adjacent to the courtroom, and he may not leave.
2:48 p.m.: Katonga Wright has begun questioning Breault, who testified that Mark Jones never asked him to contact Andrew Loyd. Breault said he chose to do that on his own, believing Jones was getting no assistance in the DA’s office.
2:30 p.m.: Andrew Loyd Facebook-messaged Breault that he could offer no relevant testimony in the Drevon Johnson case, because he remembered so little of what happened the night of the homicide and did not see the shooting.
“There is no discussion. That is not what is happening,” Lumsden told Breault when Breault in answering a question said to Fowler, “If we could just discuss it.”
The judge told the jury to disregard anything Breault says that is not responsive to Fowler’s questions.
Loyd on Facebook got Breault’s assurance that Breault would represent his interests if Loyd paid him a $250 retainer. That would include representing Loyd in any conflict with Mark Jones, Loyd messaged. The prosecution alleges Breault contacted Loyd on Jones’ behalf, to secure his testimony in the Drevon Johnson case.
2:22 p.m. Fowler showed jurors screenshots of Breault’s Facebook exchange with Andrew Loyd. “Mr. Breault, you must answer the question that is asked,” Judge Lumsden warned Breault again, after Breault ventured beyond what Fowler asked him.
Going over the messages, Fowler elicited Breault’s testimony that Breault offered to help Loyd avoid arrest if Loyd would come to court to testify in the Drevon Johnson case. Breault offered to put Loyd in touch with Mark Jones.
Lumsden again told Breault to answer only the question that is asked. “If you deviate from that again, I will deal with you accordingly,” she said.
2:13 p.m. The trial resumes with Fowler asking Breault about his using Facebook to contact a witness in a murder case. The witness was Andrew Loyd, whom Jones wanted to testify in the April trial of Drevon Johnson. Loyd never testified, and the case ended in a mistrial.
2:03 p.m.: After again angrily instructing Breault to limit his answers to what Fowler asks, Judge Lumsden ordered a brief recess.
1:59 p.m. Lumsden lectured Breault on answering Fowler’s questions and not volunteering his opinion. “You do not get to say whatever you want,” she told him.
“You are not going to comment on my instructions. That is not how this works,” she added.
“Don’t interrupt me or contradict me when I’m talking,” she interjected when Breault interrupted her.
“If you contradict me one more time, I will take you out of here in handcuffs,” she warned.
1:47 p.m.: Judge Lumsden has held Breault in contempt for mentioning Mark Jones’ so-called “doughnut case” involving damage to the civic center parking lot, where Jones was filming a 2020 campaign ad. She said Breault was instructed not to bring that up. She said he may go to jail when he’s through testifying.
Breault described Jones as “a friend” and said he has known Jones about six years. He said Jones appointed him a special prosecutor in the death of Hector Arreola, who died in police custody.
When Jones was elected district attorney, Breault took some of the civil cases that Jones had pending. Breault said he took about 15 cases that Jones had. Asked the value of those cases, Breault said, “It just depends.”
1:41 p.m.: The trial resumed after a lunch break. Fowler called to the witness stand Chris Breault, Mark Jones’ former attorney, who was disqualified from representing Jones because he is a witness.
12 p.m.: Under Wright’s cross-examination, Terry testified that Jones never paid her $1,000 for a murder conviction, and as far as Terry knows, Jones never paid prosecutor Kimberly Schwartz such a bonus, either.
11:30 a.m.: Sheneka Terry testified to messages Jones sent her in regard to two murder cases she was to prosecute. She took screen shots of the messages from her phone, and Fowler presented them to the jury.
The messages from March show Jones offered Terry $1,000 if she won a conviction in a murder case. Terry said she already had told Jones no one in the DA’s office could accept money beyond their regular pay, because that would be illegal.
Terry said Jones subsequently made similar offers to Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Schwartz, so Terry contacted the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia for guidance, and eventually was contacted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
11:23 a.m.: Terry testified that she took an oath of office swearing to take “only my lawful compensation.” She is not allowed to take money for offering legal advice or serving on a board, and she cannot accept a bonus for winning cases, she said.
A staff prosecutor taking two trials a month could collect $2,000 a month in bonuses for two murder convictions, Terry said, while explaining the issues involved in Jones’ allegedly offering such incentives.
11:15 a.m.: Called to the witness stand, Sheneka Terry identified herself as the chief assistant district attorney, though she was sworn in as acting district attorney after Jones was suspended from office Oct. 4, pending the outcome of his trial. Terry started working in 2017 for Jones’ predecessor, Julia Slater, in the DA’s Harris County office. She began prosecuting violent crimes in Muscogee County a year later.
11:10 a.m.: Though Fowler will not reveal his next witness, acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry is in the witness room for Jones’ trial, and Fowler just said his next witness was occupied in another courtroom. Terry has been in a trial in Judge Gil McBride’s court on the Government Center’s 11th floor. Jones is accused of bribery for offering Terry a $1,000 bonus for murder convictions.
10:50 a.m.: Jones’ attorney asked Hayes whether Jones ever threatened him to make him change Elijah Farral’s charges. Hayes said Jones did not.
Hayes said he would have thought Jones would behave in a professional manner, and not verbally abuse him and poke him in the chest outside a bar. Jones was “blitzed,” he said, having been drinking in The Hooch. Jones’ telling him to lie about a homicide “needed to be known,” Hayes said, so he reported the conversation to his superiors.
Fowler, the prosecutor, asked Hayes to confirm that Jones could have taken Farral’s case back to a grand jury to seek a murder indictment, with the testimony Jones wanted Hayes to give. Hayes agreed, and said to date he has seen no evidence that Farral and Holtrop had any relationship other than a friendship.
Judge Lumsden ordered another 10-minute break, expecting another prosecution witness before lunch.
10:37 a.m. Hayes said Jones was walking away the night of July 16, after leaving The Hooch, but then turned back to talk to the officers working security outside. Hayes said he was about to turn off his body camera before Jones approached, but left it on when Jones walked over.
10:23 a.m.: Cpl. Hayes told Katonga Wright that he did not thoroughly review Sara Holtrop’s social media accounts before testifying before the grand jury that indicted Elijah Farral for involuntary manslaughter on July 14, two days before Hayes’ encounter downtown with Mark Jones. Wright has asked a series of questions related to Hayes’ investigation into Holtrop’s shooting, which Jones claimed was intentional, and not an accident.
Hayes told Wright he questioned four people who witnessed Sara Holtrop’s shooting. One was a juvenile interviewed the next day, he said.
10:15 a.m.: Jones’ attorney Katonga Wright is cross-examining Detective Sherman Hayes, who said Jones also called him on the phone about the Holtrop case, and told Hayes that he would like the suspect charged with murder, if possible, But Jones did not press Hayes on the issue then, nor ask him to lie about it, the detective said.
9:55 a.m.: Jones’ attorney Katonga Wright asked for a brief recess before she cross-examines Sherman Hayes. Judge Lumsden ordered a 10-minute break.
9:51 a.m.: Hayes said he felt Jones was asking him to lie on the witness stand to support charging Elijah Farral with murder instead of involuntary manslaughter, so he had the body camera video forwarded up his chain of command for a possible investigation.
9:41 a.m.: The body camera footage shows Jones bragging about a conviction in an attempted murder case before he recognizes Hayes, and starts talking about getting texts from Sara Holtrop’s mother, and asking Hayes why Elijah Farral wasn’t charged with murder. He claims Holtrop was cheating on Farral, and tells Hayes, “You should testify to that.” He later tells Hayes, “He f--king murdered her, bro’.”
“You should charge that s--t with murder, bro’,” Jones says, and continues to add, “You should have f--king charged him with murder.” Hayes repeats that the evidence does not warrant a murder charge. Jones says Hayes should “have my back” on the murder charge. “We’ve got to come heavy or not at all,” he says.
Eventually Jones notices an officer’s body cam is recording. “That’s why I don’t f--k with y’all,” he says. He continues to complain about the Holtrop case until he leaves, saying he loves the officers.
As Jones walks away, Hayes can been seen gesturing for the officer who recorded the confrontation to turn his body camera off, and the video ends.
9:32 a.m.: Fowler is showing jurors the body camera video of Jones’ argument with Hayes outside The Hooch, as Jones berated Hayes for charging Elijah Farral with involuntary manslaughter instead of murder in Sara Holtrop’s fatal shooting. The entire video lasts about 10 minutes.
9:29 a.m.: Prosecutor John Fowler asked Hayes about the circumstances under which he encountered Mark Jones downtown on July 16. Hayes said he and other officers were working off-duty in uniform for the downtown Business Improvement District, which pays officers for late night security, particularly when the bars close at 3 a.m.
Hayes said his shift that night was 11 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., working the 1000 block of Broadway. The bar called The Hooch had requested officers be in that block, to head off any trouble, Hayes said. Most of the other bars had closed for lack of business, he said.
9:18 a.m.: Detective Sherman Hayes described police finding Elijah Farral sitting in a pool of Sara Holtrop’s blood the night she died from a single gunshot wound to the back. Farral told officers Holtrop was asleep on a couch when he tried to scare her by poking her in the back with a gun barrel, and the handgun discharged.
Hayes said police never found that Farral and Holtrop had a relationship, despite Jones’ telling Hayes July 16 that Holtrop was “cheating” on Farral, providing a motive for him to shoot her intentionally.
9 a.m.: The judge in suspended Columbus District Attorney Mark Jones’ misconduct trial began the second day of witness testimony by lecturing the defense on its late demands for evidence.
“This is ridiculous!” Judge Katherine Lumsden declared Wednesday morning, upon learning Jones’ defense wanted body camera footage related to a fatal shooting Columbus police found to be accidental.
Lumsden had spent Tuesday night reviewing documents related to that case, to determine what evidence was relevant to Jones’ defense. On Wednesday morning, Jones’ attorney Katonga Wright said Jones wanted to see body camera recordings from the investigation, and he already had the police reports.
Lumsden had told attorneys Tuesday that her computer could not play the compact discs the recordings were on.
She berated Jones for taking no action to gather evidence in the weeks leading up to trial, though he is a lawyer and prosecutor who knows the process.
“He does nothing he’s supposed to do, nothing,” Lumsden said. She has to assume Jones thinks this is a game, she said, adding, “It’s a game we’re not going to play.”
Fowler just called his first witness, police Cpl. Sherman Hayes, a homicide investigator. Jones is accused of trying to persuade Hayes to lie under oath to support charging the suspect in a fatal shooting with murder. Hayes found the shooting to be accidental.
Jones’ encounter with Hayes happened July 16 outside a downtown bar called The Hooch. Apparently intoxicated, Jones was recorded on police body camera as he harangued Hayes over how police handled the investigation, claiming the suspect had a motive to shoot the victim.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 7:12 AM.